On Monday evening, Project Veritas released a new round of undercover footage highlighting the workplace culture of Twitter staff being antithetical to the mindset incoming owner Elon Musk has for the company’s future.
A senior engineer says Twitter routinely censors conservative viewpoints because right-wingers are willing to put up with it. Elsewhere, they say that left-wingers are leaving because right-wingers feel “safe” to come back, since they see Elon Musk as a leader that represents their interests.
Senior engineer Siru Murugesan admitted to an undercover Veritas operative that the company culture at Twitter is extremely far left. He explains that the company’s overall environment shifts people’s leanings leftward simply by people being there.
“Like I started working at Twitter and became left. I think it’s just like the environment, like you’re there and you become like this commie.”
He believes that left-wingers and right-wingers can’t co-exist on Twitter, and that the company’s censorship routines are biased because right-wingers have endured it, in contrast to left-wingers who threaten to leave if people they don’t like are removed.
Twitter’s transgender policies and how left-wing and right-wing viewpoints fundamentally differ on the matter, is something that Murugesan cites as a big example.
“Ideologically, it does not make sense like, because we’re actually censoring the right, and not the left. So, everyone on the right wing will be like, ‘bro, it’s okay to stay, 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.”
“So, it does that on the right. It’s true. There is bias. It is what it is today,” says the current Twitter employee.
When it comes to the issue of free speech that first inspired Musk’s purchase, Murugesan flat-out states “Twitter does not believe in free speech.” He also attests to how his co-workers “hated” Musk deciding to jump on board. “They hate it. Oh my God. I’m at least like okay with it. But some of my colleagues are like super left, left, left, left, left.”
The undercover Veritas person asks what other employees have said. “They’re like, ‘this would be my last day if this happens’,” Murugesan responded.
Murugesan said “a lot has changed” since Elon Musk began the takeover process. He said employees were worried for their jobs because the billionaire capitalist runs his businesses differently from Twitter’s socialist workplace culture. “You know, our jobs are at stake. He’s a capitalist and we weren’t really operating as capitalists, more like very socialist. Like we’re all commie as f*ck.”
He also said that the previous management allowed people to take extended time off whenever they want.
“Essentially like everyone gets to do whatever they want, no one really cares about like [operating expenses], like capitalists, they care about numbers or care about how to make the business more efficient. But in Twitter, it’s like mental health is everything, like if you are not feeling it, you can take a few days off. People have taken months off, they will come back. But you always like, like do your best at any time. And that’s the culture and you know we’ll run the business as much as possible. But at the same time, you know, like the profits weren’t a lot.”
He noted pushback from staffers over Elon Musk’s takeover of the company. “We did all we could, to like revolt against it. A lot of employees revolted against it. But at the end of the day, [the] board of directors have the say, and then they acted on their best interests cause they didn’t wanna get sued.”
