Former Twitter employees and people in Elon Musk's orbit detail his erratic leadership; Musk wanted “full access” for Bari Weiss, which staff refused to grant

Musk's intense focus on his social media company purchase has devolved into the culture wars. Meanwhile, Tesla is tanking.

Washington Post 2022-12-26 Faiz Siddiqui

Context & Ripple Effects

The request follows an early takeover period in which staff reportedly had no official internal communication channel to rely on, instead tracking Musk’s posts and private chats. The refusal shows that employees still held a practical boundary around sensitive access despite Musk’s direct involvement.

Later accounts of layoffs, a Blue relaunch and cultural damage place the Bari Weiss dispute within a broader pattern of abrupt, personally driven management at Twitter.

First-order effects

Twitter staff’s refusal prevented Bari Weiss from receiving the “full access” Musk requested, preserving employee control over that internal permission decision.
The episode puts Musk’s direction and Twitter staff’s access-control responsibilities into direct conflict at a time when the company’s internal communication was already strained.

Second-order effects

Twitter’s remaining employees must treat informal or direct requests from Musk as operational decisions, increasing the importance of who can authorize access and communicate policy.
The dispute reinforces the culture-war framing around Musk’s ownership, while the later reported Blue relaunch and layoffs add pressure to a workforce already managing product and organizational change.

Third-order effects

If this pattern persists, Twitter’s governance will increasingly depend on ad hoc access and personnel decisions rather than stable internal processes, making leadership behavior a core operational risk.
The broader shift is toward owner-led platforms where editorial, access-control and product decisions become tightly coupled to one executive’s public priorities.

The trend: Twitter is becoming an example of how concentrated owner control can turn internal governance choices into visible cultural and operational conflicts.

