Elon Musk meets Twitter staff: Aliens, ads discussed but no update on deal

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk addressed Twitter employees for the first time ahead of his $44 billion takeover of the microblogging company.

According to Reuters, Musk casually appeared for the video meeting 10 minutes late in a white t-shirt in what turned out to be a question and answer session, and mused about the existence of extraterrestrials, suggesting that Twitter should aim to help the progress of “civilization and consciousness.”

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Musk went on to say that he would aim to increase the number of Twitter users from 229 million to at least 1 billion, adding that advertisements would remain important, according to an audio recording of the meeting accessed by Reuters.

“I think advertising is very important for Twitter. I’m not against advertising. I would probably talk to the advertisers and say, like, ‘hey, let’s just make sure the ads are as entertaining as possible,'” Musk reportedly said.

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When quizzed about his attitude towards remote work, something Twitter workers currently enjoy a free reign over, Musk said that he was “strongly towards working in person, but if somebody is exceptional, then remote work can be okay.”

The 50-year-old billionaire also suggested that there could be layoffs under new management, saying that Twitter required “some rationalization of headcount and expenses,” adding, “anyone who’s … a significant contributor should have nothing to worry about.”

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Also commenting on his self-declared ‘free speech absolutism‘, Musk told Twitter employees that users should be allowed to post “pretty outrageous things” on the microblogging platform so long as said content was not illegal.

While Musk was expected to provide assurances to Twitter employees, who have been skeptical about his supposed takeover of the company, the rather unorthodox meeting left employees bewildered and irritated according to Reuters.

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The news agency, which saw an internal Slack channel of Twitter employees, reported that the channel was flooded with memes during Musk’s meetings, with many employees complaining that Musk was not providing necessary or useful information about his vision for the company and employee compensation.

Most of all perhaps, Musk left the biggest question of all unanswered in the meeting: will he buy Twitter?