Some employees say that Musk sounded genuinely enthusiastic about owning and running Twitter, but the meeting reinforced their mostly negative beliefs about him

Musk says he has big plans for the company. Employees wonder how he'll achieve them

Platformer 2022-06-17 Casey Newton

Context & Ripple Effects

Twitter's prospective ownership change had already exposed a leadership fault line: coverage of Musk's board involvement described tension between Parag Agrawal's agenda and Musk's public vision, while former employees saw private ownership as a possible route to improving an underperforming service. The employee meeting is the first internal test of whether Musk can turn that broad case for change into organizational alignment.

The same-day account of Musk's first address to Twitter staff put layoffs and moderation among the issues employees were weighing. Enthusiasm from the prospective owner therefore matters less as a message than as a signal of whether staff will accept the direction and execution behind it.

First-order effects

Musk gains a direct channel to set expectations for Twitter employees, but the reported skepticism leaves his plans without broad internal buy-in.
Agrawal remains responsible for running Twitter while employees weigh Musk's priorities against the incumbent leadership's direction.

Second-order effects

Potential changes to staffing and moderation become harder to execute smoothly when the workforce already distrusts the prospective owner, increasing the importance of clear operating decisions from Musk and Twitter leadership.
The earlier case for a private-company turnaround now rests not only on ownership structure but on Musk's ability to align the organization he intends to lead.

Third-order effects

If the ownership transition proceeds on this footing, Twitter points toward a more owner-directed governance model, with the chief executive and workforce adapting to priorities set by a controlling buyer rather than an independent board member.
The episode also makes employee confidence a practical constraint on social-platform change: ambitious product or policy plans require the teams implementing them to accept the leadership mandate.

The trend: High-profile social-platform acquisitions are increasingly tests of whether a new owner's public vision can be converted into internal operating authority.

