Elon Musk hints at a change of character for Twitter

He has caused havoc with his own account. Now Elon Musk has signalled his intention to change the company, having become its largest shareholder.

He has caused havoc with his Twitter account. Now Elon Musk has signalled his intention to change the social media company, having become the largest shareholder with a board seat.

One of Twitter’s most controversial figures, with more than 80 million followers, the world’s richest man acquired a 9.2 per cent stake in the company this week and promised “significant improvements”.

Musk, 50, the boss of the electric car-maker Tesla, has started polling his followers on one proposed change to Twitter’s format — whether users should be able to edit tweets once they are posted. Four million have voted on the proposal.

Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s chief executive, welcomed Musk, describing him as “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”.

Musk’s appointment stoked expectations that the social media platform faced an overhaul. “Now it’s time to get out the popcorn,” said Daniel Ives, a technology analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Shares in Twitter have fluttered almost a third higher since Musk’s investment was disclosed on Monday. They rose 2.6 per cent to dollars 51.28 in New York yesterday, valuing the company at some $US41 billion.

Before the billionaire’s purchase of 73.5 million shares was made public, he called into question whether the company was adequately supporting free speech.

Shares in Twitter have fluttered almost a third higher since Musk’s investment was disclosed on Monday.

His investment in Twitter prompted supporters of Donald Trump to call on Musk to intervene in the case of the former president, who had his account suspended in January 2021 after his supporters attacked the US Capitol. “It’s time to lift the political censorship,” Lauren Boebert, a Republican congresswoman from Colorado, said.

In exchange for a board seat, Musk has agreed not to own more than 14.9 per cent of the business, dampening speculation that he will pursue an outright takeover. He is, nevertheless, poised to play a key role in steering a platform where his tweets have landed him in hot water. He was drawn to court in 2019 after referring to Vernon Unsworth, a British cave diver involved in the rescue mission of 12 boys and their football coach in Thailand, as “pedo guy”. Musk eventually deleted the tweets and apologised but denied accusing Unsworth of being a paedophile. Unsworth sought $190 million in damages but a US jury found Musk had not defamed him.

Musk, who has revealed he has Asperger’s, has been forced to pay out for other tweets, however. American regulators charged the billionaire and Tesla $20 million each, and prompted Musk to step down as chairman, after he tweeted he had secured funding to take Tesla private.

Musk leads the world’s most highly valued carmaker, as well as SpaceX. He has a fortune of $300 billion, according to Forbes.

Twitter launched as a microblogging service in 2006. The company makes most of its money through advertising and has come under pressure in recent years because of fierce competition from large rivals such as Facebook and Instagram, which are owned by Meta, and growing platforms such as TikTok.

Agrawal tweeted: “Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our board.”

Musk replied: “Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER TWITTER DRAMA

Elizabeth Warren: When the senator accused Elon Musk in December of “freeloading” by failing to pay tax, he replied: “You remind me of when I was a kid and my friend’s angry Mom would just randomly yell at everyone for no reason.”

Vernon Unsworth: In 2018 the British diver dismissed Musk’s gift of a mini submarine to help rescue 12 boys and their football coach trapped in a Thai cave. Musk branded him “sus[picious]” and called him “pedo guy”.

Jeff Bezos: Musk has goaded the Amazon founder over his rival space venture. When Bezos posted a picture of criticism of Amazon, stressing the importance of not letting anyone “tell you who you are”, Musk replied with an emoji of a second place medal.

The Times