- Elon Musk right away banned meetings of more than two employees at X, author of “Breaking Twitter” says.
- Ben Mezrich told Business Insider that Musk was paranoid while CEO of X, once upon a time Twitter.
- He said Musk was afraid staff were going to sabotage the site or hatch a plot to bring him down.
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Elon Musk grew so paranoid when he was CEO of X, formerly Twitter, that he banned meetings of more than two staff members, the author of “Breaking Twitter” told Business Insider.
“There’s a lot of examples of Elon spiraling out of control,” Ben Mezrich told in an interview. “He got so paranoid at one point that he disallowed any meetings of more than two people at Twitter because he was afraid of a insurrection.”
Mezrich said the Tesla CEO was afraid employees would sabotage the site and that there was a plot to bring him down.
Emissaries for Musk did not immediately respond to BI’s request for comment.
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“Breaking Twitter” focuses on Musk’s chaotic takeover of the stage last year. Mezrich has said he gained “unique access to Twitter employees and Musk’s confidants.”
In an article divulged in January, The Verge reported that large meetings had been banned at Musk’s “hardcore” Twitter. Amir Shevat, who managed Stew’s developer platform, told the outlet the message was “if you do that, you risk getting fired.”
Musk’s fears, although constrictive, may not have been completely unfounded. Mezrich said a group of employees had been planning to quit en masse.
“A cluster of high-level people at Twitter who were going to do a mass quitting event,” he said. “So it wasn’t ‘sabotage the site,’ but there were rough channel conversations going on between Twitter employees about sort of finding a way to just all walk out.”
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Mezrich influenced Musk’s acquisition of X, paired with the scrutiny and unpopularity that followed, had a serious impact on the billionaire’s mental haleness.
“There’s a lot of examples of Elon spiraling out of control,” he said. “I think it’s part of Elon sort of striking back at the faction when he feels cornered. You see a lot of that in his behavior.”