Hyunjoo Jin & Dawn Chmielewski

(Reuters). Elon Musk’s critique of Twitter Inc (NYSE) A torrent of abusive Twitter messages against the top corporate lawyer have been posted on Wednesday. It raises questions about whether he has complied with the non-disparagement agreement as well as the tone the new owner of the social media platform will be setting for the users.

Musk posted that he did not agree with the 2020 Twitter decision to stop distribution of a New York Post piece about Hunter Biden. Musk, a billionaire with over 87 million Twitter fans, said that the decision by the Post to block the account was “incredibly inappropriate.”

Musk was responding to SaagarEnjeti’s Twitter post about Vijaya Gadde who is responsible for Twitter’s policy- and legal departments.

Enjeti called Gadde “the top Twitter censorship advocate” and said that he famously spit on Joe Rogan’s show, as well as censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story. Twitter users launched a series of attacks on Gadde, making him the target of numerous personal attacks.

According to the Twitter merger agreement, Musk is allowed to tweet about the deal during its pending status “so long that such Tweets don’t disparage the Company and any of its Representatives.” Twitter did not indicate that it would cancel the sale of the company to Musk, who had agreed to the merger agreement with Musk.

Twitter and Musk representatives did not respond immediately to our requests for comment. Gadde couldn’t be reached for comment.

Dick Costolo (a former chief executive officer of Twitter) criticized Musk’s move. “Bullying does not constitute leadership.. Costolo tweets, “You’re giving an executive to the company that just bought the victim of harassment and threats.”

Musk replied to Costolo by tweeting: “What’re you talking about?” It’s just that Twitter must be neutral politically.

Musk joined a conversation about Jim Baker (Twitter’s deputy General Counsel) Musk replied to criticisms made by Mike Chernovich, a social media personality, about Baker: “Sounds pretty terrible.”

Baker didn’t immediately reply to Reuters’ request for comment.

Katie Harbath is a former Public Policy Director at Meta Platform Inc’s Facebook (NASDAQ). She now heads consultancy Anchor Change. Musk’s critique of Twitter’s content moderation raised concerns that Musk could ignore recommendations made by the team responsible for setting policy and procedure.

Harbath asked whether Musk will “replace people within Twitter with people who agree with his views.”

Other people were worried that Twitter might reverse its efforts to combat harassment, misogyny or misinformation under Musk.

Adam Conner from the Center for American Progress, Vice President for Technology Policy said that Musk’s daily Twitter activities only exacerbate Twitter’s worst features and undermine the great work being done by Twitter users.

Musk’s Twitter activities are under new scrutiny after his acquisition of the company Monday. But the billionaire isn’t immune to criticism and controversy on Twitter.

Musk made a scathing tweet last October about Missy Cummings (Duke University Professor) who had been hired as an advisor by the U.S. Vehicle Safety Regulator. This was followed up by online attacks on Cummings. Cummings deleted her Twitter account after being a vocal critic of Tesla (NASDAQ;)’s driver assistance software.

Musk said that a British diver was “a pedo man” in 2018 after Musk downplayed Musk’s plan to use SpaceX’s mini-submarine in rescue of a Thai boys soccer team.

David A. Kirsch from the University of Maryland, an associate professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, said that “if he proves incapable of tamping Down the Polarization, Twitter slowly starts to become less important because certain types of discussions will not be able to happen on it.”