Elon Musk engages with tweets criticising Twitter staff

theguardian.com:

Elon Musk has engaged with tweets criticising Twitter employees despite promising not to “disparage” the company or its representatives while he completes the deal.

The world’s richest man agreed to restrictions on his tweets as part of a 95-page agreement covering his $44bn acquisition of the social media platform filed on Tuesday.

However, a day after signing the agreement, which was published on the website of the US securities regulator, Musk responded to tweets from two political commentators that criticised Twitter staff.

Musk replied on Tuesday night to a Twitter post from the podcast host Saagar Enjeti flagging an article claiming Twitter’s legal head, Vijaya Gadde, had become “emotional” during a meeting to discuss the deal. In the post, Enjeti referred to Gadde as Twitter’s “top censorship advocate”, in a reference to the company’s decision in 2020 to block sharing of a New York Post story about President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.

Musk replied: “Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organisation for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate.”

His intervention triggered negative tweets from users about Gadde, including one quote tweet in response stating that she would “go down in history as an appalling person”, while other posts called for her to lose her job.

Musk also replied to a potentially defamatory tweet from the rightwing commentator Mike Cernovich about Twitter’s deputy general counsel, Jim Baker, which referred to Baker’s work in a previous role at the FBI. Replying, Musk wrote: “Sounds pretty bad…”

Twitter has been approached for comment.

The agreement also stated Musk would have to pay Twitter $1bn if he walks away from the deal. The break clause, a common feature of