Twitter’s top lawyer reassures employees and screams during meeting about Musk’s acquisition

Twitter spokeswoman Trenton Kennedy said Gady became emotional when discussing her team’s influence and the pride she feels in them.

Sources confirmed that she spoke at length about how proud she was of the work done by her team, and offered encouragement to the employees, urging them to continue striving to do a good job in the company.

Jade, who has been at Twitter since 2011, is the chief executive officer charged with overseeing Twitter’s trust and security, and legal and public policy functions. It is viewed internally as Twitter’s “moral authority” and CEO tasked with tackling sensitive issues such as harassment and dangerous rhetoric.

Gadde played a leading role in negotiating the deal between Twitter and Musk, according to a person familiar with the dynamics.

she has He led Twitter through some of the most contentious political battlesincluding decisions to remove all political ads and the expulsion of former President Donald Trump from the podium in the wake of the January 6 attack on Capitol Hill — a position that earned her loyal fans within Twitter, as well as a slew of right-wing critics.

But as news of Musk’s official acquisition spread, policy and legal staff at the meeting fretted about what his leadership could mean for Twitter’s carefully designed online rules of speech, including its policies against hate speech, disinformation and even political advertising.

“I think everyone on Twitter, no matter how they feel about the news, feels reflective and emotional,” said one Twitter employee. “We’ve been through a lot in the last couple of years and I think overall it has generated a lot of thought. I think that was an admission of the uncertainty that everyone is feeling right now.”

Jade and Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk’s acquisition, which puts the world’s richest man at the helm of one of the most influential social media networks, is one of the biggest activist acquisitions of a public company.

Musk called for Twitter to truly embrace freedom of expression, and he did He called for the Twitter algorithm to be opened and all spam bots removed from the platform. More importantly, Musk indicated that he supports greatly easing the company’s content modification policies, indicating that it is necessary Remove content only if required by law. This would be a major shift for the company, which has spent years creating detailed guidelines to reduce the amount of slanderous and threatening content on its platform.

Jade herself has strongly advocated ensuring that Twitter’s policies protect its most vulnerable users while protecting freedom of expression — a position that runs counter to Musk’s.

“I am often inspired by the vigorous debates about controversial issues taking place on Twitter, but I am also deeply troubled by the plight of some of our users who are completely overwhelmed by those trying to silence healthy discourse in the name of freedom of expression.” Jade Written in a 2015 Washington Post editorial. “Sometimes this takes the form of hate speech in tweets directed at women or minorities; in other cases, it takes the form of threats intended to intimidate those who take a stand on issues.”

Jade holds one of the most controversial positions on Twitter: her teams decide How to format content. This made her a target of criticism from the right, especially on Twitter Distribution block In an article published by the New York Post about Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, in 2020. She faced a renewed wave of criticism after several reports confirmed that she was behind the decision Trump banned from Twitter.

“No matter what we do, we have been accused of bias,” she said He told Bloomberg News in 2020. “Leaving content, removing content – that became very much background noise.”

It’s not yet clear what Musk’s acquisition of Twitter will mean — and for Gadde’s future with the company. CEOs in all hands on Monday I objected when the staff asked On what Musk’s leadership will mean for Twitter’s policies.

During her team meeting, Jade expressed similar concerns. Several employees left the debriefing session with a renewed sense of loyalty to it.

“If you look up the word ‘inspirational’ in the dictionary, you will find a picture of vijaya,” Tweeted by senior public policy aides Kennedy O’Brien.

“More grateful than ever for your leadership, Vijaya – I couldn’t feel you were so lucky,” chirp Camino RogoTwitter Head of Public Policy, Government and Philanthropy in Spain.

Several progressives have raised deep concerns about Musk’s move to buy Twitter.

Jessica Gonzalez, co-executive director of the progressive technology advocacy group Free Press, said the billionaire entrepreneur has “used the platform to attack people, often making childish statements against anyone he doesn’t like or agree with.” “And he has regularly mobilized a legion of loyal fans on Twitter to follow his lead with more threats and fierce bullying.”