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A top Twitter executive has suggested that many of the platform’s critics — including soon-to-be owner Elon Musk, who ripped the firm’s top female lawyer over her censorship of the New York Post — are merely misogynists.
Lara Cohen, Twitter’s global head of partners, went on the attack hours after Musk singled out the site’s lead lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, over what he called the “obviously incredibly inappropriate” ban of The Post’s exclusive reporting on Hunter Biden’s shady business dealings.
She also shared messages of support for Leslie Berland, the company’s chief marketing officer who was caught in leaked audio suggesting that Musk’s plans for free speech put them in “a very difficult position.”
Despite such scandals motivating Musk to spend a staggering $44 billion to buy the site, Cohen suggested criticism was based on her colleagues’ gender.
“Color me shocked SHOCKED that people are coming for two of our prominent female executives on day 1 of this thing,” Cohen tweeted late Tuesday.
Without directly referring to Musk, she later tweeted, “It’s Taurus season so I’m going to speak my mind.”
Criticism of Gadde followed a Politico report that revealed she had broke down in tears when discussing the future of the site with colleagues amid Musk’s determination to push for free speech.
Musk then responded to a tweet that noted how Gadde was “the top censorship advocate at Twitter who famously gaslit the world … and censored the Hunter Biden laptop story.”
Musk replied, “Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate.”
She also shared a tweet attacking Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley for pointing out that the tearful Gadde was “the same one who led the charge to censor the Hunter Biden laptop reporting. Says it all.”
Cohen shared a reply which said that history would not “be kind” to the senator, saying he was lacking “decency and integrity.”
She also shared tweets by Berland that accused Project Veritas of having “leaked, edited and misrepresented” audio of her “as my (and the company’s) views.”
Musk had signaled his plans for the site after his takeover this week, stressing that “free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy.”
Hawley called on the world’s richest man to also now investigate the company’s old ways, including widespread suspensions of accounts as well as reports of shadowbans suppressing voices.
In an official letter, he called on Musk to also investigate “who was responsible for deliberately suppressing the New York Post’s now-vindicated reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop and business dealings.”
The Post’s exposé revealed the existence of tens of thousands of emails that detailed how the then-presidential candidate’s son leveraged his political access in a series of eyebrow-raising overseas business deals after the newspaper obtained a copy of the hard drive from the laptop.
The piece was banned by major social media sites in the weeks before the election, with Twitter justifying accusations of censorship by labeling the story “content obtained through hacking that contains private information.”
Many mainstream outlets also discredited the article, before later reporting on its veracity long after President Joe Biden was elected.
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