Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk announced that he bought 9.2 percent of Twitter through the U.S. Stock Market, which makes him the largest shareholder in the company. A day later, Twitter announced that Musk would be joining their board, which would have given him great influence over the company’s decisions and policies. However, Musk later decided not to join the board after all in a wild series of events.
It is still unclear why Musk had decided to reverse his decision and not join the board. There have been reports that Musk’s acceptance into the board was contingent on a background check, which would have looked into any information that might cause harm to the company down the line in the event that the information becomes public. It has been suggested that Musk’s fight with the Securities and Exchange Commission over his tweets that suggested he has enough funds to make Tesla private caused his hesitancy in getting a background check.
Musk’s previous federal filings showed that he had planned to take a smaller stake in Twitter, but his recent acquisition shows that he will be playing a much more active role in the company. “Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in the coming months,” Musk tweeted in response to a welcome from Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal.
The takeover’s effects on the company’s policies will be interesting to watch, with Musk tweeting polls to his followers about different features users would like to see on Twitter, such as having an edit button. One specific policy that many will be looking out for is Musk’s take on free speech on the platform, which has a lot of Republican leaders calling for a more permissive stance on political speech on Twitter, which had banned Republican leader Donald Trump in 2021. “Elon Musk has made clear he opposes big tech censorship, and that’s something all freedom-loving Americans can get behind,” Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) tweeted, joining many other officials calling for Musk to allow all kinds of political discourse and reinstate Trump’s account on Twitter.
Twitter users are not the only ones wary of the changes Musk might bring, with many employees anxious of what this means for them and how the company’s work will change. “Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board,” Agrawal tweeted. “He’s both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need on Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term.” The previous CEO of Twitter and company’s co-founder Jack Dorsey also welcomed Musk by tweeting, “Parag and Elon both lead with their hearts, and they will be an incredible team.”
Internal documents obtained by The Washington Post show a senior Twitter executive trying to reassure her team in a letter to the staff saying that the work fighting “hate speech and trolls” was “bigger than any board member.” However, this is still not assuring to many as Gordon Haskett Research Advisors analyst Don Bilson said that Musk was basically a wild card investor who not only already has nine percent of the company but also has the resources to buy the remaining 91 percent.
Twitter’s future seems to be uncertain, and only time will tell how Musk’s acquisition will shape the company. Threats of allowing hate speech on the platform must be taken seriously and will undoubtedly shape other companies’ policies.
