Elon Musk takes over Twitter and fires its CEO. Will he reverse bans next?

Elon Musk is expected to complete his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter on 28 October, putting him in charge of one of the most popular social networks in the world. He has changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit” and is starting to officially take over the company – and has even carried a sink into the headquarters to let that “sink in” for all.

According to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, by taking the reins, he has fired CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and other top executives such as the company’s policy official, Vijaya Gadde, and its general counsel, Sean Edgett. The New York Times reported that “at least one” executive was escorted from Twitter’s office on 27 October. Keep in mind Musk has been publicly critical of Twitter’s leadership as well as Agrawal in the past few months.

Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022

The billionaire entrepreneur first offered to buy Twitter in April, before putting the acquisition “on hold” weeks later. Musk had declined to do due diligence before his offer and said he was concerned about the number of bots and fake accounts on the social network. Twitter, however, suggested Musk was trying to get out of the deal.

Musk went to Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters to meet with employees and reportedly brought in Tesla engineers to “assess” Twitter’s code, according to Bloomberg.

Musk has mentioned he wants to peel back Twitter’s moderation rules and that he isn’t in favour of permanent bans. He wants to “open source” Twitter’s algorithm, too, so users can better understand the site. But he’s also told advertisers he doesn’t want the platform to be a “free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequence”.

Musk said Twitter should be the “most respected advertising platform in the world”. He’s even talked about making it into a WeChat-like app, or “the everything app”.

Finally, Musk will likely lay off many employees — as much as 75 per cent.

Update: Bloomberg reported early in the morning on 28 October that Musk plans to become chief executive officer at Twitte,r replacing Agrawal. He may eventually relinquish the role in the longer term. The report also said Musk plans to “reverse life bans”, which suggests Donald J Trump could return to the platform ahead of the 2024 US elections.