OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is promising “significant improvements” will be made to Twitter after he became the largest shareholder on the social media platform.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced earlier this week that Musk would be appointed to Twitter’s board of directors, calling Musk “both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service,” saying he would “bring great value to our Board.”
“The Company will appoint Mr. Musk to the Company’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) to serve as a Class II director with a term expiring at the Company’s 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders,” the filing says. “For so long as Mr. Musk is serving on the Board and for 90 days thereafter, Mr. Musk will not, either alone or as a member of a group, become the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of the Company’s common stock outstanding at such time, including for these purposes economic exposure through derivative securities, swaps, or hedging transactions.”
Musk responded, “Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”
Across social media, liberals have expressed their outrage over Musk’s new position on the board.
Twitter engineering manager Jay Holler tweeted that Musk’s appointment has “radicalized” and “broken” him.
Jay Holler, Twitter's engineering manager, says @elonmusk becoming a Twitter board member has "radicalized" & "broken" him. He's trying everything he can to stop Musk. Holler previously donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which helped rioters, rapists & murderers in 2020. pic.twitter.com/pOYol2CQ1y
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) April 6, 2022
Cassie Nick Rumbaugh, a data scientist at Twitter, is among the employees and contractors very upset that @elonmusk is now the largest stakeholder in Twitter.
"A prominent transphobe buying a large stake in Twitter is not at all funny," she says. pic.twitter.com/gFSy52YsTZ
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) April 4, 2022
"Looks like I picked a good week to be off," reacts Geri Kidd, a recruiting manager for Twitter, to the news that @elonmusk is now the largest stakeholder in the company. pic.twitter.com/OosqOpfq7o
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) April 4, 2022
Elon Musk is already making twitter a better place pic.twitter.com/9rTgRXoYTe
— Zero HP Lovecraft 🦅🐍 (@0x49fa98) April 4, 2022
It was revealed on Monday that Musk bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him the largest shareholder of the platform.
“Musk owns 73.5 million Twitter shares, valuing his passive stake in the company at up to $2.9 billion based on the stock’s Friday close. The shares are held by the Elon Musk Revocable Trust,” Newsmax reported.
“Musk, a prolific user of Twitter, has over 80 million followers on the site since joining in 2009 and has used the platform to make several announcements, including teasing a go-private deal for Tesla that landed him in regulatory scrutiny. He, however, has been critical of the social media platform and its policies of late and has said the company is undermining democracy by failing to adhere to free speech principles,” the report added.
Musk led off this week with a bang, asking users if they want to see the platform add an “edit” button.
Musk first tweeted, “Oh hi lol,” to his 80.4 million followers. He then put up a poll that asked, “Do you want an edit button?” the poll read, with the options intentionally misspelled as “yse” and “on.”
An edit button is something that many users on the left-wing platform have striven for.
Do you want an edit button?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
“Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” the 50-year-old asked. “The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.”
Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey previously said the platform will “probably never” add an edit button.
Dorsey claimed that he feared someone will “send a tweet, and then someone might retweet that, and then an hour later you completely change the content of that tweet.”
Dorsey, however, stepped down as Twitter’s CEO in November 2021 and was replaced by Parag Agrawal.
Currently, if a user posts a tweet with a misspelling or error of some sort, their only options are to leave the tweet as is or they can delete it and send out a new one.
Some have suggested Twitter could allow users only one minute to edit their tweets before the feature goes away, which would ensure that viral tweets are not edited and completely changed from their original form.
