Discover the story between Elon Musk and Twitter

Elon Musk – once again – has everyone on Twitter talking about him. But this time, the conversation is about the app itself.

On Monday, the company disclosed that Musk bought 9.2% of its shares, making him Twitter’s largest single shareholder. And on Tuesday, the app announced that it is appointing the billionaire to its board. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO also confirmed that he plans to push for change at the company.

“I look forward to working with the [CEO do Twitter] parag [Agrawal] and Twitter’s advice to make significant improvements to the app in the coming months!” Musk tweeted Tuesday morning.

It’s just the latest chapter in the Tesla CEO’s nearly 13-year Twitter story, where he played the roles of critic and heavy user.

His tweets — ranging from comments about his companies to sometimes controversial statements about pop culture and current events and memes — are watched by more than 80 million followers, more than any other CEO on the platform.

His (often vague) comments about cryptocurrencies showed the potential to create a massive upheaval in the markets for these assets.

And just last month, more than 2 million people responded to a survey he tweeted asking, “Freedom of speech is essential for a functioning democracy. Do you believe that Twitter strictly adheres to this principle?” About 70% voted no.

Musk’s Twitter presence began to face increasing scrutiny in 2018.

Over the course of a few months, he joked about tweeting while in Ambien, lashed out at journalists covering Tesla, posted an April Fools joke about Tesla’s bankruptcy, and made an unfounded and disparaging statement about a first responder who helped with the mission that saved a youth soccer team from a flooded cave in Thailand.

This prompted a high-profile analyst to write an open letter encouraging Musk to take a break from the platform. Musk being Musk, he did no such thing; instead, his behavior on the platform continued to increase.

A month after the open letter was published, the billionaire tweeted that he was “considering taking Tesla public for $420” and that he had “funding secured,” sparking a frenzy and sending the automaker’s stock from $342 to $371 .

Later, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the funding had not been secured and sued Musk for making “false and misleading” statements to investors.

As part of his deal with the agency, Musk must have certain tweets about Tesla reviewed by lawyers before he can publish them.

In addition to his feud with the SEC, Musk has faced criticism for using Twitter to spread misleading and inflammatory claims about Covid-19 and for mocking President Joe Biden and Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Bernie Sanders.

Musk also tweeted earlier this year (then deleted) a meme comparing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler.

And he had a widely publicized falling out with a college freshman who rejected a $5,000 offer from Musk to remove a Twitter account that tracked the billionaire’s private jet. (Musk has also used his Twitter feed to avoid coverage of himself and his companies that he disagrees with.)

Some other memorable tweets from Musk: The time he told Kanye West “you have my full support!” to run for the presidency of the United States.

The time he said he was “thinking about starting a new university: Texas Institute of Technology & Science” – note the potential acronym – and said he “will have epic merchandise”.

And then there are plenty of pot attempts and sex jokes, including this recent example: “Due to inflation, 420 went up by 69.”

Now, Musk can go from one of the most prominent voices on Twitter to one of the most influential within the company.

It’s unclear exactly what changes Musk’s plan to rock Twitter. In addition to his comments about the need to preserve “freedom of speech” on the platform, he suggested that Twitter make its algorithm open source.

On Monday night, he surveyed his followers, asking if they “want an edit button,” a long-standing, if divisive, request from many Twitter users.

“While we are uncertain about Musk’s intentions – whether he will further increase his stake, become an active shareholder and/or demand a seat on the company’s board – we believe his communication with the company, other shareholders and the 217 million platform of daily active users could affect Twitter’s long-term strategy,” Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi said in a note to investors on Monday.

“Musk may try to influence the openness of the platform and how it controls content, or push to invest in the subscription model more aggressively, as it did with Twitter Blue.”

Agrawal, the new CEO of Twitter, tweeted on Tuesday that Musk is “a passionate believer and intense critic of the service, which is exactly what we need on @Twitter and in the boardroom to make us stronger in the long run.” .

Still, it’s unclear what Musk’s relationship with Agrawal is like. In December, Musk tweeted a meme that equated Agrawal with former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and depicted Twitter founder and recently deceased CEO Jack Dorsey as a former Stalin confidant who the dictator later murdered.

But on Monday, Agrawal appeared to play along with Musk on Twitter, responding to his poll about the edit button saying, “The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.”

Musk appears to have a positive relationship with Dorsey, who remains on Twitter’s board. The two tech founders found common ground in their support for cryptocurrency, and Musk expressed support for Dorsey in 2020 when he faced criticism from some shareholders.

“I just want to say that I support @Jack as the CEO of Twitter. He has a good ❤️,” Musk said – where else? – on twitter .