American far-right activist group, Project Veritas has leaked an audio recording of an internal meeting held within Twitter shortly after the world’s richest man, Elon Musk acquired the company for $45 billion.
In the audio recordings, many top executives could be heard voicing concerns that Musk’s acquisition could lead to significant alteration of Twitter’s moderation policies, and lead to less safety and “health” of the company.
In the 45-meeting company-wide meeting held on Monday, employees could also be heard asking CEO, Parag Agrawal and board member, Bret Taylor about the direction of the company in view of Musk’s acquisition.
Agrawal said that management was aware employees have misgivings about the new state of things.
“Many of you are concerned, some of you excited, many people here are waiting to understand how this goes and have an open mind,” he stated.
He stated that the current “content moderation” policies were important to keeping Twitter “safe” and growing.
Agrawal assured the staff that management would soon create an avenue for them to talk directly with Musk, noting “as you’ve heard from all of us, we don’t have all the answers.”
Taylor talked about “an emotional day” but noted that “by law, we are required to act in the best interest of our shareholders.”
Also on the call was Leslie Berland, Twitter’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).
Berland said, “Elon made it clear in public that a large part of the reason he bought the platform was because of our moderation policies and disagreements in how we deal with health. This puts Twitter service and Trust and Safety as well as anybody who cares about health on the platform in a very difficult position.”
Listen below: