Elon Musk fires Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and sets Twitterati on fire

• Elon Musk to burn Twitter Director Parag Agrawal post the $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform.
  
• The former Twitter CEO agrawal will walk away with $42 million, according to reports.
  
• Twitter’s top executives earn a total of $88 million after being fired.
  
• Agarwal is trending on Twitter as Indians went crazy over memes and more.
  

The world’s richest man Elon Musk entered the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco with a grin and a sink in his hand. “Enter Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” he posted with a
video on Thursday. His first assignment after the $44 billion acquisition was to fire Twitter’s four top executives.

Among the layoffs was Indian CEO Parag Agrawal, who took over the job last November following the resignation of Twitter founder. Jack Dorsey.

A bitter struggle

38-year-old Indian-American Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 as a software engineer and was named Chief Technology Officer in 2017. Hailing from Maharashtra and an alumni of IIT Bombay, he completed his PhD in computer science from Stanford University.

He was also responsible for leading Project Bluesky, an independent Twitter-funded company working to create a decentralized social network. As Twitter CEO, Agrawal was the youngest CEO to head a Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500
company.

During his short tenure, he
initiated the launch of the Twitter edit button on the premium version of the platform, Twitter Blue, added context notes to tweets and also completed the transition for managing mentions on Twitter through Twitter Safety.

Musk came in the picture in April when he made the first buyout offer for Twitter. Twitter account
Internal technical emails posted a series of posts on Friday
Reportedly exchanged between Agrawal and Musk – these show that although the two started out in agreement, the relationship quickly soured.

After Musk tweeted, “Is Twitter dying?” Agrawal reportedly messaged Musk: “You are free to tweet ‘Is Twitter dying?’ or something else about Twitter – but it’s my responsibility to tell you that Twitter isn’t getting any better in the current context.”

In a separate series of posts, Musk is reported to have told Dorsey, “You and I are in complete agreement. Parag is just going way too slow and trying to please people who won’t be happy no matter what he does.”

Agrawal’s fate on a Twitter from Musk was sealed.

A liberated bird and a win-win


The takeover of Twitter was a story of a lot of uncertainty and bad blood. Musk eventually ended the guessing game by taking over Twitter, tweeting Friday, “The bird is freed.”

Musk also took to Twitter to express his position in a
open letter addressed to ‘Dear Twitter Advertisers’. He said he would prevent Twitter from becoming a “free-for-all hellscape” and build a “common digital city square.”

And as for Agrawal, all is not lost. The former CEO will take home $42 million, including his salary and stock, as reported by
Reuters. His salary was reportedly $1 million a year. According to https://gotechbusiness.com/, Twitter’s top executives will earn a total of $88 million even after being fired.

Agrawal kicks off the twitterati

Agrawal may have left Twitter, but the Twitterati made him trend. There was an outpouring of response from Twitterati, especially Indians who saw Agrawal as one of their own, with the top spot in one of the world’s most powerful social media platforms. The most popular hashtags in India were #ParagAgrawal #Twittertakeover #ElonMusk #TwitterHQ.

Agrawal was celebrated, criticized, made fun of in various ways and received the ultimate compliment on social media: becoming memefied.

Here is a rundown of some of the key posts about Agrawal on social media.

Many took to Twitter to test Indian parents’ obsession with government jobs: “It doesn’t matter if you’re the CEO of a giant social media platform.

The job security will only be in government jobs,” said one user.

Some went to investigate Agrawal and said: ‘Parag was aggressive against free speech.’

Others pinned the name Agrawal – a photo of a shop – Aggarwal sweets were accompanied by the message -‘
#ParagAgrawal is back with a bang for Twitter HQ.”

A report celebrated India’s rising power and Rishi Sunak tweeting: ‘It shows that Indian rule continues in all areas’.

A few even anticipated former US President Donald Trump’s return to the platform with the words “Welcome Back Trump” — he was banned from the social media app two years ago for inciting riots in Capitol Hill.

Even the Trump-approved Arizona candidate Kari Lake offered Musk a headquarters shift. “DM me and we’ll work it out!” she said.

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Parag Agrawal’s 11-month tenure as Twitter CEO was challenging and chaotic