A few weeks after Elon Musk acquired Twitter, the tycoon tasked former Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi with blowing the lid on the federal governments attempts to strongarm former management into removing tweets it didnt like from the platform.
The resulting data dumps, dubbed the Twitter Files, served as a goodwill gesture to gain trust among conservative and anti-establishment voices and coax them back to the platform through a demonstration of transparency.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant, Musk said last month, after he had already open-sourced Twitters recommendation algorithm as further proof the company welcomed the public thoroughly scrutinizing it.
Twitter employees have apparently taken his message too much to heart, however, as new CEO Linda Yaccarino now wants to crack down on internal leaks. Launching a company-wide mole hunt, employees have been encouraged to report to superiors anyone they have reason to believe may be passing on damaging information.
There is an organized way for us to be transparent, new Yaccarino hire Joe Benarroch told employees in an company-wide letter posted on Thursday. We just have to first focus on keeping our business actions confidential.
Violations by these insiders can result in consequences that include everything from their immediate termination to criminal prosecution, he warned.
If you suspect any employee is not protecting Twitters confidential information, please report it by submitting a ticket, Benarroch wrote in a letter to staff. If you need guidance or want to schedule training for your team, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
So far he appears to have had little success, as his comments were promptly leaked to tech blog Platformer. Its managing editor, Zoë Schiffer, has been a constant thorn in the side of Twitter, emerging as one of the foremost authorities to report on Musks ill-advised $44 billion investment.
Here is the full email for anyone who is wondering. I stand by my words. Great teams are built on TRUST. Were building something special at Twitter. The individuals who are leaking internal information cant be trusted and dont deserve to be a part of it. https://t.co/fYZmF7YVj5 pic.twitter.com/vnsZFVh2nE
Joe Benarroch (@benarroch_joe) June 22, 2023
Earlier this month, she and publication founder Casey Newton reported Twitter refused to pay its Google Cloud bills in the latest example of Musk not paying suppliers, partners and even employeespotentially giving them further motivation to leak internal news to the press.
While Yaccarino reportedly has since patched up relations with Google and is honoring that particular contract, a Colorado judge ruled a delinquent Twitter can be evicted from its Boulder offices after failing to pay rent for three months.
Maintaining security of sensitive information is a paramount task for virtually all businesses, since there are consequences beyond simply gifting valuable insight to ones competitors.
For example one of Musks other companies, Tesla, risks a fine as high as $3.3 billion after more than 100 gigabytes of documentsincluding personnel data on both customers as well as past and present employeeswere passed onto German business daily Handelsblatt.
Yet Musk has pitched his acquisition not as a traditional business endeavor but as a civic duty to humanity. Under his leadership, he claims Twitter will differentiate itself from mainstream competitors he branded media puppet-masters by elevating the platform to the worlds most trusted and transparent medium.
This altruistic marketing campaign partially backfired in May when Twitter admitted it censored content deemed by Turkish government to be harmful to the re-election chances of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who faced his first major political challenge in his 20 years ruling over the country (Musk claimed he had no other choice but to comply, an assertion disputed by some critics.)
Upon hearing of Yaccarinos hire last month, the tycoons anti-establishment fans raised concerns that the spirit of accountability they believe Musk introduced could further be stifled by the former ad sales exec in her pursuit of more revenue.
Benarroch, who joined Twitter this month after overseeing communication strategy for the NBCUniversal division led by Yaccarino, did not respond immediately to a Fortune request for comment.
With Platformer letting the cat out of the bag, however, he chose to post the company-wide letter in full on the social media site.
Were building something special at Twitter, he wrote as a preface to the letter. The individuals who are leaking internal information cant be trusted and dont deserve to be a part of it.
