By Maia Zasler

Elon Musk—multi-billionaire, founder, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and chief engineer of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla, founder of The Boring Company, and president of the Musk Foundation—has recently acquired a new title: CEO of Twitter. Musk officially purchased the social media platform on October 27. However, the purchase was not straightforward, and the management change has resulted in a plethora of real-world consequences.

Elon Musk closing the 2016 Tesla Annual Shareholders’ Meeting. Photo credit: Steve Jurvetson.

In January, Musk began buying shares of Twitter almost daily, amassing a 5% stake in the company by mid-March. Musk was offered a seat on Twitter’s board on April 5, with the understanding that he would not amass more than 14.9% of the company’s stock. The CEO of Twitter at the time, Parag Agrawal, said in a tweet “it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.” There appeared to be a friendship between Musk and Agrawal, but the pleasantries were short-lived. Musk publicly tweeted just four days after being offered a position on the board: “Is Twitter dying?” Agarwal sent a private message to Musk, revealing the inutility of the criticism. Musk took to Twitter once again, saying, “This is a waste of time. Will make an offer to take Twitter private.”

Musk has applied this impetuous attitude throughout the entire purchasing process. On April 14, he offered to buy Twitter outright for roughly $44 billion but was met with strong pushback from the company. On April 21, Musk upped his bid by $2.5 billion, putting pressure on the Twitter board to agree to negotiations. They made a deal on April 25—Musk was determined to privatize Twitter to ensure that it lived up to its potential as a free speech platform. In the following months, Musk threatened to reverse his decision to purchase Twitter, to which the company responded by suing him. Musk promptly counter-sued. The legal dispute was set for a trial in October, but before it could occur, Musk offered to honor his original proposal. 

Musk marked his new role with bold statements and actions. He declared his plan to cut 75% of Twitter’s workforce. He shared a video of his first day at Twitter headquarters in San Francisco—in his arms was a kitchen sink. The video’s caption read, “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” He fired many top-level employees, including former CEO Agrawal, former Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and former legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde.

Since purchasing the platform, Musk’s demanding leadership has been documented. In a midnight email sent on November 16, Musk gave an ultimatum to the diminishing Twitter staff. He wrote that they had 40 hours to agree to an “extremely hardcore” work schedule to support his vision of a “Twitter 2.0,” or they would be fired with just three months’ severance. This email followed reports of 80-hour work weeks. The Twitter workforce has dwindled from 7,500 to 3,700 after the past month’s layoffs. Now, another 1,200 full-time employees have decided to leave.

A fake account purporting to be pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly tweets about free insulin on Nov. 10. Image via twitter. 

Musk’s management has not just had an impact on the people behind Twitter; it has completely changed the face and credibility of the platform. There was a mass creation of fake verified accounts. Users took advantage of the ability to provide an Apple ID and $7.99 in exchange for a little blue checkmark. The paid verification system resulted in humorous tweets that incurred real-world consequences. A user posing as pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly’s verified account shared “We are excited to announce that insulin is free now.” The disinformation caused the company’s stock to fall 4.37%. This system has since been suspended. 

Image via twitter. 

Notably, Musk has allowed former president Donald Trump back on the platform. Musk polled Twitter users before making the decision to reinstate the inflammatory political persona. Trump’s account was initially banned on January 8, 2021 due to the risk of further incitement of violence after the January 6 attempted insurrection. A narrow majority voted to welcome Trump back to Twitter (52% voted in favor of Trump’s account being restored). Musk tweeted: “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.”

The internet has since pointed out the irony in Musk’s use of the Latin phrase. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei” translates to “the voice of the people [is] the voice of God.” User Goldengateblond pointed out that the full quote (“Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, vox populi, vox dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit”) instructs something entirely different: “Do not listen to those who say the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the tumult of the crowd is always close to madness.”

Twitter was the first social media platform to permanently suspend Trump. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and Twitch quickly followed suit. Twitter is now the first platform to allow Trump back, giving him access once again to the megaphone he used for years to propagate his agenda and attack his political enemies, as well as to fire employees and set policy. According to Bloomberg News, Trump told the Republican Jewish Coalition at a Las Vegas meeting that he doesn’t “see any reason for it [going back on Twitter].” 

Image via twitter. 

Musk also welcomed American rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, back onto Twitter after he was temporarily suspended for anti-Semitic posts. Ye returned with the tweet, “Testing Testing Seeing if my Twitter is unblocked,” to which Musk replied “Don’t kill what ye hate, Save what ye love.” This post has since been deleted. Ye also posted “Shalom :)” soon after. Ye was suspended again from twitter on Dec. 2, after his appearance on Alex Jones’ Infowars, where he praised Hitler, and for further anti-Semitic tweets. 

Musk says that he will continue to push Twitter and withdraw “dumb things.” He envisions a future of intense growth and new coding. The changes to the platform have made recent headlines not just because of their rapidity, but because of the significance that Twitter has to the public. It is used as a way for civilians and for journalists to get real-time news. It is a way for public figures to stay in touch with their fan base and for politicians to reach constituents.​​ The potential fall of Twitter—due to management failures and decreasing reliability—could wipe out documented human history and worsen political violence globally. 

Featured image courtesy of Trusted Reviews.