Periscope Co-Founder Says He Was 'Asked' To Leave Twitter Amid Elon Musk Buyout

Periscope co-founder Kayvon Beykpour is one of two Twitter executives to announce their departure on Thursday.

In a series of tweets , Beykpour said he received a request to leave from Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. Bruce Falck, Twitter’s product lead, also bid farewell to the company in a Twitter thread on Thursday.

A Twitter spokesperson confirmed Beykpour’s and Falck’s departures in a statement to HuffPost.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is working to finalize a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, although the purchase isn’t complete.

Musk has spoken out in recent weeks about his yearning for “free speech ” on the site and has teased a reversal of former President Donald Trump’s ban from the social media platform, pending his purchase.

Beykpour, who was with the company for over seven years, said it wasn’t his decision to leave Twitter but that Agrawal had told him “he wants to take the team in a different direction.”

Beykpour helped start the video-sharing platform Periscope with Joe Bernstein in 2014. Twitter acquired the platform one year later. The company retired Periscope in 2021, partially due to decreasing usage.

The Periscope co-founder interrupted a paternity leave to deliver the news to his over 100,000 followers.

“As for what’s next for me: well, I’m still on paternity leave,” Beykpour tweeted. “Looking forward to my first break since co-founding @periscopeco with @joebernstein, and sinking my teeth into something new eventually.”

On top of the departures, Twitter is pausing “most hiring and backfills” except for “business critical” roles starting this week, a spokesperson told HuffPost.

“We are pulling back on non-labor costs to ensure we are being responsible and efficient,” the spokesperson said.