Is Elon Musk Just Trolling Twitter? - YouTube

Elon Musk is now the largest single shareholder of Twitter.

And it has Twitter divided.

Is he serious about changing Twitter?

Or is he just trolling?

Welcome to America Uncovered.

I’m Matt Gnaizda, filling in for Chris Chappell, who’s busy arguing with someone on Twitter.

Speaking of: Twitter is fiercely divided over Elon Musk… which isn’t new.

In fact, Twitter being in an uproar and fiercely divided over something is…the entire point

of Twitter.

That’s what it’s *for*.

But this time, Twitter’s uproar over Elon Musk is different.

It’s an existential crisis for Twitter.

Last Monday, the world found out that Elon Musk had bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter,

reportedly paying almost $3 billion for the stock.

This made him the largest single shareholder of the company

and sent the company’s stock price soaring.

Which goes to show how little faith people had in Twitter.

The guy who came up with the Cybertruck —

a vehicle that’s in the real world but somehow only 16 bits —

takes over Twitter, and Wall Street says, “Finally, someone with some good ideas!”

Last Tuesday, it was announced that Musk would be joining Twitter’s board of directors

which stirred fears among some Twitter employees

and led to Musk agreeing to an internal town hall where Twitter employees could ask him

anything.

A clear sign that after Elon Musk takes over Twitter, he’s coming for Reddit.

First Twitter, then Reddit, then Mars!

“Musk’s appointment to the board was to become official on Saturday pending a background

check and formal acceptance.”

Twitter was on edge.

Everyone was wondering: was Musk going to rename Twitter?

And given how he names things,

would we be able to pronounce it?

On Sunday, Twitter’s CEO dropped another bombshell—Musk had decided *not* to join

Twitter’s board of directors.

He said "Elon's appointment to the board was to become officially effective [Saturday],

but Elon shared that same morning he will no longer be joining the board."

He didn’t give a reason and Musk also hasn’t said directly why he made the decision.

Some have speculated he didn’t like what it would entail.

If he did join the board, “[He] would have been prevented from acquiring more than 14.9%

of the company.”

“By reneging on the agreement, Musk is no longer subject to that limit.”

“[Musk] ‘liked’ a tweet in which a [Twitter] user suggested he backed out of the deal because

Twitter executives told him to ‘play nice and not speak freely’ on the platform.”Which

maybe isn’t that surprising given Musk suggested just a few weeks ago that he was giving “serious

thought” to building a social media company to compete with Twitter:

I guess he was thinking “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

Or maybe he found it easier to do a hostile takeover rather than reform Twitter from within,

as some have suggested.

I think the most likely reason is that he felt Twitter wasn’t open to renaming itself

“Titter.”

Yes, that was a question Musk actually polled his followers about.

Notice there isn’t any “no” option.

Then he promptly deleted the tweet Which is too bad, because at least we can

all pronounce Titter.

Unlike his son’s name.

In any case, the news that Musk wasn’t joining the board caused Twitter’s stock to drop.

But Elon’s not done with Twitter yet.

More after the break.

Welcome back.

Elon Musk.Some call him Twitter’s most famous troll.

Others call him the bad guy from the Fifth Element.

He was Time Magazine’s 2021 person of the year.

Which isn’t that impressive since I was Time’s person of the year in 2006.

That’s how it works, right?

Last year Elon Musk became the richest person in the world, surpassing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

And as Twitter’s most famous troll, he made sure to rub it in Jeff Bezos’s face.

Musk is famous for his controversial tweets.

Like the time he said he was “thinking of starting a new university” called “Texas

Institute of Technology and Science”...

…and that it would have “epic merch.”

The university never materialized, but that epic merch apparently did

One time he joked that he was “considering taking Tesla private at $420.”

That didn’t go down well with the Securities and Exchange Commission, though.

It sued him for misleading investors.

He settled the suit by agreeing to step down as Tesla’s chairman for 3 years, pay a $20

million dollar fine, and have his tweets about Tesla previewed.

Which upset him… that it wasn’t a $69 million dollar fine, just for the memes.

