Twitter locked down its source code to prevent unauthorized changes, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The reports say that this change was made to prevent employees from “going rogue” and sabotaging the platform after Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of the company. Currently, a vice president must approve any changes.
Twitter declined to comment on the matter.
After the company announced it would accept Musk’s offer to buy the publicly traded platform, it wasn’t immediately clear to Twitter’s 7,000 employees how their day-to-day would change. Even after a company all-hands, where CEO Parag Agrawal reassured the team that no layoffs were planned “at this time,” employees were still left with questions about how they would fare in Musk’s takeover.
Twitter’s Director of Machine Learning Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Rumman Chowdhury asked in a tweet, “Elon aside, can anyone explain to me how Twitter will hire/keep employees since there isn’t company stock to create competitive comp packages? A significant part of our pay is in [restricted stock units].”
For now, Musk’s takeover bid for Twitter remains subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. But if it goes through as expected, we may witness major personnel shifts, resignations and more. A similar shake-up took place when Twitter was listed on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time. By the time the company went public, there were already 90 startups being built by former Twitter employees.
Despite his enormous wealth, Musk doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to managing employees. Under his leadership at Tesla, the company has quashed union efforts by warehouse workers, faced racial discrimination lawsuits and dismissed employee concerns about returning to work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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It’s not rocket science: Why Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover could be bad for privacy
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