- Elon Musk tweeted a meme this week featuring the new Twitter CEO as Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
- It also compared outgoing Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as Nikolai Yezhov, a Soviet official who was executed.
- It's a rare moment of seeming antagonism between two men who have an otherwise friendly relationship.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has become somewhat notorious for his Twitter presence.
It's no surprise, then, that Musk has some strong feelings about Twitter's announcement this week that founder Jack Dorsey is stepping down as CEO, with former CTO Parag Agrawal taking the reins.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Musk expressed his feelings as he is so often wont to do: With a meme.
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 1, 2021
The image, which a watermark credits as coming from the pro-Trump Instagram meme account "GrandOldMemes," depicts incoming Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal as Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and former CEO Jack Dorsey as Soviet secret police head Nikolai Yezhov.
In the first image, the two are seen walking together, but in the second image only Agrawal as Stalin remains, while Dorsey as Yezhov appears to have been dumped into the water (note the splash).
In reality, Yezhov was executed in 1940 during the Great Purge — the photo was later doctored by the Soviet government to remove the former official.
The implication of the meme appears to be that Agrawal is attempting to erase Dorsey from Twitter, but it's not totally clear.
On Monday, Dorsey announced his exit from Twitter and the appointment of Agrawal. He will continue to serve on the social media service's board until next year, but is otherwise focusing on his payment processing company, Square.
Starting on December 10, Square will be known as Block, and the new company will act as an umbrella corporation over Square services, the Cash app, the Tidal music streaming service, and a Blockchain-focused cryptocurrency arm named TBD54566975 (really).
The Dorsey meme from Musk is a rare moment of seeming antagonism between two men who otherwise have a very friendly relationship. They have a shared love of cryptocurrency, and Dorsey has said Musk is one of his favorite tweeters.
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