Discussion

Vox Shirin Ghaffary on x
What you need to know about Elon Musk's big meeting with Twitter employees
@mattxs @mattxs on x
Did not have Elon taking over for Peter Thiel as the biggest villain to come out of the PayPal Mafia on my 2022 bingo card.
@caseynewton Casey Newton on x
It's common to say that Elon's plans for Twitter are half-baked. But what if this is as baked as they're ever going to be? He runs Tesla via whim, and it sure looks like he's bringing that management style to the bird app https://www.platformer.news/ ... https://twitter.com/...
@jtlevy Jacob T. Levy on x
I mean, it's better for Musk to reach a kindergarten level of understanding about this stuff than for him *not* to do so, but he might have wanted to do so before proposing an 11-figure deal. https://www.vox.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@profcritic Melissa Green on x
From @CaseyNewton chef's kiss description of Elon's visit w Twitter staff today “... he offered workers hungry for concrete answers a jumble of sentence fragments...If I were to make a word cloud of employee responses, some bigger ones would be: incoherent; rambling; uninspiring”
@martinsfp @martinsfp on x
This is good from @CaseyNewton on Musk's call with Twitter employees. “It's hard to imagine [Steve] Jobs' reputation surviving the Slack screenshot era” https://www.platformer.news/ ...
@susanbordson Susan Bordson on x
“...If I were to make a word cloud of employee responses, some bigger ones would be: incoherent; rambling; uninspiring.” When Elon met Twitter, by @CaseyNewton https://www.platformer.news/ ...
@lizzadwoskin Elizabeth Dwoskin on x
NEW from inside Twitter's town hall: In response to a question about what Musk would do to regain Twitter worker's trust, Musk says: “If someone is getting stuff done, great, I love them. If they're not, why are they at the company?” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@rmac18 Ryan Mac on x
Some news: SpaceX investigated the employees who wrote and distributed an open letter criticizing Elon Musk's Twitter habit. Some of those employees have been fired. https://t.co/I68H1TaXAj
@gartenberg Michael Gartenberg on x
I was asked by a journalist to comment on Twitter and Musk's plans for it. I declined to comment. Given his army of trolls who go after anyone who is critical of him my thought was, it's not worth the hassle of Elon's Twitter Mob or being called a pedophile.
@georgetakei George Takei on x
This is ironic from a champion of “free speech.” I guess the takeaway here is when free speech becomes distracting because it's harassing, time-wasting or abusive, it should be limited, do I have that right? https://twitter.com/...
@clarajeffery Clara Jeffery on x
“Free speech” https://twitter.com/...
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
This happened within the same day. https://twitter.com/...
@jilliancyork @jilliancyork on x
Absolute piece of shit this guy https://twitter.com/...
@aaschapiro Avi Asher-Schapiro on x
SpaceX fired employees who circulated a letter inside the company that criticized Elon Musk—SpaceX executives called the internal dissent “overreaching activism.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@f Fred Oliveira on x
Oh, you know. That good ol' freedom of speech he keeps promoting. https://twitter.com/...
@drrubidium Raychelle Burks on x
Is this the “cancel culture” the flat whites often lament? https://twitter.com/...
@sbn_wescott Wescott Eberts on x
Incredible stuff from the free speech absolutist who is actually a rank, pathetic hypocrite. https://twitter.com/...
@davetroy Dave Troy on x
Musk isn't about free speech, he's aiming to shape the information environment to suit his intentions, which are government overthrow and colonization of Mars. https://twitter.com/...
@lorengrush Loren Grush on x
Dangerous to sleep on this job. SpaceX has swiftly retaliated against some of the letter writers we first reported on yesterday https://twitter.com/...
@northmantrader Sven Henrich on x
Time to buy Twitter to save free speech. https://twitter.com/...
@rmac18 Ryan Mac on x
I spoke w/ 3 employees and obtained an email from SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell confirming the firings. It's unclear how many people have been fired. Shotwell: “We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism.” https://www.nytimes.com/…
Vox Shirin Ghaffary on x
Leaked transcript: Inside Elon Musk's first meeting with Twitter employees
@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
Elon Musk showed up 10 minutes late to his first meeting addressing Twitter employees, which is still ongoing. He dialed in from his phone handheld like this https://twitter.com/...
@bennyjohnson Benny Johnson on x
BREAKING: Leaked Internal Slack Messages Show Twitter Employees Reaction to @ElonMusk's #TwitterAllHands Call https://twitter.com/...
@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
Elon says that if the company wants more people to use Twitter, they should mimic the approach of the super app WeChat in China. “you basically live on WeChat in China....if we can recreate that with Twitter we'll be a great success”
@lizzadwoskin Elizabeth Dwoskin on x
After listening to Elon address Twitter staff today, I get the sense that policing misinformation will be out the window. And his answer to a question about how he could regain trust was to say, 'be a top performer and if not, you're out.' W/@WillOremus https://www.washingtonpost…
@mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x
the twitter all-hands today was certainly leaky, but the twitter employee(s) leaking to Johnson know exactly what they're doing: Johnson now blasting out video/tweets with all of the names of employees pushing back against Elon https://twitter.com/...
@mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x
we're still on question one: “Why do you love twitter,” and elon's answer was pretty long and rambling, but one thing he said was that he appreciated “Freedom of speech, and Freedom of Reach.”
@noupside Renee DiResta on x
Bit of a juxtaposition here. I am starting to think Bluesky has far more potential for designing a functional future communication platform than anything we will see from existing social platforms. https://twitter.com/...
@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
People should be allowed to “say pretty outrageous things within the law,” but it shouldn't be amplified. Repeats the mantra that freedom of speech isn't the same as freedom of reach.
@danprimack Dan Primack on x
Twitter should have done the all-hands as a Spaces.
@cernovich @cernovich on x
USA Today is a fact check partner for Facebook and maybe even Twitter. They just got busted produce fabricated news. Literally fake. Made up. Complete disinformation. Will Twitter be issuing a “deboost” penalty against USA TODAY. @elonmusk https://nypost.com/...
@jenn_elias Jennifer Elias on x
a normal all-hands meeting https://www.cnbc.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@kenli729 Kenneth Li on x
Reuters Explains: “When he turned off his video at the end of the Q&A, his avatar appeared to be two hands in the shape of the number 69, an apparent reference to a sex position, the source said.” https://www.reuters.com/... by @Sheila_Dang
@mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x
