Reactions to Elon Musk buying Twitter: Jack Dorsey, employees, commentators, and … Twitter

Reactions to Elon Musk buying Twitter are in, and it’s fair to say that the overall tone is not one of wholehearted support. Even Twitter itself is taking precautions against potential employee reactions.

But the purchase does have at least one fan: Twitter founder Jack Dorsey …

In a Twitter thread, Dorsey wrote:

I love Twitter. Twitter gives us a glimpse of a collective consciousness.

The idea and the service are all that matter to me and I’ll do everything to ensure both. My biggest regret is Twitter’s failure to grow as a business. Wall Street has owned it and used the ad-model. Taking it back from Wall Street is the correct first step.

In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. Twitter wants to become a public service at protocol level and not a business. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.

Elon is right in his goal to create a platform that is both highly trusted and inclusive. This is also @paraga‘s goal, and why I chose him. We are grateful to you for helping us get out of this difficult situation. I believe this is the best path.

I’m happy that Twitter will continue to be a platform for public discussion. All over the globe, even to the stars

Mustard’s freedom of speech ethos was put to the test by Others (includes expletives). Even Jeff Bezos decided to play.

(Posted from inside his glass house – and he did later backtrack. )

Platformer says that employees in Twitter’s Slack chatrooms were worried and unhappy.

One thread, in which an employee asked good-naturedly whether anyone was excited about the prospect of working for Musk, drew dozens of responses, many of them quite ugly […]

Employees told me that after the announcement, the sentiment on the Slack channel was largely negative and concerned. One employee said that she was surprised at how many people appeared to be giving up. “Big bummer.”

The New York Times echoes this.

Employees expressed concern that Musk might undo years of hard work to clean up toxic areas on the platform and upend stock compensation as he plans to take the company private. He also threatens Twitter’s culture by disrupting Twitter’s culture through his abrupt pronouncements and unpredictable management style.

Prize for best employee reaction has to go to this guy:

The NYT also says that the company was already finding it harder to recruit staff to replace those who will leave, even before the purchase was confirmed.

According to documents that outline the company’s recruitment efforts,

Musk has been undermining Twitter’s attempts at recruiting new staff members. According to these documents, potential hires expressed doubt about Musk’s plans for Twitter transformation and content moderation.

Engadget’s Andrew Tarantola didn’t mince words.

I fear the consequences of this sale, both for Twitter and the entire internet. The destabilizing effects social media amplification has on societal and democratic norms have been well studied since the 2016 elections. What is not yet fully understood is what happens when we hand control over that mechanism to the world’s wealthiest contrarian. As such, my advice to you are the same wise words Samuel L Jackson had for us in Jurassic Park: Hold onto your butts.

The Guardian’s Arwa Mahdawi was one of many to predict Trump’s return to the platform, no matter what the man may claim.

You know what else Musk will probably do? Let Donald Trump back on Twitter. Trump insisted on Monday that he has absolutely no interest in rejoining Twitter, but that is hard to believe. Truth Social, the former president’s social network has proven to be a disaster. His popularity has dropped since he was kicked out of Twitter. If Trump has any hope of making a political comeback, then Musk is his best bet.

Finally, Bloomberg reports that even Twitter itself is nervous about how its own employees may react.

Twitter locked down changes to its social networking platform through Friday after accepting a $44 billion bid from billionaire Elon Musk, making it harder for employees to make unauthorized changes, according to people familiar with the matter.

For now, Twitter will not allow product updates unless the business-critical are met, according to the individuals, who requested anonymity because it is private.

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