Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at this point will practically part ways with his explosive symbol on Twitter. On Monday, that link became even more inextricable with Musk’s obvious acquisition of the social media company for $44 billion.
What looked like a billionaire’s rise just 10 days ago today has become, as the Wall Street Journal put it, “one of the biggest acquisitions in the history of the generation and will likely have global repercussions in the coming years, adding in all likelihood the reshaping of the way billions of other people use social media. “As great as it may seem, there is some reality in it; Twitter may boast of having a smaller user base than platforms like Facebook or TikTok, but its influence extends a lot, capable of turning money markets, sparking elections, creating or destroying careers, or influencing currents of public opinion, possibly more than its main competitors.
Few other people know this better than Musk. Twitter has been instrumental in Tesla’s expansion over the years and has been the source of more than one serious drop. They point to his attacks, and where Musk himself promotes new products and projects without the approval of a public relations team and, on more than one occasion, commits a costly misstep.
Musk, lately the richest guy in the world, seemed to embrace all this chaos on Monday. He has said he is making this big acquisition of Twitter under the auspices of safeguarding free speech. Calling himself a “free speech absolutist” and comparing Twitter to a global public square, he took photographs of everything from the lack of an edit button on the platform to his inconsistent moderation of content and enforcement of his own rules. He has long criticized Twitter’s technique for content moderation, and a hypothesis has emerged. that it simply orders a reversal of former President Donald Trump’s ban, which would have profound implications for the next election and the next few years.
But as society continues to debate the effects of this musky logo of loose speech absolutism on things like hate speech, planned disinformation, and rhetoric that opposes the facts shown, it can argue that it can also be seen as mere business. Decision: Musk is now cementing an app that has surely been very important to Tesla’s existence.
This would possibly be just one component of Musk’s resolve to buy Twitter, instead. But just as Musk can’t part ways with Twitter right now, neither can Tesla. More than any other automaker, possibly more than any other automaker, Tesla has reached adulthood. in the age of social media. And it depends in particular on this platform for its success.
Twitter was introduced in 2006 and has noticed much of its initial expansion not through school academics like Facebook or Zoomers using TikTok today, but through tech industry influencers, politicians, and journalists. Despite how hellish the site is: trolls, racists, misogynists. and targeted harassment campaigns are part of the business as always: Twitter’s strength lies in its ability to make a big impact on the rest of the world, even on others who don’t use it. A decade ago, when the small, nascent niche electric car startup was looking to make its way in a verbal exchange governed through classic automakers and their deep-seated sales channels. to criticism, getting other people excited about new products (including those that never materialized), and most importantly, increasing the percentage price of $TSLA.
Tesla has spent years as one of the best-selling inventories on the market, and it’s on Twitter that shorts have done their job. the impression of having helped increase inventory prices. Over time, Musk himself has ceased to be a CEO of a start-up and more, as this tale calls him, “a singular force on Twitter,” bringing together more than 80 million fans and fitting into one of the top influential and central figures on the platform. When Tesla removed its PR team in 2020, Musk’s tweets to his fans took their place, and even today, product announcements come in the form of tweet replies and frivolous comments for his fans. Today, Tesla is by far the world’s most valuable automaker, and Musk is the richest person in the world who now also owns a social network.
Even before today’s purchase, Musk increased his Twitter presence to the point where he and Tesla can do what no other corporate operator can do: influence the company’s fortunes and the inventory market as a whole, with a few tweets. Just as Trump was able to shape the course of American and world politics with one of his tweets, Musk can do in the business world. You can say that it is the force that cash cannot buy, once again, it did.
This force did not come without consequences, of course. There’s the notorious “secure funding” debacle of 2018, where Musk drew the ire of the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He was in charge of tweets that he had the money to privatize Tesla. Tesla’s president’s role and $20 million in fines, even though he didn’t end his career as some had predicted. And then there was the massive black eye of the public when Musk called a British undercover diver a “fart” amid a dispute over Twitter, later prevailing in that case. Musk is also arguably the face of cryptocurrency scams on Twitter, much to his chagrin; it wouldn’t have happened without his incredible notoriety on the platform.
So Musk can call it a free speech defense whatever he wants: the messes he’s had have been violating the rules of values, not Twitter’s policies, but ultimately, it’s the case of a billionaire who cements an even greater force on the media the majority trusts. All the communication about edit buttons, duration, and moderation of tweets is secondary to Musk’s own financial concerns, which remain closely tied to this platform.
Perhaps there is also the ego of a billionaire in the paintings here. In fact, it crosses out the “maybe”; it’s a big component of this. Musk’s big rival, Jeff Bezos, owns the Washington Post, so there’s a detail of superiority in paint with this purchase. But while Musk positions himself as a kind of online crusader for democracy, no one can deny that his corporations are interested in being stricter with this platform. Talk about “What’s going to happen next?” and “Will we have an edit button?”lose the point.
As long as Musk is in the position he’s in today, Tesla will never want a PR team again. Why influence verbal exchange when you can?
Contact the author: patrick@thedrive. com.
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