Twit for Tat: Twitter’s Foreseeable Future Under Elon Musk

He came. He saw. He conquered. That’s what Roman emperor Julius Caesar declared while he walked through the streets of Rome wearing a wreath of gold olive leaves after his victory in the Battle of Zela in BC 67.

Cut to circa 2022 and the same phrase can be applied to Tesla’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk, who finally took over Twitter after a six-month-long contentious legal battle. Except that the maverick entrepreneur walked into Twitter’s California headquarters carrying a sink and wearing a grin. He then tweeted, “Let that sink in!” in his characteristic debonair style.

If there is one thing you can expect from Musk, it is unabashed and impulsive responses that cock a snook at conventions. And it is precisely this unpredictability that is worrying many in the business world.

Setting The Blue Bird Free

Yesterday, Musk tweeted his reasons for acquiring Twitter on, where else but, the micro-blogging platform.

Wanting to put to rest the speculation about this acquisition, he said, "The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence. There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far-right wing and far-left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society."

Musk believed that traditional media’s relentless pursuit of clicks and views has "fueled this polarised extremes, as they believe that is what brings in the money." Musk believes this negates the opportunity to have a dignified dialogue.

Shooting From The Lip

This statement is quite ironic coming from Musk since he has gotten into several online and public spats himself. The latest was when the billionaire asked Twitter users to contemplate ideas to end the Ukrainian war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was least amused and called him out publicly.

When Musk made a move to acquire Twitter for $44 billion earlier this year, US senator Elizabeth Warren cautioned that the deal could be "dangerous for our democracy." She tweeted, "Billionaires like Elon Musk play by a different set of rules than everyone else, accumulating power for their own gain. We need a wealth tax and strong rules to hold Big Tech accountable."

Interestingly, Senator Warren and Musk have a history of exchanging not-too-pleasant tweets. In December 2021, when she claimed that Musk was "freeloading off of everyone else", he publicly ridiculed her. He tweeted, "You remind me of when I was a kid and my friend's angry Mom would just randomly yell at everyone for no reason.”

Musk’s run-in with authority figures does not end there. Last November, he had a spat with Senator Bernie Sanders when the latter demanded that “the wealthy pay their fair share” of wealth taxes. Reacting sharply, the billionaire entrepreneur tweeted, “I keep forgetting that you are still alive.”

Who Will Watch The Watchguard Now?

This irreverence is worrisome for many as it countervails the very premise of dialogue that Musk now plans to usher in as Chief Twit. What compounds the matter is the view held by Musk, who calls himself a free speech absolutist, that Twitter should be more cautious about removing tweets or banning users.

He had opined that he would reinstate former American President Donald Trump’s Twitter account once he took over, after the platform suspended the account indefinitely following the linking of Trump’s comments to the January 6 Capitol Hill riots.

Oddly, in April this year, Trump claimed he has no plans to return to Twitter, his erstwhile favourite late-night playground, since it had "become very boring.”

However, news has just filtered in that Musk has fired Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s head of legal, policy and trust, who was instrumental in banning Trump’s account on the platform. Gadde is amongst the clutch of senior executives shown the door at the micro-blogging site, including CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal. This shake-up was not unexpected since Gadde and Agrawal had many disagreements with Musk.

However, Musk met with Twitter employees at the company’s headquarters to boost morale. According to various reports, he is expected to speak to the social media’s staffers directly today to dispel internal confusion related to layoffs or dismantling of the company’s existing culture and operations.

Maintaining decorum on Twitter is pertinent since it is a key advertising channel for most brands. As per a 2022 GlobalWebIndex study, two in three users on Twitter in India research a product online before buying it. This means that marketers cannot sidestep it. At the same time, in an increasingly ‘woke’ world they would be wary of being associated with a platform that descends into cyber anarchy, especially if Musk’s vision of free speech absolutism comes to play. Even if it is home to over 230 million users.  

Probably expecting some backlash, Musk tweeted yesterday that Twitter cannot become a "free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”

In an open letter, he wrote, “I also very much believe that advertising, when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you; it can show you a service or product or medical treatment that you never knew existed but is right for you. For this to be true, it is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs. Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content! Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise. To everyone who has partnered with us, I thank you. Let us build something extraordinary together.”

This is quite a reversal from Musk who had once proudly proclaimed “I hate advertising.” Maybe as Chief Twit, he has realised that he will have to mellow his tweets and practise what he preaches.