Twitter announces plans for an Elon Musk Q&A over employee outcry

Hannibal Hanschke/Pool via AP

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Social media platform Twitter has announced plans to host Elon Musk for a Q&A with employees following an outcry after the world’s richest man and free-speech absolutist purchased a 9.2% stake in the company, becoming the company’s largest shareholder, and was appointed to the company’s board of directors.

Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal announced the “AMA,” which stands for “ask me anything,” where employees will be given the chance to ask Musk questions, the Washington Post reported.

In a company-wide email Thursday, Agrawal wrote, “We say that Twitter is what’s happening and what people are talking about right now. Often, we [at] Twitter are what’s happening and what people are talking about. That has certainly been the case this week.”

“Following our board announcement, many of you have had different types of questions about Elon Musk, and I want to welcome you to ask those questions to him,” he added.

The Post, which initially shared the story of the upcoming AMA, shared a number of messages from Twitter employees who had concerns about the firebrand billionaire, with one employee writing on the company Slack channel, “Quick question: If an employee tweeted some of the things Elon tweets, they’d likely be the subject” of an HR investigation. Are board members held to the same standard?”

Musk set off a firestorm last month after challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin to single combat over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The rabble-rousing billionaire also caused a stir back in October, when he called out the director of the UN’s World Food Programme, David Beasley’s bluff that a $6 billion donation from Musk would be enough to solve world hunger, stipulating that the donation must be “open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent.”