Elon Musk is joining Twitter’s board of directors a day after disclosing that the Tesla CEO took a 9 percent stake in the social media platform.
Twitter said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it entered into an agreement with Musk on Monday that will give the billionaire a seat on its board, with the term expiring at its 2024 annual shareholders meeting.
Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
Musk, either alone or as a member of a group, won’t be allowed to own more than 14.9 percent of Twitter’s outstanding stock for as long as he’s a board member and for 90 days after.
Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey also shared his excitement via a tweet. He said, “Parag and Elon both lead with their hearts, and they will be an incredible team.”
I’m really happy Elon is joining the Twitter board! He cares deeply about our world and Twitter’s role in it.
Parag and Elon both lead with their hearts, and they will be an incredible team. https://t.co/T4rWEJFAes
— jack⚡️ (@jack) April 5, 2022
Musk on Tuesday took to Twitter to post a poll, asking users if they wanted an edit button.
“Do you want an edit button?” Musk asked in the tweet.
Do you want an edit button?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
Replying to Musk’s poll, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted that the consequences of the poll will be important. “Please vote carefully,” he said.
Musk’s poll received several replies, some in favour and some against — including The Liz Wheeler Show’s Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) who suggested that an edit button could be misused to change the meaning of a tweet entirely, after it has gained a lot of traction. Her tweet received a response from Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth (@boztank) who pointed out Facebook had already resolved this issue by designating such posts with an ‘edited’ mark.
Here’s my argument against an edit button: What if a tweet goes viral, lots of retweets & millions of impressions, & then the author completely changes the meaning? Not just a grammatical fix, but a TOTAL ideological change? Or shameless self-promote?
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) April 5, 2022
Musk, in his own inimitable style, responded to Bosworth saying “Facebook gives me the willies”.
Facebook gives me the willies
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
Musk’s stake in Twitter is considered a passive investment, which means Musk is a long-term investor that’s looking to minimise his buying and selling of the shares. However, Musk has been raising questions about the ability to communicate freely on Twitter, tweeting last month about free speech and the social media platform and industry analysts were sceptical about the mercurial CEO remaining on the sidelines anywhere.