| Updated:
PayPal’s Peter Thiel: “Twitter workers smoke a lot of pot”
Has the co-founder of Paypal just effectively accused Twitter's workforce of being high on the job?
Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook, was speaking on American cable channel CNBC when he suggested that “there’s a lot of pot smoking going on” at Twitter's headquarters.
Thiel said:
Twitter’s hard to evaluate. They have a lot of potential. It’s a horribly mismanaged company.There’s probably a lot of pot smoking going on there. But it’s such a solid franchise that maybe it works even with all that.
Thiel is a recognised figure in the US business media, known for strong libertarian views that led him to investing over $1m in the Seasteading Institute, which aims to build autonomous dwellings at sea outside of government control.
In 2012 he made $400m (£244.86m) after selling his 20 million shares in Facebook – originally purchased for just $500,000.
Thiel's disparagement of Twitter shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. After all, his account on the social media platform currently averages one post every five years.
Early Twitter investor Bijan Sabet hit back at Thiel, tweeting: “I've never met Peter but this is so nasty, silly and wrong”, with a link to his comments attached.
Jason Goldman, a former executive at Twitter, also poked fun at Thiel and his political views:
Yo but how high were you when you decided to go live on an ocean platform. "No not like. It *is* Waterworld man." pic.twitter.com/rb3DHOfusQ
— Jason Goldman (@goldman) September 17, 2014