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TechElon Musk

Elon Musk tweeted a meme comparing Twitter’s new CEO to Joseph Stalin

By
Felicia Hou
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By
Felicia Hou
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December 3, 2021, 12:31 PM ET

The CEO of Tesla certainly does not hold back when it comes to expressing himself on Twitter, but his latest tweet mocking Twitter’s former CEO Jack Dorsey and his successor, Parag Agrawal, may be one of his darkest jokes yet.

pic.twitter.com/OL2hnKngTx

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 1, 2021

On Wednesday, Musk shared two images on Twitter—the first depicts Agrawal as former USSR leader Joseph Stalin, and Dorsey as Nikolai Yezhov, Stalin’s head of secret police, walking by a body of water. The second image shows Agrawal walking alone and a splash, implying that Dorsey had been dumped into the water. 

Yezhov was known for interrogating and ordering the execution of thousands of Communist Party officials during Stalin’s reign, but he fell out of favor and was assassinated under Stalin’s orders in 1940. Stalin was known to retouch photos and cut out images of his enemies. Musk’s tweet refers to a photo in which Yezhov initially appeared next to Stalin, but was later replaced by some water.

Agrawal was named as the new CEO of Twitter earlier this week after Dorsey announced that he’d be stepping down. Dorsey will continue to serve on the board until next May, and then plans to leave to “give Parag the space he needs to lead,” he shared in a tweet. 

Agrawal has been the lead on some of Twitter’s latest advances, including a social media decentralization project and ventures in blockchain.

Just two days before tweeting the meme, Musk reacted to the news that Agrawal would be the latest member in a group of U.S. CEOs who grew up in India. 

“USA benefits greatly from Indian talent!” Musk tweeted.

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By Felicia Hou
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