Making himself sole director, Elon Musk fires Twitter board

Elon Musk has fired Twitter’s board of directors, giving himself unfettered control over the social media giant, according to a company filing.Musk became “sole director” of Twitter after finalising his $44bn takeover of the company last week, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday.

The Tesla CEO tweeted later on Monday that the arrangement would be “temporary” without elaborating.

Musk, who also runs spaceflight company SpaceX and neurotechnology startup Neuralink, began his tenure at the company on Thursday by firing top leadership, including Chief Executive Parag Agrawal and Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal.

Musk has also offered to buy back all of Twitter’s outstanding bonds, according to the SEC filing.Musk, the world’s richest person, completed the purchase of the company through a combination of his own wealth, investment funds and bank loans.

Although Musk has yet to detail his exact plans for the platform, he is widely expected to ease moderation rules and cut a significant portion of the company’s workforce.While acknowledging Twitter cannot be a “free-for-all hellscape”, Musk has stressed the need for a “common digital town square” where a wide range of views can be expressed and debated.

Musk, who has conveyed discomfort with Twitter’s reliance on adverstising, has also signalled an interest in requiring users to pay for the blue check mark used to verify prominent accounts and offering different versions of the platform based on a film-like rating system.