In a series of tweets on Wednesday, he accused the social media giant of censoring free speech, took shots at its lawyer Vijaya Gadde and bashed Donald Trump’s rival service Truth Social for its ‘terrible name’. ‘Truth Social (terrible name) exists because Twitter censored free speech,’ Musk wrote in a tweet, adding, ‘Should be called Trumpet instead!’ He noted the Truth Social app is currently beating Twitter and TikTok in Apple’s App Store, sharing rankings of the most-downloaded free apps. Meanwhile, Twitter employees are freaking out in internal chatrooms over Musk’s $44billion deal to acquire the firm, messages seen by the New York Post show. Elon Musk continues to take a freewheeling approach to tweeting, and is not letting a non-disparagement clause in his deal to buy Twitter stop him from insulting top execs ‘We’re all going through the five stages of grief in cycles and everyone’s nerves are frazzled,’ one senior staff software engineer reportedly wrote on the company’s internal Slack channel. The staffer called Musk an ‘a**hole,’ and tried to console his colleagues. ‘We’re all spinning our wheels, and coming up with worst case scenarios (Trump returns! No more moderation!). ‘The fact is that [Musk] has not talked about what he’s planning on doing in any detail outside of broad sweeping statements that could be easily seen as hyperbolic showboating,’ he added. One site reliability engineer wrote that it was ‘physically cringy watching Elon talk about free speech.’ A senior staff video engineer announced his plans to quit, saying: ‘Not the place to say it perhaps, but I will not work for this company after the takeover.’ Musk perhaps did little to allay Twitter staffers fears as he posted several tweets critical of Gadde, Twitter’s chief legal officer. She was one of the key executives in the decisions to ban Trump from the platform and censor reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop. Musk posted several tweets critical of Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s chief legal officer, who was instrumental in banning Trump from the platform Responding to a tweet about reports that Gadde cried at a company meeting announcing Musk’s deal to purchase the platform, the billionaire wrote: ‘Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate.’ In another tweet on Wednesday, Musk posted a visual meme that showed Gadde’s appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience and imagined her in a hypothetical debate with conservative podcaster Tim Pool. The meme depicts Gadde in a circular argument, demanding examples of Twitter’s ‘left-wing bias’ and then dismissing the examples as lacking context and demanding further examples. Musk himself also singled out Jim Baker, Twitter’s lawyer, after conservative commentator Mike Cernovich called out Baker’s work. ‘Twitter lawyer Jim Baker, when general counsel of the FBI, personally arranged a meeting between the FBI and Michael Sussmann. In this meeting, Sussmann presented fabricated evidence in the Alfa bank matter,’ Cernovich tweeted, referring to the Crossfire Hurricane probe into Trump’s 2016 campaign. ‘@elonmusk, this is who is inside Twitter. He facilitated fraud.’ Musk then replied: ‘Sounds pretty bad …’ Elon Musk, 50, on Tuesday responded to a report about Twitter’s lawyer Vijaya Gadde (left) crying at the news of his takeover The tweet Elon Musk replied to is pictured, top, with the tycoon’s scathing attack on Vijaya Gadde’s behavior right underneath The tweets critical of Twitter executives raised questions about whether Musk was running afoul of his own agreement to buy the company, which states in part that he is allowed to tweet about the buyout ‘so long as such Tweets do not disparage the Company or any of its Representatives.’ It’s unclear what mechanism, if any, Twitter has to enforce that part of the agreement, and whether the company’s board would attempt to do so. The clause also applies only to tweets that are about the merger agreement itself, leaving it open to interpretation whether Musk’s criticisms of Twitter executives are implicitly related to his plans to buy the company. Gadde – who’s described as Twitter’s ‘moral authority’ – broke down in tears on Monday after the buyout was announced, Politico reported. She did so while briefing her team via videolink on the future of the company under Musk, following his $44 billion deal to takeover the company. Her future at the firm now looks shaky after her latest behavior was brought to the attention of the notoriously ruthless Musk. The merger agreement contains a clause forbidding Musk from insulting Twitter representatives in tweets about the merger agreement He is likely to slash Twitter’s policies on hate speech and misinformation, having previously branded himself a free-speech absolutist. Twitter staff have been told their jobs are safe for the six months the transfer of ownership is expected to take. But after that, workers like Gadde are likely to be among the first to get the boot. She was pivotal in the decision to ban Donald Trump from the platform for inciting unrest, and also played a key role in the decision to remove The New York Post’s account when they tweeted their reporting into Hunter Biden’s laptop. Twitter initially froze the New York Post’s main account after it published the story and demanded it delete tweets linking to the Biden articles. It justified the ban by citing a prohibition of distributing hacked material, before backing down when the story was proven to be legitimate. Saagar Enjeti, host of a conservative YouTube show, tweeted a link to Politico’s report about Gadde’s tears, commented: ‘Vijaya Gadde, the top censorship advocate at Twitter who famously gaslit the world on Joe Rogan’s podcast and censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, is very upset about the @elonmusk takeover.’ Gadde’s tears, Politico reported, were in response to concerns about how the company could change. Twitter spokesperson Trenton Kennedy told Politico that Gadde ‘became emotional when discussing her team’s impact and the pride she feels in them.’ Having joined Twitter in 2011, she is central to the social media’s policy on hate speech, misinformation, advertising and censorship. Musk has made clear that he intends to remove many of the restrictions currently in place, and open Twitter up as a forum for free speech. Critics have expressed concern about how this will play out.
