‘Good riddance’: Netizens celebrate Parag Agrawal’s ouster as Twitter CEO

After Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took over Twitter and ousted CEO Parag Agrawal, netizens said this was good riddance and one of the most important steps to ensure free speech. A user named Daryl Carr tweeted, “Elon officially owns Twitter and the firings have begun. Parag Agrawal, Vijaya Gadde among others have been terminated. I say good riddance and I hope that Elon rights that platform. This is the most important thing for our nation and free speech.”

Another user said that Agrawal was so bad as the Twitter CEO that he had to be paid $40 million to leave. The user wrote, “You’ve heard of CEOs focusing too much on stock growth, but now you’ve seen a new strategy. Parag Agrawal was so bad for the world that someone had to buy the entire company and pay him $40m to leave. I would expect this strategy to be employed by other incompetent CEOs now.”

American actor Nick Searcy, seen in movies like The Fugitive and Runaway Jury, tweeted, “Goodbye Parag Agrawal! Hope you can find another censoring job soon!”

Users also shared the screenshot of Agrawal’s Twitter bio which stated that he was the CEO of the US-based microblogging site. A user shared the screenshot of Agrawal’s bio and wrote, “Misinformation Twitter, Parag Agrawal is impersonating as the CEO of your website. This is in clear violation of the rules. Twitter, please deal with this immediately.”

Netizens also shared hilarious memes about the same.

Others were also concerned about the opinions that they could express on Twitter under Musk. Former associate of Elizabeth Warren Max Berger harkened back to Musk's political leanings and wrote, "Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter is cheered on by Trump, Bannon, Thiel and most of the fascist right. He's recently defended Kanye, appeared with Bolsonaro, and publicly argued for Putin's Ukraine plan. Dark times ahead."

Podcaster Eva Lovia also weighed in and voiced her concerns. She wrote, "Hey Elon Musk please for the love of God, get rid of sensitive content market, or at least allow people to appeal it. I've been throttled for years for no reason and I know there are many in the same boat."

Soon after Elon Musk took over the reins at Twitter, he fired CEO Parag Agrawal and Twitter’s legal, public policy and trust and safety lead Vijaya Gadde. A report by Bloomberg also suggests that Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and General Counsel Sean Edgett are also among those fired.

Parag Agrawal took over as Twitter CEO after Jack Dorsey left the company in November last year. Agrawal pursued the $44 billion deal and follow-up after Musk’s plans to back out. He was also at the centre of allegations around censorship and hiding the actual number of spam bot accounts on the platform. Segal was associated with Twitter since 2017 and Edgett has been with the company since 2012.

Also read: Elon Musk fires Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, other top executives: Report

Also read: 'Twitter can’t become a free-for-all hellscape’: Elon Musk explains to advertisers