Former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo took to Twitter on Wednesday to express his strong opinions about capitalists who refrain from participation in social justice movements in the workplace and encouraged violence against them.
“Me-first capitalists who think you can separate society from business are going to be the first people lined up against the wall and shot in the revolution,” he wrote. “I’ll happily provide video commentary.”
https://twitter.com/dickc/status/1311472075903647750?s=20
Costolo’s Tweet appeared in a thread he posted criticizing Coinbase, a cryptocurrency company, and their CEO Brian Armstrong for refusing to participate in certain social and political movements such as Black Lives Matter.
In the blog post clarifying the company’s policies, Armstrong explained that the Coinbase leaves “policy decisions, non-profit work, broader societal issues, and political causes” out of their business strategies as much as possible.
“We focus minimally on causes not directly related to the mission,” Armstrong wrote.
According to Costolo, however, Armstrong’s response was not sufficient.
“This isn’t great leadership. It’s the abdication of leadership. It’s the equivalent of telling your employees to ‘shut up and dribble.'” Costolo wrote.
“Tech companies used to welcome lively debate about ideas and society. It was part of the social contract inside the company, and it’s what differentiated tech culture from, say, Wells Fargo culture. Now it’s considered a distraction,” he added.
Tech companies used to welcome lively debate about ideas and society. It was part of the social contract inside the company, and it's what differentiated tech culture from, say, Wells Fargo culture. Now it's considered a distraction.
— dick costolo (@dickc) September 29, 2020
According to Costolo, asking employees to simply their do their jobs without bringing their politics or social justice agendas into the workplace is an act of injustice.
“Abandoning the social contract with employees in favor of a purely economic contract in the guise of ‘championship team’ bs makes you a bank with a mission nobody really believes. Good luck getting the best engineers in the world to work at a bank,” he wrote.
Abandoning the social contract with employees in favor of a purely economic contract in the guise of "championship team" bs makes you a bank with a mission nobody really believes. Good luck getting the best engineers in the world to work at a bank.
— dick costolo (@dickc) September 29, 2020
It was at the end of his rant thread that Costolo then claimed he would “happily provide video commentary” for the assassination of “me-first capitalists.”
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1311486570827046912?s=20
Twitter’s current posting guidelines forbid users from encouraging violence, but it is unclear if Twitter will be taking action against Costolo’s account at this time.
“You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people. We also prohibit the glorification of violence,” the policy states.
