Elon Musk is ‘way out of his depth’ Twitter and a “bullying management culture” won’t work there, says one ex Facebook executor
Early investor SpaceX, Chris Kelly is “mostly an Elon fan,” but said strategies that have worked at Musk’s other companies won’t translate to Twitter. Kelly made the announcement on Sky News event Big Ideas Live held in London on Saturday.
“He can do some pretty amazing things, but he’s gone into an area that’s way out of his depth and thinks that a culture of bullying management can change him, and that’s not going to work at a company like Twitter.” Kelly said. “I’ve certainly seen some drive-by moves from Elon Tesla and SpaceX before, but I was surprised that this approach. “He should have taken a more measured approach when he took office.”
Sharing Kelly’s sentiments was former SpaceX communications chief Dex Hunter-Torricke, who now advises Facebook on moderation as part of Meta’s supervisory board.
“Making very quick, knee-jerk decisions about content policy is probably not the way to go,” Hunter-Torricke told Sky News.
Musk wasted no time in making major changes to Twitter after acquiring the social network for $44 billion. I quickly fired the top managers and then about half the company. Some of them were dismissed awkwardly asked to returnafter realizing that they are still needed.
On Wednesday, Musk send an email told all Twitter employees to be “extremely hard” and work “long hours at a high intensity.” He then said that the workers could either agree to it or leave. Those on board were told to register their interest via a link in the email by Thursday evening. By Friday, it turned out that there were 1000-2000 workers did not press the “yes” button.
Meanwhile, Musk made changes to the platform they were excited companies, legislators and celebrities and others.
There are many firms suspended ad Twitter fears hateful content will rise under Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist.”
Some firms, including drug manufacturers Eli Lilly and a defense contractor Lockheed Martinwas Fallout from Musk’s Twitter verification fiasco, which pranksters were able to impersonate companies. That’s thanks to a new $8 monthly subscription service that allows any account to appear “verified.” Twitter shut down the service a few days after launch and is not expected to restart by the end of this month.
“Elon is willing to try a lot of things — some will fail, some will succeed,” said Esther Crawford, a Twitter employee who worked on the endorsement. “The goal is to find the right mix of successful changes to ensure the long-term health and growth of the business.”
But Kelly thinks Musk’s style will hurt the company in the long run, saying at an event today: “The massive layoffs and chain Elon Musk is taking to the company doesn’t bode well for its future.”
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