Twitter isn’t any stranger to unsure instances.
In November of 2021, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s long-standing CEO, stepped down. A brand new CEO, long-time Twitter engineer, Parag Agrawal, grew to become Dorsey’s successor, which I coated late final 12 months in Jack Dorsey steps down from Twitter. (You’ll must forgive the shameless self-promotion, however I digress.)
Now, in one other unexpected flip of occasions, Elon Musk, billionaire SpaceX exec and the proprietor of Tesla purchased 9.2% of Twitter inventory. I’m shocked he didn’t purchase 69% or 42% of Twitter – if you understand, you understand. Regardless of being the most important particular person shareholder and being supplied a spot on the board for Twitter, Musk declined. There could possibly be a number of causes he declined a spot on the board.
One major motive is that he traditionally has used his platform (He has 80 million followers on Twitter alone) to persuade his followers to assist any firm that he has a monetary curiosity in. This conduct is okay, as long as he doesn’t sit on the board of those corporations.
One other could possibly be due to his doubtful actions which will result in SEC fines. He didn’t disclose his stake in Twitter till 21 days after he purchased the shares. The SEC requirement is 10 days. This allowed him to purchase the inventory at a a lot cheaper price than he would’ve been capable of if he had introduced his partial possession of Twitter in a well timed trend, this earned him $159 billion far better than any SEC fantastic would price him. Though, when you’ve got the wealth of Elon Musk, are fines actually a deterrent anyway?
Another excuse is that being on the board now would result in a 14.9% possession cap.
In true Musk trend, he was trolling his followers on Twitter after turning into the most important particular person shareholder. He tweeted issues reminiscent of “Ought to we flip Twitter HQ right into a homeless shelter?” He additionally mentioned he was “in goblin mode,” a quote from the favored present Breaking Unhealthy. Each tweets are actually deleted.
Replace: On the time of writing, Thursday, April 14th, 2022 Elon Musk made a suggestion to purchase the remainder of Twitter for $54.20 a share or $43 billion whole.
He calls this his “greatest and ultimate provide”. That’s proper people, in yet one more flip of occasions, Elon goes for a full-on hostile takeover of Twitter. It’s too quickly to see if his bid shall be accepted.
Musk states that he feels that he’s “The one who can unlock the extraordinary potential of Twitter.”
For these unaware, Elon Musk is a giant proponent of free speech. He refers to himself as a “free speech absolutist” and thinks that Twitter is “the platform without spending a dime speech all over the world,” however believes it can not attain its full potential till he transforms it into a personal firm.
As a result of social media websites are personal platforms, they will set no matter moderation requirements they see match. Present requirements for Twitter are restrictive, which Musk might search to loosen. Which means that customers can not cite the First Modification when they’re shadowbanned or de-platformed on any social media web site. Musk has been a long-time advocate for an “uncontrolled web.”
He additionally has different large concepts for the social media big, together with eliminating ads utterly. Twitter at present makes 90% of its revenue, or round $5 billion, from promoting. Advertisers are those who sometimes set moderation requirements as a situation to run their advertisements. Eliminating advertisements might assist additional his trigger for utterly free speech. He additionally talked about wanting so as to add an edit button, in order that Tweets will be edited after they’re posted. Contemplating the variety of public figures who discover themselves embroiled in controversy due to their Tweets, this isn’t a foul factor.
Twitter, as a public firm, even below a change in management was rising quickly, garnering 25 million new customers by the top of the 12 months, which suggests Twitter has amassed a consumer base of 217 million as of 2021.
Critics, nonetheless, consider that Musk’s anti-censorship campaign received’t remedy Twitter’s issues. Many are apprehensive that Musk would use his energy to permit beforehand banned customers again on the platform. Former secretary of U.S. labor, Robert Reich, known as out Musk, saying that his imaginative and prescient for an uncontrolled web is harmful, Reich believes there isn’t any such animal and by no means shall be. Right here’s an inventory of public figures, who, as of proper now, are permanently banned from Twitter.
Fellow billionaire and enterprise proprietor, Mark Cuban, has weighed in with a idea.
Mark Cuban thinks it’s Musk’s method of “F*cking with the SEC”.
Musk, who referred to the SEC as “bastards” over a compelled settlement of Tesla Tweets, the place he paid $20 million on fines and stepped down as Tesla’s chairman after posting a tweet about having funding secured for Tesla inventory to take the corporate personal. Cuban is within the camp that Musk’s actions are a giant f*ck you to the SEC. Musk filed with the SEC after which fittingly, tweeted the declaration of intent to buy Twitter, to keep away from extra points with the SEC.
Clearly, as a author, I’m pro-free speech, nonetheless permitting utterly uncontrolled or unmoderated areas on the Web is rarely a good suggestion, and has traditionally, solely had destructive outcomes. The web makes any curiosity or exercise, irrespective of how nefarious, potential, and capable of be considered on the common internet, versus the darkish internet. For instance, a number of grassroots terrorist organizations happened on unmoderated corners of the net. After all, the precept of managed web will be taken too far, like what we see in communist international locations. I consider a cheerful medium exists.
Twitter’s present destiny appears extra unsure than ever. We all know Musk could have some position in Twitter’s future however how a lot? Will Twitter settle for his provide? Will Musk privatize Twitter and switch it into an uncontrolled, unmoderated house on the net? (We see how that turned out with Parler.)
I suppose solely time will inform.