The purge begins

The world’s richest dilettante has begun the mass firings:

Elon Musk became Twitter’s owner late Thursday as his $44 billion deal to take over the company officiallyclosed, marking a new era for one of the world’s most influential social media platforms.

As one of his first moves, he fired several longtime top Twitter executives, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. One of those confirmed the deal was complete.

Chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust, and safety, were let go, according to the people. Sean Edgett, the company’s general counsel, was also pushed out, one of the people said. The top executives were hastily escorted outof the company’s San Francisco headquarters.

Musk’s moves late Thursday signal his intentions to firmly put his stamp on Twitter. Musk has publicly criticized the company’s outgoing management over product decisions and content moderation, as well as saying he would restore former president Donald Trump’s account.

At least one of these top-level terminations is apparently cause for concern:

People do not realize how much @vijaya did for free speech. Twitter is less of a free speech platform without her. https://t.co/16bUrFU8LZ— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) October 28, 2022

Musk buying Twitter will almost certainly be a net loss for free speech, unless your sole criterion for evaluating free speech is “the more Nazis the better.”