Some of his most controversial tweets, however, have been his scathing replies.

For example, when Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted “Let’s change the rigged tax code

so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else.”

Musk replied with “Please don’t call the manager on me, Senator Karen.”

Are we sure that Musk is actually an adult and not

two 12 year-olds stacked on top of each other in an Elon suit?

Here’s what he had to say to critics of his behavior on Twitter

Musk: “Twitter is a war zone.

If somebody’s going to jump in the war zone, it’s

like, okay, you’re in the arena.

Let’s go.”

So Musk is super active on Twitter.

Which some say is why he bought so much stock in the first place.

And now that Musk is not joining the board of directors, there’s a lot of speculation

over his next move.

Republicans, free speech advocates, and some Twitter staff have spent the week celebrating

Musk’s new role at Twitter.

Many hope that, as a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” he will reduce Twitter

censorship.

Or even bring Donald Trump back to Twitter.

Late night talk show hosts are probably also secretly hoping for this, since without Trump

they’re running out of things to talk about.

Not everyone who supports the move is on the right, however.

Bill Maher signaled his support for Musk joining Twitter as well.

Which doesn’t really come as a surprise given his stance on free speech.

“This may surprise you but I am not a big fan of Rush Limbaugh.

However, if you’re one of the people with a website devoted to making him go away, you

are part of the problem.

And ironically, you’re not even a proper liberal.

Because you don’t get free speech.”

There have been mixed reactions from Twitter employees.

Some are reportedly calling him “Daddy Elon” — in an endearing way though, not a creepy

“sugar daddy” way...

while others are calling him a “racist demagogue.”

Because it wouldn’t be Twitter if someone wasn’t being called racist.

Although you gotta be careful calling Elon Musk racist, since he is African American.

Other employees were afraid of the changes Musk might make to Twitter.

And they weren’t alone.

There are plenty of opinion pieces in the media lamenting the move.

Like this article that argues Elon Musk’s Twitter investment could be bad news for free

speech.

They say that because he’s been known for going after his critics on Twitter.

But if you think about it, that’s *pro-free speech.* He’s using his speech to argue

with his critics.

It’s not like he’s trying to get them kicked off Twitter or have them fired from

their jobs, which is what is really bad for free speech.

Twitter, meanwhile, tried to reassure people Musk wouldn’t have that much influence over

Twitter anyway.

It said “Our policy decisions are not determined by the Board or shareholders, and we have

no plans to reverse any policy decisions…

Our day to day operations and decisions are made by Twitter management and employees.”

I’m sure Twitter employees feel better now.

One article described the mood at Twitter as one of exhausted relief.

But before Twitter employees let out that sigh of relief, it looks like Elon Musk is

still interested in adding his own footprint to Twitter.

After becoming the largest shareholder, Musk polled his followers about changes the company

could make, like adding an edit button…

…or making the algorithm open source…

…or allowing payments for Twitter Blue subscriptions in Dogecoin.

Sadly, he didn’t hint at implementing the actual best way of improving the Twitter experience:

deleting Twitter.

But he did hint that he thought Twitter was dying.

Which is silly to ask, because Twitter has had a longer, slower, and more ridiculous

death than whatever’s going on here.

There was another minute of that, but I’m going to spare you.

Even without being on Twitter’s board, Musk has indicated he still wants a say in how

Twitter operates.

He’s also reserved the right to buy a larger stake in Twitter, according to the SEC filing

he updated this week.

Part of that SEC filing says that Musk will be having discussions with Twitter’s board

and management.

As well as expressing his views about Twitter on social media.

So does this mean Musk is going to keep pressuring Twitter as an activist investor?

Or will he give up on changing Twitter and start Twitter 2.0?

Or Titter 1.0?

Or will he do a hostile takeover of Twitter?

Or maybe he’ll forget about Twitter altogether and focus on his other gajillion businesses.

So what do you think Musk should do?

Let us know in the comments below.

And thanks to Big Tech censorship, America Uncovered has to rely mainly on support from

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Once again, I’m Matt Gnaizda, filling in for Chris Chappell.

Thanks for watching America Uncovered.