Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk
(Picture: REUTERS)Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk on Monday denied reports he plans to sack staff at the social media giant to avoid paying out planned bonuses.
The world’s richest man, who bought the platform in a £38 billion deal last week, responded to a Twitter user asking about a New York Times report on plans to lay off employees before they were scheduled to get shares on November 1. Musk, who describes himself on the site as “Chief Twit”, tweeted: “This is false”.
He has already fired the firm’s chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde with research firm Equilar reporting they stood to receive payouts worth £105 million.
It is reported Musk has accused them of misleading him over the number of fake accounts on the platform which could disqualify them from collecting severance pay and further shares, though neither Twitter nor the executives have commented on the reports.
Musk attracted further controversy after he tweeted a link to a fringe website peddling conspiracy theories about the attack on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
David DePape, 42, has been charged with attempted murder after reportedly breaking into the couple’s San Francisco home and attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer while demanding to know, “Where is Nancy?”.
Musk’s tweet, which he later deleted, linked to an article by fringe website the Santa Monica Observer which recycled a false conspiracy theory about Mr Pelosi’s attacker. Musk tweeted it in reply to a post by Hillary Clinton criticising the Republican Party for spreading “hate and deranged conspiracy theories”.
Musk said on Friday that he would form a “content moderation council” for Twitter and promised advertisers the website would not devolve into a “free-for-all hellscape”.
