Twitter employee 'almost threw up' when they found out Elon Musk was taking over

A Twitter employee reportedly "almost threw up" when they found out that Elon Musk was taking over the company, which isn't exactly the most enthusiastic endorsement we can think of.

New York Times reporter Talmon Joseph Smith quotes a source at the tech company as saying: “I feel like I'm going to throw up...I really don’t wanna work for a company that is owned by Elon Musk", following news that Musk has bought Twitter for $44bn.

The source also reportedly said: “I hate him, why does he even want this?” and: "I feel like he’s this petulant little boy and that he’s doing this to troll…he doesn’t know anything about our policies and what we do…his statement about our algo [sic] was f**king insane…"

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Musk, the world's richest man, used some of his many dollars to purchase the social media network, which has over 200 million users, after criticising its failures to uphold free speech.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement posted to... Twitter. “Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and users to unlock it,” he added.

While he seemed excited, not everyone shared his enthusiasm.

Senator Elizabeth Warren called the deal “dangerous for our democracy”. “Billionaires like Elon Musk play by a different set of rules than everyone else, accumulating power for their own gain,” she tweeted.

Rebecca Allensworth, professor of law at Vanderbilt University, described the deal as “troubling” due to the amount of power now wielded by Musk, a concern shared by many others.

“There is something deeply troubling about a privately-held company holding the power Twitter does over public speech, especially if Twitter will be controlled by someone with as idiosyncratic views about speech as Musk. American free speech law is essentially just the first amendment, which only constrains government actors, not a company like Twitter or a person like Elon Musk,” she said.

Seems like his first policy might need to be installing sick bags around the office.

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