The culprit, as usual: Elon Musk, who had declared that morning that he was temporarily suspending his $44 billion takeover bid while he examined the exact percentage of Twitter's users composed of fake or spam accounts.

Musk later insisted that he was "still committed" to the buyout, but investors were nonetheless unnerved, sending Twitter's stock cratering 10 percent by Friday afternoon.

In typical Musk form, the billionaire sidestepped corporate best practices by making the statements via tweet, rather than submitting an official securities filing.

Later that day, Agrawal also took to the platform to defend his leadership and recent executive shake-ups. "While I expect the deal to close, we need to be prepared for all scenarios and always do what's right for Twitter. I'm accountable for leading and operating Twitter, and our job is to build a stronger Twitter every day," he wrote.