What do Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, Dictator Joseph Stalin have in common? Ask Elon Musk

Elon Musk took a swipe at new Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Jack Dorsey with a Russian Dictator Joseph Stalin tweet.

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Aug 21 2022, 22:16 IST

Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk blows hot and hot. One moment he is congratulating Parag Agrawal on being named as the replacement for Jack Dorsey for the post of Twitter CEO and the next time you check, he has both of them as a meme of Russian Dictator Joseph Stalin. Musk has pasted a photo of Parag Agrawal on Stalin's face and Dorsey's on the Russian leader's companion and tweeted the same. He has altered the original photo of the Russian dictator walking near a river, taken sometime in 1937. Musk added his own interpretation by showing, in the next photo, that Dorsey is missing from Stalin's side and there is a big splash seen in the river they are walking near. The interpretation being that Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, was pushed there.

The dark side of the Stalin photo is that the companion seen walking next to him was allegedly that of Nikolai Yezhov. Stalin had reportedly had him assassinated after suspecting him of plotting a purge against the Russian leadership. Stalin, even got the unfortunate Yezhov removed from the original picture.

The saving grace, if it can be called that, in Elon Musk tweet was the big banner right on top of the second photo proclaiming 'GrandOldMemes', all in capital letters. However, the big splash in the river was unmistakable for what the intent was.

Notably, Elon Musk had tweeted his congratulations to Parag in an indirect way while reverting to a Tweet by Stripe CEO Patrick Collison. The Collison tweet said, "Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, and now Twitter run by CEOs who grew up in India. Wonderful to watch the amazing success of Indians in the technology world and a good reminder of the opportunity America offers to immigrants. 🇮🇳🇺🇸 (Congrats, @paraga!)"

Elon Musk replied to this by tweeting, "USA benefits greatly from Indian talent!"

Notably, Indian origin Parag Agrawal was named CEO of Twitter after Jack Dorsey stepped down from the post. He is a co-founder of Twitter. In his letter, that was posted on Twitter too, Dorsey had showered praises on Agrawal and called him the best man to lead Twitter into the future.

Yezhov himself was the right hand of the dictator at one time. He head of the dreaded Russian secret police NKVD from 1936 to 1938, which was during the the Great Purge in Russia whose hallmark were large-scale assassinations and torture.

Read Elon Musk tweet on Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, Joseph Stalin and Jack Dorsey below: