This comes back “to bring into the fold the agitating billionaire of social networks”, abstract The Wall Street Journal. Twitter announced on Tuesday that Elon Musk would be appointed to its board of directors for two years. On Monday, the CEO of SpaceX and CEO of Tesla revealed that he had acquired 9.2% of the company’s shares, making him its largest shareholder.
As the business journal recalls, in addition to being a very prominent user of Twitter, on which he has 80 million subscribers, “he has been one of its most vocal detractors, attacking the platform over its respect for free expression”.
“As Twitter functions as a public square, its lack of respect for the principles of free expression fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done? ”, he thus tweeted on March 26, as recalled by the Los Angeles Times. Before asking in another tweet: “Is a new platform needed?”
This “new platform”, he is not the only one to have considered it. For years, moderation on social networks has been debated, underlines the Californian newspaper. Especially after the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when Twitter, Facebook and others took the unprecedented step of suspending the account of the President of the United States, Donald Trump (permanently on Twitter).
This led the former White House tenant to recently launch his own network, Truth Social. But its debut was disrupted by technical difficulties and the platform “has since seen its number of users stagnate; Trump only posted there once.” The other competitors to Twitter (Parler, Gab, Gettr) are also struggling to compete.
Already in command?
For the Los Angeles Times, Elon Musk semble “pursuing a similar goal but from an opposite starting point. Instead of trying […] to found his own site without moderation, […] he could try to change Twitter from within.” And the newspaper wonders in the title: “What would free expression on Elon Musk’s Twitter look like?”
If his motives remain uncertain, Elon Musk now seems to be in a position to strongly influence a company that has experienced upheavals in recent years: its founder Jack Dorsey gave up the reins last November under pressure from the activist fund Elliott, recalls the Financial Times.
The boss of Tesla has already shown that he intends to play an active role. In another tweet, on March 25, he questioned: “Do you think Twitter rigorously respects [la libre expression ?]” Then adding: “The consequences of this survey will be significant. Vote consciously.”
In another poll, he asked if Twitter’s algorithm should be open source, allowing anyone to access the code.
By joining the board, Musk will be in a position to really shake things up, said AB Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik. “He moved from the back of the car to the front seat. In fact, he’s probably the one driving it.”