I told you that the most entertaining part of Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter would be the employee reactions, and the entertainment is really starting to roll in now.
Politico has a new report about Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top lawyer and “moral authority.” Upon receiving the news of Musk finalizing his takeover of the social media company, Gadde reportedly started crying, expressing concerns over “how the company could change.”
Twitter’s top lawyer Vijaya Gadde cried during meeting about Musk takeover……https://t.co/jIrm20b5Xj pic.twitter.com/irJxP7LGoj
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) April 26, 2022
Vijaya Gadde was the top Twitter lawyer when Elon Musk purchased the popular social media site. She called a meeting via virtual conference with her policy and legal team to see what this new ownership might mean.
Three people with knowledge of the meeting said that Gadde was emotional during the meeting and expressed concern about what the company might look like in the future. She acknowledged that there are significant uncertainties about what the company will look like under Musk’s leadership…
…She has shepherded Twitter through some of its most contentious political battles, including the decisions to remove all political advertising and to boot former President Donald Trump from the platform in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill — a position that has earned her devoted fans within Twitter, as well as a large contingent of right-wing critics.
Look, I’m not one to ever take delight in people who are truly suffering, but that’s not what is happening here. Musk’s purchase of Twitter isn’t an emotional trauma. It is not an emotionally traumatic event. Those who view it that way are extremely unstable and unable to function in their jobs. I’m sure Gadde is a perfectly nice woman in person, but it is not normal to act like this because her new boss might (gasp!) We won’t allow political bias moderation.
Gadde, however, has proven herself to be an unrepentant believer in leftwing orthodoxy around speech. It was she and her team that decided to remove Donald Trump from the platform. They also were behind the decision to ban The New York Post and censor its completely true stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop prior to the 2020 election.
“I’m often inspired by the vigorous debates on controversial issues that occur on Twitter, but I’ve also been seriously troubled by the plight of some of our users who are completely overwhelmed by those who are trying to silence healthy discourse in the name of free expression,” Gadde wrote in a 2015 Washington Post op-ed. “At times, this takes the form of hateful speech in tweets directed at women or minority groups; at others, it takes the form of threats aimed to intimidate those who take a stand on issues.”
Gadde has one of the most controversial posts at Twitter. Her teams are responsible for deciding how to moderate content. That’s made her a target of right-wing criticism, particularly when Twitter blocked the distribution of a New York Post article about President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, in 2020. Multiple reports that confirmed her involvement in the ban on Trump being posted to Twitter caused a new round of criticism.
Here’s some advice for Musk: Fire this woman immediately.
She would be a terrible employee of Twitter. Musk claims that she is opposed to the idea of free speech. She’s shown her incongruence with this vision. Allowing her to continue in her current position would be self-sabotage. Musk will be stabbed in the back by her whenever she has the opportunity.
Additionally, everyone in her department needs to be transferred. You can’t leave any stone left unturned during this transition, but that’s especially true when dealing with the partisan hacks who have previously been moderating content on Twitter. All of them cannot be redeemed because they all participated in the censorship system that long targets anyone who views a position that embarrasses left.
Twitter must be cleaned up if they are to become an institution of free speech, unbiased moderation and freedom of expression. I can’t imagine Musk doesn’t know that, and I expect some big purges to begin shortly. I’d suggest every current employee work on getting their resume in order.
About Post Author
