BREAKING: Elon Musk takes over Twitter, fires top executives

Picture Courtesy: Dazeinfo

Elon Musk took over social media company Twitter on Thursday, and fired top executives he had accused of misleading him and providing little clarity over how he plans to achieve the lofty ambitions he has outlined for the influential social media platform.

Musk had said that 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.

On his takeover, he said on Thursday that he is buying the company"to try to help humanity, whom I love.” Elon Musk terminated Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde.

Agrawal and Segal were in Twitter's San Francisco headquarters when the deal closed and were escorted out, the sources said. Twitter, Musk and the executives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Elon Musk, a prominent and controversial Twitter user, became involved with the company earlier this year when he built up a more than 9 per cent stake in its shares. After announcing he had become Twitter's largest shareholder, Musk accepted and then pulled out of an offer to sit on the company's board.