Ex-Twitter CEO Dick Costolo tweeted late Wednesday that “Me-first capitalists” would be the first ones “shot in the revolution.”
Jumping into a recent controversy over employee activism at tech companies — kicked off when Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced in a blog post this week he was banning at-work discussions about politics and societal issues — Costolo bemoaned the end of an era where “tech companies used to welcome lively debate about ideas and society.”
Costolo said that the openness within Silicon Valley companies was what “differentiated tech culture from, say, Wells Fargo culture.”
Things got testy, however, when another Twitter user said that tamping down political activism within companies would “be rough for people who want an activist job on a tech person’s salary.”
“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,” Costolo shot back. “I’ll happily provide video commentary.”
The remarks were met with swift blowback from conservatives on Twitter, with many complaining about the violent language in the tweet.
“This tweet is an actual violation of twitter TOS for glorifying violence,” alt-right personality Mike Cernovich replied. “That aside, thanks for publicly endorsing the mass murder of your political adversaries. This is clarifying.”
Costolo was in charge of Twitter from 2010 until 2015 when he was replaced by Jack Dorsey, and is currently a venture capitalist.
Representatives for Twitter and Costolo did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.