Elon Musk: first talk with Twitter employees

Elon Musk gave his first speech with Twitter employees covering topics around freedom of speech, firing and remote working. 

Elon Musk: talk with Twitter employees and freedom of speech

According to reports, for the first time, Elon Musk held a face-to-face talk with Twitter employees to address issues concerning content on the social network, but also dismissal and remote working. 

Precisely with regard to content on social media, Musk is a vocal supporter of freedom of speech, to the point that he would like to allow all legal speech, even if this includes lawful but terrible content such as extremism or abuse. 

In this sense, according to Musk, Twitter should work to prevent potentially harmful or offensive content from being amplified, so that users are “comfortable on the social platform”.

In this regard, Musk reportedly said:

“Anyone could just go into the middle of Times Square right now and say anything they want. They can just walk into the middle of Times Square and deny the Holocaust … but that doesn’t mean that needs to be promoted to millions of people. So I think people should be allowed to say pretty outrageous things that are in the bounds of the law but that don’t get amplified and don’t get a ton of reach”.

Musk: bringing Twitter to a billion daily users and smart working

Musk also laid out ambitious plans for the company, such as his desire to grow the daily active user base to at least one billion. 

Something that is already practically possible in China with WeChat. Here are his words on the subject:

“You basically live on WeChat in China because it’s so usable and helpful to daily life, and I think if we can achieve that, or even get close to that at Twitter, it would be an immense success”.

Another of Musk’s speeches went on to address “smart working”, the work-from-home approach so much promoted during the pandemic, and advocated, even afterwards, by the former CEO of social, Jack Dorsey, himself. 

The richest man in the world doesn’t seem so much in favour. On this subject Musk said:

“There is a hit one takes remotely, because it does reduce espirit de corps,” Musk said at the town hall. “Even if someone is working remotely, they’ve got to come in sometimes so they recognize their colleagues … The bias for me may be strongly toward working in person, but if somebody is exceptional then remote work can be okay”.

Freedom of speech and firing SpaceX employees for criticizing him

Finally, a sensitive topic that has seen Musk being accused of being “inconsistent” concerns his support for freedom of speech and the firing of SpaceX employees for allegedly criticizing him. 

According to reports, it appears that SpaceX, the private rocket company, fired employees who helped write and distribute an open letter criticizing the behaviour of its CEO, Elon Musk.

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and chief operating officer, is reported to have said that the company has investigated and “fired a number of employees involved” in the letter.

At the moment, Musk has put the $44 billion Twitter acquisition on hold, pending some details.