Twitter faces staff walkout as Musk vows to ‘upset the far left and the far right alike’ Business

Twitter is facing a staff walkout as Elon Musk pledges to ‘antagonize the far left and the far right alike’ after his $44 billion takeover of the social media platform.

Twitter employees threatened to leave the company in protest at its plan to support greater freedom of speech on the platform, according to a leaked recording.

Staff at the social media giant asked how Mr Musk would handle a “mass exodus” in a recording of a company call on April 25.

Leslie Berland, director of marketing at Twitter, posed the question on behalf of employees in her role as moderator at the meeting.

She said: “How do the board and Mr. Musk plan to deal with a mass exodus given that the acquisition is by someone of questionable ethics?”

Bret Taylor, chairman of Twitter, told staff that officials would prioritize the “continuity” of the company’s operations. Mr. Taylor answered questions alongside Chief Executive Parag Agrawal.

Mr Taylor said: “The issue of attrition: As Parag said, one of the themes today is continuity and ensuring that Parag and its management team continue to leverage the company successfully on behalf of our users, on behalf of our customers, and that has obviously been a big topic of discussion within the board.”

Mr Musk made it clear he would push for more free speech on Twitter when he announced the takeover, and days later he openly criticized Twitter’s decision to block the New York Post ahead of the 2020 elections.

He denounced Twitter chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, saying it was “obviously incredibly inappropriate” to ban the New York Post for publishing an article about President Joe Biden’s son.

The former Twitter chief executive has now accused Mr Musk of making Ms Gadde a ‘target of harassment and threats’. Dick Costolo slammed Mr Musk for posting a critical image of Ms Gadde on Twitter.

Mr Musk has since said the platform must be “politically neutral”.

He said: “For Twitter to earn the public’s trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left alike.