The newest object of Elon Musk’s attention, Twitter, “does not believe in free speech” under the outgoing leadership, stated a senior engineer caught in a hidden camera video sting.
Additionally, the engineer’s comments depicted a company culture with heavy socialist, far-left undertones — and in which employees believe in censoring opinions they don’t agree with.
“Elon believes in free speech,” said Siru Murugesan, identified as a Senior Engineer, in comments to a woman he believed he was on a date with on several occasions between at least April 28 and May 2.
A line on Twitter’s About page reads “it matters to us that people have a free and safe space to talk.”
When the woman asked Murugesan what his teammates think about their incumbent new owner’s position on freedom of speech, he stated, “They hate it.”
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“Some of my colleagues are like super left, left, left, left, left.”
The staffer admitted that his cohort understood that “our jobs are at stake,” adding, “He’s [Musk] a capitalist, and we weren’t really operating like capitalists. More like, very socialist.”
“Like, we’re all like commie as [expletive],” Murugesan said with laughter.
When asked how he would “describe communism inside Twitter,” the engineer replied, “Essentially everyone gets to do whatever they want. No one really cares about OPEX [operating expenses] like capitalists.”
The engineer further admitted that the efficiency and work ethic of staff was far from profitable. “I basically went to work like four hours a week last quarter. And it’s just how it works in our company.”
Free speech equals ‘bullying and harassing’
In a second clip, he added that staff use the guise of “mental health” to slack off, “Like, if you are not feeling it you can take a few days off. People have taken months off.”
When Murugesan’s not-really-a-date asked him to describe how Twitter as a company does not believe in freedom of speech, he replied, “’Cause Twitter wants to censor bullying and harassment,” adding that “the idea of free speech is that you can bully and harass people.”
He claimed further that “Twitter does not believe in this value as a platform because it’s not conducive to a business.”
“Even Facebook and Instagram, they don’t want people bullying and harrassing,” he said.
During a second pseudo-date, Murugesan equated this behavior with conservative beliefs: “if you bully a transgender, the right thinks it’s okay, the left does not.”
He added that for this “business” reason, “we’re actually censoring the right, and not the left.”
“So everyone on the right will be like, ‘Bro it’s okay to say it. Just gotta tolerate it.’…The left will be like, ‘No I’m not gonna tolerate it. I need it censored or else I’m not gonna be on the platform.’”
Musk a ‘new Trump’?
Murugesan also stated he had observed that conservatives were returning to the platform because of the newly announced acquisition, calling Elon Musk “The new Trump” because “they [conservatives] had a leader, they feel more confident.”
The engineer further theorized that people join platforms such as Twitter in the first place because “they want to look up to a leader who will protect them and give them safety.”
The journalist asked Murugesan if much had changed at Twitter since Musk’s buyout, which will not be finalized until at least October, was announced. He responded, “A lot has changed…Like, we’re stress eating a lot. Like we’re always worried for our jobs.”
Murugesan also described how working at Twitter converted him to his left-wing stance. “I started working for Twitter and became left. I think it’s just like the environment… like you’re there and you become like this commie.”
“They call it ‘Commifornia’ for some reason,” he jested. Twitter’s head office is in San Francisco.
He also revealed that he and fellow employees “did all we could to revolt against” Musk’s purchase. He said the Board of Directors’ decision to approve the takeover bid was because “they didn’t wanna get sued.”
Murugesan also told the woman that he had started putting in more hours, wanting to compete for a promotion — and the raise that comes with it — since he’s been feeling the bite of skyrocketing inflation and noticed his personal purchasing power has decreased.
The undercover interviews were conducted by investigative journalism team Project Veritas and published on May 16.