Discussion

@faizsays@mastodon.social Faiz Siddiqui on mastodon
Musk made Tesla the world's most valuable automaker and SpaceX the most succesful private spaceflight company in history But inside Twitter, it wasn't always clear that Musk grasped the issues the social media company was dealing with
@faizsays@mastodon.social Faiz Siddiqui on mastodon
Inside Twitter, Musk occupies a 10th-floor conference room with a staging area. There, guests wait for the Twitter CEO — sometimes for more than an hour — before being called in. …
@faizsays@mastodon.social Faiz Siddiqui on mastodon
NEW: Elon Musk sent a Signal message ordering his staff to aid in the Twitter Files: “please give Bari [Weiss] full access to everything at Twitter. No limits at all.” That triggered a frenzy inside Twitter, which was under a decade-old FTC order. …
@faizsays Faiz Siddiqui on x
IT staff refused to onboard Weiss, worried if she was granted the full access Musk requested Twitter would be breaking the law. The order was a response to previous privacy concerns. To some, it was unclear if Musk had read it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... https://twitter.…
@briannawu Brianna Wu on x
Sure seems illegal to me. https://twitter.com/...
@justiceputnam @justiceputnam on x
Musk also demands all the brown M&M's be removed from his presence. https://twitter.com/...
@kevinbaum013 Kevin Baum on x
Musk waived attorney-client privilege for EVERY privileged communication the company has ever had. This is stunningly stupid. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@faizsays Faiz Siddiqui on x
NEW: Elon Musk sent a Signal message ordering his staff to aid in the Twitter Files: “please give Bari [Weiss] full access to everything at Twitter. No limits at all.” That triggered a frenzy inside Twitter, which was under a decade-old FTC order. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ …
@ericgarland Eric Garland on x
It's almost like Musk is only in there to let certain people conduct unlimited surveillance and he's gonna destroy the company as soon as that operation is done. https://twitter.com/...
@waltshaub Walter Shaub on x
How long until Bari Weiss is reading your DMs? https://twitter.com/...
@donmoyn Don Moynihan on x
Wonder how many times Twitter employees were forced between breaking the law and getting fired https://twitter.com/...
@faizsays Faiz Siddiqui on x
Inside Twitter, Musk occupies a 10th-floor conference room with a staging area. There, they wait for the Twitter CEO — sometimes for more than an hour — before being called in. Meeting guests are instructed not to speak until Musk does. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@bad_takes Brendan Karet on x
“no limits at all”, great https://twitter.com/...
@faizsays Faiz Siddiqui on x
Days later, two executives with oversight of matters related to the Twitter Files were fired. Weiss' access was overseen by a chaperone, new Twitter Trust and Safety chief Ella Irwin, whose name appeared in a watermark on one of the documents. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@dietcock @dietcock on x
If Bari Weiss ends up being the trigger for the FTC to throw the book at Twitter for violating the consent decree and fine it billions, that will be chef's kiss. https://twitter.com/...
@dangillmor@mastodon.social Dan Gillmor on mastodon
If this is true — that Musk ordered the removal of the suicide-prevention feature at Twitter — than he's even worse than I'd understood. https://www.reuters.com/...
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@wongmjane 1. The message is actually still up. This is fake news. 2. Twitter doesn't prevent suicide.
@malpern Micah Alpern on x
@wongmjane's account has been suspended after sharing Reuters news reports on Elon removing anti-suicide features in Twitter. cc: @Techmeme https://twitter.com/...
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@ReutersTech False, it is still there
@kwilsonmg Kyle Wilson on x
I am glad that Twitter made the right call to restore this service. The holidays are a time of year that see an uptick in attempts. If you need it, please seek help. There is no shame or cowardice in getting help. https://www.reuters.com/...
@tomcoates Tom Coates on x
The functionality has now magically returned just in time for Musk to say it 'wasn't true' that it had been taken down. Now I guess we'll see if the ‘revamp’ that Twitter's Head of Trust and Safety said was coming will appear any time. Don't hold your breath.
@joshraby Josh Raby on x
There are so many people a hair's breadth from going away. Even the gentlest bump can alter a course. It's always worth adding one more thing that might be useless in this way, because it might not, and that might not means a lot.
@jasonleopold Jason Leopold on x
Reuters: Twitter estored a feature that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content, after coming under pressure from some users and consumer safety groups over its removal. https://www.reuters.com/...
@skwrlz Brian Waismeyer on x
so tired. feel like the blacksmith's assistant who helped wrap blade handles and make sturdy sheaths and coach customers on blade safety. then the blacksmith sells all the blades to a drunk buddy who throws the sheaths in the mud and gives the knives to his kitten-hating bffs. ht…
@jamesrbuk James Ball on x
Twitter is making itself easy to sue by removing safety features that previously existed. It becomes very easy to demonstrate the service could have done more.
@jacobtwop @jacobtwop on x
Teen: “I'm thinking of doing myself in because of my mental health” Elon: “interesting” https://twitter.com/...
@dukestjournal @dukestjournal on x
Doing this during the holidays is wanton, sociopathic cruelty https://twitter.com/...
@bestofdyingtwit @bestofdyingtwit on x
update: reuters has updated their story with comment from twitter's new head of trust & safety, who says they're working on it and it should be back up next week as someone in the replies pointed out, the holiday season (especially this week) is known to have high suicide rates h…
@jules_su Jules Suzdaltsev on x
so like he wants more people to kill themselves? because there's literally no other possible reason to remove these features, none whatsoever - they don't take up extra server space or have any political meaning, it's just no longer doing the bare minimum to try to stop suicide h…
@jamesrbuk James Ball on x
All decency and common sense issues aside this clearly opens up pretty huge lawsuits. But: we should be able to expect *some* decency and responsibility from social networks. Twitter is failing to clear a very low bar now. https://www.reuters.com/...
@martinsfp @martinsfp on x
“Reuters could not immediately establish why Musk would order the removal of the feature.” https://twitter.com/...
@rodhilton@mastodon.social Rod Hilton on mastodon
He talked about electric cars. I don't know anything about cars, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius. Then he talked about rockets. I don't know anything about rockets, so when people said he was a genius I figured he must be a genius. …
@gretchenoo8 @gretchenoo8 on x
Elon Musk “To be totally frank, almost every conspiracy theory that people had about Twitter turned out to be true.” https://twitter.com/...
@andrewbaron Andrew Baron on x
After reading these articles and threads I decided to come back onto twitter. Twitter is part of world culture and I see now that Musk is not really relevant. I blocked him and plan to continue on without worrying about him. https://www.techmeme.com/...
@areidross @areidross on x
this is like that scene in Get Shorty where he's trying to look scary by sitting in front of the window https://twitter.com/...
@0xfoobar @0xfoobar on x
. https://twitter.com/...
@taylorogan Taylor Ogan on x
Elon musk is literally the business version of Donald Trump. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@enichan @enichan on x
in case you still needed more motivation to jump ship https://twitter.com/...
@js_edit Jerry Parody on x
Musk's “genius” reputation was a complete media fabrication. Just like Rudy's “America's mayor” hokum. Now the media is running around with “how come he's not the guy we pretended he was” takes. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@piperk Karen Piper on x
Elon Musk wanted to hand over DMs and personal data access for every Twitter user to his #twitterfiles journalists. It's unclear what they've actually seen. https://twitter.com/...
@brian_henderson @brian_henderson on x
“Tesla's market value has fallen by about $700 billion this year” ... not long ago, Tesla's market value exceeded a $1 Trillion. https://twitter.com/...
@peterbakernyt Peter Baker on x
Shares in Elon Musk's Tesla have fallen 18% this week alone and 65% over the course of 2022. ⁦@timkhiggins⁩ https://www.wsj.com/...
@techwontsaveus @techwontsaveus on x
“Historically, Mr. Musk has been a cash-poor billionaire, depending upon so-called margin loans for his personal expenses and business investments ... But Tesla's market value has fallen by about $700 billion this year, sinking his personal wealth.” https://www.wsj.com/...
@jimpethokoukis James Pethokoukis on x
Every man's life a struggle. https://www.wsj.com/...
@ryanbethencourt Ryan Bethencourt on x
Leverage used badly is toxic for all of us! https://www.wsj.com/...

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