Elon Musk has completed his US$44 billion (€44.10bn) takeover of social media platform Twitter.
His first move was to fire the company's top leadership, which he accused of misleading him over the number of spam accounts on the platform.
Musk sacked chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, according to reports.
It has also been claimed Agrawal and Segal were in Twitter's San Francisco headquarters when the deal closed and were escorted out of the building.
He later tweeted "the bird is freed" in a nod to the deal being completed.
the bird is freed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
The Tesla and SpaceX founder was given a deadline of October 28th to close the deal to avoid going to trial, after the social media company sued him for trying to rip up his original offer made back in April.
Musk and Twitter were due in court on October 17th, but it was pushed back after the world's richest man said he would go through with the purchase after all.
Earlier this week, Musk posted a video of himself entering Twitter's San Francisco headquarters carrying a sink alongside the message "Entering Twitter HQ - let that sink in".
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
Musk also has updated his Twitter bio to "Chief Twit" and set his location to 'Twitter HQ'.
He said on Thursday he did not buy the platform to make more money but "to try to help humanity, whom I love."
He said he wants to "defeat" spam bots on Twitter, make the algorithms that determine how content is presented to its users publicly available, and prevent the platform from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division, even as he limits censorship.
He has not offered details on how he will achieve these goals and who will run the company - and has so far been vague about his plans.
According to reports, Musk told staff during his visit that it was not true that he was planning on cutting up to 75% of Twitter staff after acquiring the company.
It was previously reported that he told investors he was hoping to cut around three-quarters of the firm's 7,500 employees.
Twitter's Europe, the Middle East and Africa headquarters is based in Dublin.
Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022
Musk has told investors he plans to sell users premium subscriptions to reduce reliance on ads, allow content creators to make money and enable payments, according to Reuters news agency.
Elsewhere, his plans to cut content moderation are feared to lead to a deluge of hateful, harmful and potentially illegal content on Twitter.
He has previously spoken of his belief in "absolute free speech" and hinted he would allow suspended and often controversial figures, such as former US president Donald Trump, to return to the platform.
Reporting by: IRN
