Elon Musk plans to assume the role of chief executive officer at Twitter Inc. after completing his $44 billion acquisition, taking the helm of the social media giant on top of leading Tesla Inc. and SpaceX. Musk terminated Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, according to people familiar with the matter. Agrawal and Segal were in Twitter's San Francisco headquarters when the deal closed and were escorted out.
Musk's ownership will bring immediate disruption to Twitter's operations, in part because many of his ideas for how to change the company are at odds with how it has been run for years. He has said he wants to ensure "free speech" on the social network, which is likely to mean looser content moderation standards, and plans to restore some high-profile accounts that were kicked off Twitter for breaking rules, such as former U.S. President Donald Trump's. More broadly, Musk's initiatives threaten to undo years of Twitter's efforts to reduce bullying and abuse on the platform.