Musk is asked how his politcal views will affect the company? says he's a moderate. He voted democrat in the past, and noted that he voted for Flores, a mexican american politician. (An employee notes she is also a believer in QAnon)
@mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x
here's musk broadcasting from what appears to be a hotel room, on his phone! https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x
Elon gets a question on content moderationn issues and what should/shouldnt be allowed. He is more worried about whether or not people are seeing “boring content,” and that TikTok does a great job of keeping people entertained.
@bennyjohnson Benny Johnson on x
Full call here: https://www.youtube.com/...
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@Cernovich Wow
@evafoxu @evafoxu on x
Elon Musk is aiming to significantly transform Twitter. He plans to purge it of bot/fake accounts, increase the number of real users, and allow free speech to flourish while boosting profitability. Employees who do their job responsibly will not be fired. https://www.tesmanian.co…
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@bennyjohnson Interesting
@_szheng Sarah Zheng on x
“You basically live on WeChat in China because it's so useful and so helpful to your daily life. And I think if we could achieve that, or even close to that with Twitter, it would be an immense success.” https://www.vox.com/...
@reckless @reckless on x
Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg vs Evan Spiegel in the battle to build a WeChat-style superapp for the United States is going to be a delight because Apple will ruthlessly put all those features in iMessage first https://www.theverge.com/...
@maxkennerly Max Kennerly on x
A month ago he was tweeting that Twitter is bad because “you are being manipulated by the algorithm in ways you don't realize.” Now he's saying Twitter should mimic platforms that are far more driven by algorithmic content promotion. He's just making it up as he goes. https://twi…
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@EvaFoxU Exactly
@daithaigilbert David Gilbert on x
“When [Elon Musk] turned off his video at the end of the Q&A [with Twitter employees], his avatar appeared to be two hands in the shape of the number 69, an apparent reference to a sex position.” A troll to the end.... https://www.reuters.com/...
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
The Holocaust. Aliens. Both discussed on Elon Musk's call with Twitter staff today. Reporting w/ @claresduffy https://www.cnn.com/...
@donie Donie O'Sullivan on x
“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...” https://www.cnn.com/...
@hsajwanization @hsajwanization on x
Twitter Product Managers now have a new direct line manager 😅... https://techcrunch.com/...
@nycsouthpaw @nycsouthpaw on x
Does this make any sense? What does money being digital have to do with Twitter taking on the brain damage of being a payments platform? https://twitter.com/...
@markmilian Mark Milian on x
Ok, but isn't this basically what Twitter already does? https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@ericnewcomer Eric Newcomer on x
The key is to tell conservatives you're on their team and then it doesn't matter what your actual policies are. https://twitter.com/...
@stevekovach Steve Kovach on x
Main takeaway from Elon Musk's all-hands meeting with Twitter: Employees are still concerned about issues related to remote work and layoffs, given Musk's past public comments. Musk did little to alleviate those concerns, per internal Slack messages. https://www.cnbc.com/...
@mmasnick Mike Masnick on x
I assume he didn't answer this question? https://twitter.com/...
@nytimes @nytimes on x
Elon Musk told Twitter employees in a live Q. and A. Thursday that the platform “should allow people to say what they want,” and he seemed preoccupied with people not seeing “boring” content. He also dodged a question about layoffs. Follow live updates. https://www.nytimes.com/..…
@kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x
somehow the discussion turned to aliens. Elon: “I have seen no actual evidence for aliens.”
@pkafka Peter Kafka on x
Here's the entire thing. All of it. The whole reason the world's richest man is obsessed with a smallish and barely profitable social network. https://twitter.com/...
@kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x
Elon also said he wants t get to 1 billion users for Twitter. That would be a goal for him if he acquires the company. The meeting is now over.
@qhardy Quentin Hardy on x
Shocked to find out a certain billionaire doesn't really have a plan, but he thinks companies should get “healthy,” whatever that means, and a whole lot more customers would be good. Thoughts and prayers to everyone at Twitter trying to do their job and feed their families.
@jlgolson Jordan Golson on x
Have people never seen Elon speak? Of course he's winging it. He always speaks off the cuff. https://twitter.com/...
@mikeisaac Rat King on x
and on that note, that's a wrap! till round two, which Musk agreed to do in the future. check the live blog for all the updates I and others added that were not in tweet form. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@anthony Anthony DeRosa on x
Musk intends to be hands-on with Twitter, as he is with Tesla: “(Musk) said he wants to be involved in product...he does think people will need to listen to his input on features..."I do expect that they will listen to me in this regard."" - @MikeIsaac https://www.nytimes.com/...
@mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x
Musk floats the idea of tweets having an “irony flag” on a message, though that seemed like a half joke. I think the context was around intention of Tweets
@caseynewton Casey Newton on x
This is like if Grandpa Simpson bought Twitter https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@pkafka Peter Kafka on x
On Twitter, Elon is Elon. Over at NYT he's Mr. Musk. In both places he loves TikTok. https://twitter.com/...
@alexeheath Alex Heath on x
When asked why he loves Twitter, Elon says: “Some people use their hair to express themselves. I use Twitter”
@kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x
Wall Street reacting to Elon's Twitter address: Huh? https://twitter.com/...
@jyarow Jay Yarow on x
Elon basically says job cuts coming to Twitter. “The company needs to get healthy.” https://www.cnbc.com/...
@kantrowitz Alex Kantrowitz on x
So many leaks from this meeting might as well stream it https://twitter.com/...
@mattrosoff Matt Rosoff on x
We have @lauren_feiner and others on the @CNBCtech team tweeting live updates from Elon Musk's address to Twitter employees here: https://twitter.com/...
@ericajoy Erica Joy on x
so he's not in the office? interesting! https://twitter.com/...
@jimpethokoukis James Pethokoukis on x
WFH only for Mars colonists https://twitter.com/...
@mkarolian Matt Karolian on x
Why isn't @elonmusk in the office? https://twitter.com/...
@caseynewton Casey Newton on x
The majority of Musk's *tweets* about the deal are negative! https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@2aupdates Rob Romano on x
“ Elon Musk is expected to confirm his desire to own Twitter Inc. when he speaks to the social-media company's employees on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter.” https://www.wsj.com/...
@mattnavarra Matt Navarra on x
Elon Musk Expected to Reiterate Desire to Own Twitter in Upcoming Staff Meeting https://www.wsj.com/...

Chronicles