Twitter’s new owner and CEO, Elon Musk, faces two major challenges now that he controls Twitter. They are 1) deciding on whether he wants it to be a pro-free speech platform or a censored bastion of regime thought, and 2) if he wants it to be pro-free speech rather than pro-regime, how to to get generally leftist tech employees on board with that vision. It turns out, he might have just answered both those questions.
Elon has long presented himself as free speech, even going so far as to call himself a “free speech maximalist” at one point. Once he bought Twitter, he fired its chief censor, the woman behind Trump’s banning, and restored many accounts banned when Twitter got more censorious. But he’s also faced a huge amount of hate from the left for championing free speech, with the ADL and similar un-American groups trying to organize boycotts of Twitter.
Despite that resistance, he’s reportedly standing by the idea of Twitter being a free speech platform, with Platformer’s Zoe Schiffer saying that he told Twitter employees he envisions Twitter being a digital town square. In her words:
“Elon Musk is holding an impromptu all hands meeting with Twitter engineers. Nothing super exciting on the product side. So far he’s talked a lot about free speech and how Twitter should be a digital town square within the realm of law.”
That announcement came shortly after he demanded staff return to the office in a 2:30 am email.
But how is he going to get employees on board with that idea, one that it seems likely leftists will hate? Well, he fired most of Twitter, so it stands to reason that most of the troublemakers are gone. But, beyond that, it looks like he’s turning to stock grants to align their incentives with his. Zoe Schiffer announced that as well, saying, in a five-part Twitter thread:
NEW: Elon Musk sent Twitter employees an email about the state of Twitter 2.0. He acknowledged the company has been through a period of radical change but said the changes were necessary… 1/
Because Twitter was previously about 4 months away from running out of money. Now, he says, the financial incentives of employees should align with the company. 2/
Comp increases will be based on X Corp stock. Current grants are based on a $20b valuation. Musk says he sees a “clear but difficult path” to $250 billion valuation which would mean current grants could 10x. 3/
Like SpaceX, X Corp (aka Twitter) will do periodic liquidity events so people can sell. 4/
Musk says Twitter is on the path of an inverse startup. 5/5
So, if Twitter employees follow his vision and make the company profitable, they’ll end up very wealthy. If they keep trying to sabotage it by banning conservative and right-wing accounts, revolting, or even just being unproductive, then their stock compensation will be worth less and less. While wrangling such people is often like herding cats, the stock grant idea seems like as good a way as any to try to align their incentives and goals with his vision.
"*" indicates required fields