Elon Musk, Chief Executive of Tesla, is now the top shareholder of Twitter, purchasing 9.2 percent of the company. In the last few years, Musk’s distaste for Twitter’s content moderation policies has grown, specifically after the backlash of his statements about COVID-19 and vaccinations.
He has used Twitter as a platform for his dominant social media presence. His influence on the platform has grown significantly from his Tweets about Dogecoin causing the value to skyrocket to humorous banter with the public such as tweeting “Oh hi lol” after this shareholder news initially broke.
Former Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey stepped down in November and plans to leave the board after his term ends this year. Dorsey’s stepping down was in part due to “criticism from lawmakers and regulators about free speech, censorship and toxic content.”, said Mike Issac from the New York Times. The power held by Dorsey is now transferred over to Twitter’s Chief Technology Officer, Parag Agrawal, who has aspirations for a “decentralized” version of Twitter, a version Musk will inevitably pursue. Dorsey’s stepping down will cause more power within Twitter to be held by the consumer, the users.
A tweet on Tuesday from Argawal said, “through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board,” to which Musk responded, “Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!” Elon’s relationship with Twitter is deep-rooted causing the imbalance of power to have a seemingly unpredictable future. Exemplifying this unpredictability, Musk withdrew from his appointment to Twitter’s Board mere days after the news was released.
Twitter employees and experts fear Musk’s power and involvement could reignite the chaos Twitter has been attempting to put out in the last few years. Musk tweeted on March 26th, “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.”
The future of Twitter is now an unforeseeable one. Monica Crowly, former assistant secretary of public affairs at the Treasury Department under Trump, recently tweeted, “now that @elonmusk is Twitter’s largest shareholder, he should demand the end of political censorship, company-wide reform, and the reinstatement of President Trump.”
The contemporary dilemma of censorship and the power of information spread through social media platforms will be how critics predict Elon’s next move.
The importance of free speech to Elon Musk on social media platforms will inevitably affect the work Twitter has done to de-platform individuals who have incited violence or spread false information.
