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Elon Musk asks on Twitter: "Is Twitter dying?"

2022-04-10T00:33:38.135Z


Elon Musk just bought Twitter for $3 billion. Now he causes a stir with a provocative post.


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Elon Musk (archive image)

Photo: Joe Skipper / REUTERS

It was announced last Monday that Elon Musk had bought almost 73.5 million shares from Twitter.

With a share of 9.2 percent, the richest person in the world is Twitter's largest shareholder.

Twitter then announced on Tuesday that Musk would also join the company's board of directors after the $3 billion deal.

Now Musk has once again made people sit up and take notice with a provocative tweet.

“Is Twitter dying?” Musk asked the online service on Saturday.

To justify it, he referred to users like pop singer Justin Bieber, who has many followers but rarely tweets.

In his tweet, Musk linked a statistic of Twitter users with the most followers.

Ex-US President Barack Obama is in first place with 131 million followers, followed by pop stars like Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Rihanna.

"Most of these 'top' accounts rarely tweet and post very little content," Musk said.

Pop singer Taylor Swift hasn't posted anything on Twitter for three months, wrote the founder of electric car maker Tesla and aerospace company SpaceX.

Justin Bieber only tweeted once in a year.

Musk, himself an avid user of the online service with more than 80 million followers, has long been known as a critic of Twitter.

The multi-billionaire has repeatedly accused the company of restricting freedom of expression.

Analysts had therefore expected that Musk would soon take an active role in the company after buying Twitter shares.

A complete takeover is not possible for the time being

Twitter, which an ex-boss used to describe as the "freedom of speech wing of the Freedom of Speech Party," has been trying for several years to tighten the reins on trolls, conspiracy theorists and radicals on the platform.

In early 2021, the platform kicked out its most influential user at the time, incumbent US President Donald Trump, after he incited his supporters to occupy the US Capitol.

The right-wing Republican MP Lauren Boebert therefore already has one wish for the new major shareholder: "Bring Trump back," she asked Musk.

It remains to be seen how directly Musk can influence Twitter's management.

With 9.2 percent of the votes and a seat on the board of twelve members, the multi-billionaire cannot achieve anything on his own.

In addition, the panel will hardly decide on details such as the Trump ban.

And Musk can't completely take over Twitter for the time being.

The Tesla boss, who is used to ruling his companies, cannot own more than 14.9 percent of Twitter shares until 2024.

jok/AFP

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2022-04-10

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