TIMES.KY

Cayman Islands, Caribbeanand International News
Thursday, Nov 07, 2024

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez tapped several people close to Elon Musk to urge him to relocate Twitter out of San Francisco: 'They belong here'

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez tapped several people close to Elon Musk to urge him to relocate Twitter out of San Francisco: 'They belong here'

The Tesla and Space X CEO hasn't yet responded to Miami's mayor about whether he'd consider moving the company's headquarters out of San Francisco.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez hasn't given up on trying to lure Twitter away from San Francisco. 

"I think they belong here," Suarez told Insider during an interview on Wednesday at City Hall. "I think that their rebranding fits our city, which is a city that puts a premium on liberty and freedom of expression."

Suarez publicly urged Twitter to move its headquarters to Miami by tweeting the suggestion to CEO Elon Musk at the beginning of December.

But Musk, one of the world's richest people who is also CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, hasn't gotten back to Suarez even though the mayor tried to reach him through several channels. The two have yet to have a phone call about the prospect, Suarez said. 

"I have reached out to him through multiple different sources of people that I know are close to him, people that are friends of his, former board members of his companies, people that are helping him with the project," Suarez said. "I haven't heard back yet. Obviously, it's a hyper-complex situation with everything that's going on."

Suarez proposed relocating the company headquarters from San Francisco after Forbes reported that city building inspectors launched an investigation into reports that Twitter converted several office rooms at its headquarters into bedrooms so workers could work long hours and sleep there. 

Musk tweeted about the news and questioned San Francisco Mayor London Breed's priorities. 

"So city of SF attacks companies providing beds for tired employees instead of making sure kids are safe from fentanyl," he wrote. 

Suarez then chimed in on Twitter to say it was time for the social media giant to make a geographical change for its business. Suarez, 45, is a Republican but the office of the Miami mayor is considered nonpartisan. 


Should Twitter make the leap to Miami, it would be far from the only big company to do so. Suarez has been shepherding the city toward becoming a major tech hub — a migration that became especially pronounced during 2020 pandemic lockdowns. 

One of Miami's biggest business gains was the hedge fund and financial services company Citadel, which moved its headquarters from Chicago. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin is a lead donor to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Suarez said such business migrations would help turn Miami into what he called the "capital of capital" and "the epicenter of aggregation and deployment of capital." 

"Those kinds of big-movement events have an ability to change the dynamic and continue the process of changing the reputation of our city — from a city that was just a place to go to have fun, or a place that you would maybe go to retire, to a place where you could do serious business," he said. 

Suarez, who is of Cuban descent, told Insider that Musk's repositioning of Twitter made it a strong fit for Miami because "this is a city that leans into the American dream and the American experience of working hard and wanting to better yourself." Nearly three-quarters of people living in Miami are Hispanic, and Suarez said many families who live here come from countries in which "freedoms are taken away."

As CEO of Twitter, Musk has promised to unleash free speech. He altered Twitter's content-moderation policies and reinstated certain banned accounts, including that of former President Donald Trump.

Musk, however, also temporarily suspended the accounts of a number of journalists after accusing them of "doxing." Some of the reporters had written about the suspension of the account @ElonJet, a Twitter account that used publicly-available information to track the whereabouts of Musk's private jet. 

It's not clear whether Musk is considering moving the company's headquarters. A Twitter message Insider sent to the company's communications team was not answered. 

Musk formally acquired Twitter in October for $44 billion, and since then he cut about half the company's workforce. He launched new features and revoked others, and various celebrities have quit the platform. Musk has said he'll step down as CEO once he finds someone else to fill the role. 

Asked about the "Twitter Files" of internal company deliberations that Musk released to select independent reporters, Suarez said that he was not "overly shocked" because of already-existing perceptions about the company under previous leadership. 

The "Twitter Files" reporting included communications that showed how Twitter employees decided which tweets or accounts to suppress and elevate, as well as input from government entities under both the Biden and Trump administrations. 

"Maybe that'll create some measure of accountability and fear that if you're working in a company, this could happen," Suarez said. "Somebody could buy the company say, 'Hey, we're going to air out our practices and procedures,' and so you should be thinking about that possibility."
Newsletter

Related Articles

TIMES.KY
0:00
0:00
Close
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Israel: Unprecedented Civil Disobedience Looms as IDF Reservists Protest Judiciary Reform
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Italian Court's Controversial Ruling on Sexual Harassment Ignites Uproar
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
BBC Personalities Rebuke Accusations Amidst Scandal Involving Teen Exploitation
A Swift Disappointment: Why Is Taylor Swift Bypassing Canada on Her Global Tour?
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
Unilever Plummets in a $2.5 Billion Free Fall, to begin with: A Reckoning for Misuse of Corporate Power Against National Interest
Beyond the Blame Game: The Need for Nuanced Perspectives on America's Complex Reality
Twitter Targets Meta: A Tangle of Trade Secrets and Copycat Culture
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
×