At this point, it might be doubtful Elon Musk will actually take control of Twitter. After all, most of the employees don’t want him (not that he cares). Most of Twitter’s users don’t want him (not that he cares). The Twitter board surely would prefer to hang onto their salaries (not that he cares). And even most of the employees, investors, board members, creditors, and stock holders of Musk’s four other companies would prefer he not own Twitter (not that he cares).
In fact, about the only people I see really applauding Musk’s ownership of Twitter are rightwing goons that can’t buy Teslas and/or wouldn’t buy Teslas and/or have no real interest at all in electric cars that “can’t get no horsepower!” Needless to say, this isn’t exactly Elon’s customer base for Teslas nor lucrative Space-X contracts to tow satellites or ferry astronauts. And the idea of putting a computer in their heads, a la Neuralink? These people won’t even put a life-saving vaccine in their arm for fear it has a computer chip in it.
So how on Earth could the “World’s Greatest Businessman” make such a mistake? After all, he is the world’s richest man and it’s largely taken for granted that he’s an innovative visionary (although I might question that), but Twitter is one of the least monetizable social media companies ever created. It is nearly impossible to see the “revenue potential” of a site filled with fake accounts engaging in performative activism (i.e. shitting on celebrities that misspeak) and trolls using it to harass people. The data Twitter collects on its users is largely worthless–none of it is real or verified–and many see no value in advertising on the platform at all; it’s user base is too small, too demographically undesirable, and too stationary–I myself have had no real “click benefit” in advertising Alabama Liberal articles or videos on there. So why would Elon sell off Tesla stock and possibly dive into an economic-Waterloo to buy Twitter of all things?
Employees from his companies have said Elon is obsessed with what people are saying on there. Sometimes saying he’ll focus on Twitter trends or negative comments about him more than his actual businesses. [Sound like Trump to anyone else? Maybe that’s why Elon wants to let Trump back on Twitter so bad.] In my opinion, it’s easy to assume Musk has stalled on some of his larger goals–making Neuralink work, cross-country Boring tunnels, getting Teslas fully autonomous, and especially a Mars colony or even mission–and has settled for becoming a troll-God of the rightwing.
After all, that crap about Elon wanting to “save free speech” is pretty unlikely given Musk’s extreme aversion to unions, employee “back talk” (he’s pushed out any employee that disagrees with him), and opinions he doesn’t agree with. [As others have pointed out, he runs his companies like fiefdoms–not exactly in line with “free speech is the ultimate virtue”–and is quick to block literally anyone who disagrees with him on Twitter itself.] And it’s worth noting all this “Twitter isn’t allowing free speech” talk appears to be centered almost exclusively around the platform not allowing white supremacists to say whatever they want.
Truthfully, it’s hard to get kicked off of Twitter. Pound for pound, it is the most troll-heavy major social media site and has endless fake accounts. Anecdotally, I reported a Russian bot account literally calling itself “Russian bot” and spreading non-stop Russian propaganda and slur-filled harassment–openly and admittedly–and Twitter even agreed with my report, yet the account is still up. Very few Twitter accounts actually get banned, no matter how hateful, disparaging, or harassing they are. The entire “Twitter doesn’t allow free speech” hysteria appears to be almost exclusively about letting Trump, Alex Jones, and a handful of other headline bigots back on the platform, even though all of them have been warned repeatedly about promoting lies, violence, and bigotry.
For example, If I went into a Denny’s and screamed racial slurs at the top of my lungs or called for my waitress to be executed, I would be thrown out and banned. Why should Twitter allow people to break their own rules endlessly because violators don’t have to leave their house to do it?
A bigger question is why does Elon even care about all this? After all, Twitter isn’t the top social media platform, and doesn’t get as many Daily Active users as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. Also, there’s already several conservative-oriented social media companies like Gettr, Parler, or Trump’s own Truth Social, which also falsely touted “free speech” as a core virtue but has kicked off users for even mentioning the January 6th insurrection hearings or asking questions about them. It sure doesn’t seem like Elon has the 45 billion to waste on a site whose stock has been flat for nearly a decade while Facebook has grown between 5X to 10X.
So what’s this really about for him? Well, Elon’s father made his fortune in apartheid-era South Africa. Tesla has been sued repeatedly for discrimination. [And Musk himself praises Chinese workers more than American ones, and certainly doesn’t seem concerned with China’s abysmal human rights record, or much of any civil rights record.] Elon himself has (in the past) praised Trump, and more recently taken to bashing Biden and the Democratic Party at every turn. Elon has forced some of his companies and employees to move from California to Texas, supposedly for political reasons, and recently endorsed the Trump-like bigot Ron DeSantis (in the heat of endless discrimination like “Don’t Say Gay” or “Stop Woke Act” or ripping up Florida’s black congressional districts). He’s even gone after media companies like Netflix for being “too woke.”
Is it really such a stretch to think that a South African plutocrat raised during Apartheid who’s been sued for discrimination, rails against “wokeness,” and has become a darling of the Alt-Right is not only sympathetic to bigotry, but perhaps wanting to create a major social media platform where it can thrive? That’s a scary reason for someone to want to buy Twitter and “change” it. It’s also the most likely reason Elon Musk wanted Twitter at all.