Last week we reported Elon Musk bought a supremely large share in his favourite internet toy, Twitter. Much speculation about how much pull the very frequent tweeter would have on the cursed blue bird site was then had. On Monday, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal put some of that speculation to rest.
Let’s go through some context.
Musk bought roughly 73 million shares, or 9.2 per cent, of Twitter on March 14, making him the largest shareholder of the company. We didn’t find out about it until last week, when Twitter filed a disclosure with the U.S. SEC.
Shortly after, Musk was appointed as a board member of Twitter.
I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 5, 2022
This was much to the dismay of many of Twitter’s employees who were wary of the billionaire’s influence on the company based on his criticism of its moderation policies. Musk was even playing around with the idea of starting his own social media platform to compete with Twitter.
He ran some polls (in true Musk fashion) including one asking about the site’s policies around freedom of speech:
Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.
Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022
And one asking if we wanted an ‘edit’ button:
Do you want an edit button?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
Musk has had a long and contentious history with Twitter. Aside from tweeting niche memes, Musk has come under fire for inflammatory tweets regarding COVID-19, attacking the media’s coverage of his companies and that time he gracefully announced that he was starting a new university under the name Texas Institute of Technology & Science, noting that it would have “epic merch”.
Musk was pretty keen (I’m not embedding this pic) for his next board meeting. But, on Monday, CEO Agrawal said Musk would not be joining the Twitter board.
Elon has decided not to join our board. I sent a brief note to the company, sharing with you all here. pic.twitter.com/lfrXACavvk
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 11, 2022
“Elon shared … that he will no longer be joining the board. I believe this is for the best,” Agrawal said in a memo he tweeted. “Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input.”
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1513373170333487104