New Twitter CEO, Parag Agrawal, accused of racism

The character of the new Twitter Chief Executive Officer, Parag Agrawal, has been called to question after his past tweet resurfaced following his appointment.

Prior to the new role at Twitter, Agrawal was the former Chief Technology Officer. He was announced as Jack Dorsey’s replacement after the founder announced his resignation from the CEO position on Monday.

Hours after Agrawal emerged as Twitter’s CEO, a tweet, where he tackled whites for not differentiating Muslims from terrorists, was dug up by some users of the social media platform.

“If they are not gonna make a distinction between Muslims and extremists, then why should I distinguish between white people and racists?” The tweet made in 2010 reads.

Read also: ‘Too toxic to ignore’ – Thierry Henry to quit social media over racism, bullying

Agrawal had been labelled a racist for the tweet, which is a quote of comment made by British-American actor and comedian, Aasif Mandvi, at the The Daily Show hosted by Trevor Noah.

The most notable person to have criticised him for the tweet was, United States Republican Senator, Marsha Blackburn, who represents Tennessee.

In a public condemnation, Blackburn wrote, “This is Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s new CEO and the person who’s going to be deciding what kind of speech is allowed on Twitter.”

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