Tesla CEO Elon Musk will not join Twitter’s board of directors as previously announced
SAN FRANCISCO – Tesla CEO Elon Musk will not join Twitter’s board of directors as previously announced. The tycoon remains the largest shareholder on Twitter.
Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal tweeted the news, following Musk’s tweets over the weekend, suggesting possible changes to Twitter, including the site being ad-free. About 90% of Twitter’s 2021 revenue comes from advertising.
“Elon’s appointment to the board was supposed to take effect on 4/9, but Elon shared the same morning that he would not be joining the board,” Agarwal wrote in a reposted note sent to Tesla staff. “I believe it’s for the best.”
Agarwal did not provide an explanation for Musk’s apparent decision, although he did omit a key clue. The Twitter board “believes Elon is a trusted person in the company, where he, like all board members, must act in the best interests of the company and all of our shareholders. That was the best way forward.”
Musk posted a few mysterious tweets late Sunday, including a meme showing, “By all means, your honor, my client was in goblin mode,” followed by a “explaining everything.” Another, later tweet was an emoji with a hand on the face.
He now owns 9% of Twitter, raising questions about how he could try to reshape the social media platform as Twitter’s largest shareholder.
Musk’s 80.5 million Twitter followers make him one of the platform’s most popular figures, competing with pop stars such as Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga. But his extensive tweets sometimes got him into trouble, such as when he used it to promote his business ventures, gather Tesla loyalists, question the epidemic, and fight.
In a famous example, Musk apologized to a British cave explorer who complained that the CEO of Tesla had branded him a pedophile by angrily referring to him as “Pedo Guy” – and later deleted the tweet. The plaintiff filed a defamation suit, although the Los Angeles jury later cleared the mask.
He has been embroiled in a long-running dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over his Twitter activity. In 2018, Musk and Tesla agreed to pay 40 million in civil fines, and Musk agreed to have his tweets approved by a corporate lawyer after he tweeted about having অর্থ 420 per share to take Tesla private. That didn’t happen, but Tesla stock prices jumped because of the tweet. His lawyer claims that the SEC is violating Mask’s right to freedom of speech.
Musk described himself as a “free speech liberal” and said he did not think Twitter adhered to the “freedom of speech” principle – an opinion shared by followers of Donald Trump and a number of right-wing political figures whose accounts have been suspended. For violating the rules of Twitter content.
But it is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post. Other engagements with the service include arguing for Twitter’s algorithm to be visible to the public, widening the availability of “verified” Twitter accounts, and exploding a profile photo initiative involving non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.
Musk also called it a “crypto spam bot” that searches for tweets for cryptocurrency-related keywords and then pretends to be customer support in empty user’s crypto wallets, which is “the most annoying problem on Twitter.”
Twitter’s CEO and other board members praised Musk, suggesting they take his ideas seriously.
Agarwal’s initial steps since taking over from co-founder Jack Dorsey in November have involved restructuring departments without major changes. The company has long lagged behind its social media competitors and boasts far fewer users.