Who is Vijaya Gadde, the Twitter executive targeted by Elon Musk?

New Delhi: Elon Musk last week criticized Twitteris the best lawyer Vijaya Gade in a series of hot tweets, prompting a former company executive to accuse the billionaire of bullying and direct a harassment campaign against her.

Gadde, 47, has long been a low-profile Silicon Valley player and played a pivotal role in controversial decisions to ban then US President Donald Trump from Twitter and suppress news about the US President’s son. Joe Biden on the platform.

Who is Gade?

Gadde was born in Hyderabad and raised in Texas. She is a graduate of Cornell University and the New York University School of Law. Prior to joining Twitter in 2011, she was senior director and associate general counsel, corporate, at Juniper Networks.

At Twitter, Gadde is in charge of overseeing the content moderation and security policy of the platform with a team of executives. According to Bloomberg, he has “the final say” on Twitter’s disabling of messages and accounts.

It made headlines for major decisions such as a ban on political advertising on the platform ahead of the 2020 US presidential election. During the Capitol riots in January 2021, it was also the driving force behind the suspension of the then US president’s account. Donald Trump and limiting the influence of the far right on Twitter.

Gadde also reportedly approved Twitter’s decision to curb the distribution of a New York Post article based on files recovered from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop shortly before the 2020 presidential election.

The New York Post Twitter account was also suspended for about two weeks.

Musk’s new goal

Gadde has been in the spotlight again since Musk took to Twitter shortly to criticize her immediately after reaching a deal to acquire the social media company for $ 44 billion.

In response to a tweet from Saagar Enjetito a conservative Indian-American commentator who called Gadde “the main supporter of censorship on Twitter”, Musk called the suspension of the New York Post account “obviously incredibly inappropriate.”

Musk’s criticism of Twitter sparked a flurry of offensive tweets against the company’s chief lawyer. Gadde has become the subject of a wave of personal attacks by Twitter users.

Musk also tweeted a meme, using images from his 2019 appearance on The Joe Rogan experience podcast – who painted her as oblivious to “liberal bias” on Twitter.

Former Twitter CEO Dick Costalo criticized Musk for posting the meme.

“You’re becoming an executive at the company you just bought the target of harassment and threats,” Costolo tweeted. He later added: “Bullying is not leadership”.

Is it the end of the road to Gadde?

According to a New York Post report, Musk
could fire Gaddewho is one of the highest paid executives on Twitter.

“Gadde, who earned $ 17 million last year as Twitter’s top legal counsel, may be on the cutting board as Musk is planning to cut jobs and cut executive pay as he tries to secure funding for his offer on. Twitter, “the report states.

If Gadde is fired, she will receive a $ 12.5 million severance package, which includes the accelerated vesting of a large number of Twitter shares she has accumulated.
the New York Post reported.

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