Today’s news came from a regulatory filing. It revealed that Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently became Twitter’s biggest shareholder. He bought a 9.2 per cent stake as of March 14th, worth approximately $3 billion. He also sent some cryptic tweets less than a week after, to gauge users’ perception of his commitment to freedom speech.
It will matter what the results of this poll are. Vote carefully.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022
There isn’t yet any information about Musk’s involvement in Twitter’s decision making process or whether he’ll be invited to join its board. (Twitter’s ex-CEO and cofounder Jack Dorsey will leave the board of directors next month.
Twitter functions as the public square. Failure to uphold free speech fundamentally undermines democracy.
How can we help? https://t.co/aPS9ycji37
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2022
Like this for free speech advocates who have criticised Twitter’s moderation practices. removingFormer President Donald Trump resigns from the platform after the January 6 Capitol Riots and suppression of sharing New York Post‘s accurately reported story on Hunter Biden’s laptop—some of which Dorsey has admitted were errors—Musk’s possibly greater involvement is a welcome change. Musk had long thought about starting an open-source platform for social media to compete with Twitter. His interest in improving what is already working today’s news. His interest in performing art. His passion for making money, sending stock prices skyrocketing with each move.
Giles Turner reports that Twitter is vulnerable to pressure from outsiders because unlike Google, Facebook and Amazon, Snap’s founders have no special voting power over the future of the company. Bloomberg. However, the type of form that is used will be different [in the Securities and Exchange Commission filing]This is often a sign that the investor doesn’t want to control a company or influence its management. Musk took a passive share in the company. However, that could change.
Dorsey said, “I don’t believe we should be arbiters of truth,” in response to the absurd March 2021 congressional hearing where members of Congress interrogated tech CEOs over misinformation spreading on their platforms. “And I don’t think the government should either.” It appears that Musk aligns himself with Dorsey’s philosophy based on everything he has publicly said. Musk is yet to decide if he will use his influence to do good or remain more discreet and behind the scenes at Twitter. While continuing to uphold norms with memes.