Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday revealed that company headquarters located in San Francisco had a closet full of “stay woke” T-shirts. The billionaire entrepreneur who took over Twitter last month took to the microblogging platform to share a video of the cupboard at the Twitter headquarters, showing black and blue T-shirts with “#StayWoke” printed on them.
Found in closet at Twitter HQ fr 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/3xSI3KvvHk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2022
“Found in closet at Twitter HQ fr,” the Tesla CEO wrote above the clip along with two laughing emojis.
In the 12 second video shared by Musk and viewed by over 6.8 million times in just a few hours, the new Twitter CEO could be heard speaking off camera as he inspects the T-shirts found in the closet.
He said, “He we are at the merch and there is an entire closest full of # woke t-shirts.”
Another unknown man in the video briefly interjects and says, “a secret closet.”
Users call out Twitter’s leftwing prejudice after Musk reveals #StayWoke T-shirts found at HQ
Political analyst James Wood commented on Musk’s video. Lambasting Twitter for being biased, Wood tweeted, “These a-holes destroyed a presidential election by stifling the free speech of half the country. May everyone of them go broke. The very definition of the ‘banality of evil’.”
These a-holes destroyed a presidential election by stifling the free speech of half the country. May everyone of them go broke.
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) November 23, 2022
The very definition of the “banality of evil.” https://t.co/OhnxvVCYwS
Another Twitter user quoted the organisation when it rubbished allegations of its alignment with the Left as the figment of right-wing extremist propaganda. “There was no ideological capture at twitter at all. That’s all make believe right wing extremist propaganda,” tweeted the user, highlighting the response made by Twitter against allegations of prejudice before Musk took over.
“There was no ideological capture at twitter at all. That’s all make believe right wing extremist propaganda” https://t.co/QaTKjfjf5r
— DISSIDENT (@philthatremains) November 23, 2022
Aditya Raj Kaul, an Indian journalist, quoted Musk’s tweet and said it is confirmation of Twitter was being used for blatant biased propaganda by wokes.
More confirmation of how twitter was being used for blatant biased propaganda by wokes!! https://t.co/GM9B2QwqBT
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) November 23, 2022
Massive churn at Twitter after Elon Musk takes over the social media behemoth
The video comes in the wake of massive layoffs and mass resignations at Twitter after Elon Musk took over the company last month. From around 7,500 employees, it is estimated that less that 2,000 Twitter employees remain at the company, especially after employees resigned from the company following Musk’s email asking employees to sign up to work “hardcore”.
Twitter has long been considered a bastion of woke activists, who tend to favour the ‘liberal’ worldview and are supportive of identity politics that resonate with the Democratic Party. Twitter’s prejudice has not been limited to the US alone. Across the world, it was accused of meddling in local politics by amplifying leftwing propaganda and suppressing dissenting views by the non-left. In India, Twitter was accused of arbitrarily dishing out suspensions and shadow bans of accounts that challenged the Left’s hegemony over online discourse and indulged in arbitrarily handing out labels aimed at shoring up leftwing political parties.
Before completing his acquisition of Twitter, Musk had ridiculed the social media behemoth for being partisan in enforcing its rules and regulations that were coloured by the political prejudices of its employees. He had then promised to rid the company of biases and transform it into a free-speech digital town square.
