Is Musk Turning Twitter Into a Family Firm?

The billionaire and innovator bought the majority of Twitter's shares in late October for $44 bln. The acquisition brought drastic changes to the social media company, including its hiring policy.

Musk brings new people to Twitter, including distant relatives, fans and conservative journalist Bari Weiss, American media reported. Musk's cousins James and Andrew Musk are now allegedly full-time Twitter employees. Andrew Musk focuses on software-engineering projects, while James Musk is considered to be a “fixer type”, which means that he helps the billionaire with various needs and tasks. Another member of the Musk family often seen in the office is X Æ A-12, the two-year-old-son he shares with pop-singer Grimes.

Apart from family members, Musk hires people from his professional orbit, including Tesla and The Boring Company staff. One particular hire is Daniel Hunter – a new engineering “intern” who previously worked for Scale AI- a data platform for business. American media sources agree that he got this job because of his enthusiasm about Musk and his projects.

Another hire is conservative columnist Bari Weiss. It is unclear whether she's become a full-time Twitter employee, but she reportedly got access to Twitter systems, including Slack, and a corporate laptop.

According to Musk, Bari Weiss will take part in releasing so called “Twitter files”- a correspondence of Twitter employees, where they discussed the decision to block the NY Post article about Hunter Biden’s laptop that contained sensitive files possibly exposing the incumbent US president.

Musk explains his decision to get involved in social media business by saying that he wants "civilization to have a common digital town square". After he bought the company, thousands of Twitter employees lost their jobs. According to expert's estimates, around 70% of Twitter staff was fired or left the company themselves, discontent with Musk's “hardcore” vision of social media. Presumably, Musk gave them a choice between two options - to stay on "working long hours at high intensity" or take a severance package of three months' pay and leave the company.

According to media reports, Musk has brought around 150 people into Twitter, who are considered his "goons' by the “old” employees. Meanwhile, the company has yet to reveal new management structure.