Elon Musk simply purchased a $3 billion stake in Twitter Inc., as a result of once you’re the world’s richest human you'll be able to toss billions round like poker chips.
This can be simply one other piece of efficiency artwork from Musk, who has alternately endorsed and pooh-poohed Bitcoin to nice impact. He’s additionally taken to Twitter to hype altcoins reminiscent of Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, whereas concurrently warning followers: “Don’t wager the farm on crypto!”
“True worth is constructing merchandise & offering providers to your fellow human beings, not cash in any type,” he cautioned, which can be simple recommendation to provide when your web value is $273 billion, your electrical automobile firm is surging and you'll shoot your individual rockets into house.
So possibly we should always take Musk’s Twitter funding as extra of the identical from the man who has contemplated the that means of life whereas sipping whiskey and smoking weed throughout a podcast and as soon as mysteriously claimed he had “funding secured” to take Tesla Inc. personal. However I believe there’s one thing extra critical informing Musk’s choice to spend money on Twitter, even when he revels in buffoonery: Perhaps he needs to deliver Twitter to heel.
Contemplate the ballot he performed (on Twitter, in fact) 10 days in the past. “Free speech is crucial to a functioning democracy,” it says. “Do you consider Twitter rigorously adheres to this precept?” Greater than 2 million customers responded to that query, with 70.4% of them voting “no.”
A day later, Musk, who fashions himself a “free speech absolutist,” was on the social media platform once more: “Provided that Twitter serves because the de facto public city sq., failing to stick to free speech rules basically undermines democracy. What must be finished?” This time he didn’t hassle with a ballot, asking: “Is a brand new platform wanted?”
All of this follows Musk’s ongoing battle with the Securities and Change Fee, which has been monitoring his Twitter posts for an excellent cause: They transfer markets. Musk maintained in a courtroom submitting that the SEC’s oversight appears “calculated to sit back his train” of free speech.
So regardless of ample room through which to train his speech — and aggressively attempting to curtail the free speech of a few of his critics — Musk evidently feels aggrieved. What’s not clear is why Twitter is his goal.
One rationalization may be present in his libertarian leanings. Belated efforts by social media platforms to constrain a few of the most virulent types of political propaganda have raised the hackles of that crowd (together with far-rightists and Trumpistas). Now Musk has at the least fired a shot throughout Twitter’s bow by buying 9.2% of its inventory — which can be a lot inexpensive than doing the identical to Fb (a 9.2% stake in Meta Inc. would have value him about $58 billion).
Does Musk wish to take over Twitter? I don’t suppose so. The corporate’s financials aren’t nice, and working social media corporations is tough. Does Musk wish to identify some folks to Twitter’s board of administrators? Perhaps. That may permit him to have some say over its affairs with out spending an excessive amount of time or cash.
That’s worrisome, as a result of it’s not superb to have a free speech absolutist who isn’t completely in favor of free speech on the helm of — and even near — a media firm. Musk has already acquired a pleasant pop on his Twitter stake. The shares jumped 26% on Monday after his funding was disclosed in a regulatory submitting.
However Musk most likely isn’t on this for the cash. He’s in it to make a degree. And he’s in it to scare Twitter’s administration. Someone who has complained that his free speech is being “chilled” ought to, maybe, be delicate to these nuances. However that will assume that Musk is extra of a thinker than a bully.
Timothy L. O’Brien is a Bloomberg columnist. ©2022 Bloomberg. Distributed by Tribune Content material Company.