According to Bankrate.com, Elon Musk’s estimated worth was 232 Billion dollars as of July 2023, making him the world’s richest man.
Elon Musk’s business acumen has been heavily scrutinized since his acquisition of Twitter. The eccentric billionaire purchased the social media giant in April 2022 for a reported 44 billion dollars. ( info courtesy of apnews.com)
Since his acquisition, the site once beloved by hundreds of millions of people has been marred by questionable decision making. Shortly after his takeover mass lay-offs ensued, as well as the shocking move to alter Twitters iconic name and logo. Prior to his ownership, CEO and founder Jeff Dorsey made it a point to cleanse the social media platform of anyone who continuously spread lies, misinformation or hate speech.
On January 8th 2021, two days after the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol, Dorsey received widespread praise for his controversial, yet gutsy decision to ban former President Trump. Well before that violent catastrophe, Donald Trump happened to be one of the more egregious and famous examples of this throughout his four years as President. On the other hand, Twitters leadership did experience backlash from the far right, as well as, stringent first amendment defenders for this determination. In November 2022 Elon Musk reinstated Trump’s Twitter account after running a poll on the site, after a massive turnout the final result was 51% voted in favor of allowing the former and now current presidential candidate. (Info courtesy of reuters.com).
I’ve always regarded myself as a staunch protector of our 1st amendment rights of freedom of speech, and expression. There’s been a few cases recently where my belief system has wavered slightly. One instance was the Alex Jones defamation suit brought against him by the parents of the children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary school which occurred in December of 2012. And it wasn’t so much the actual diarrhea of the mouth that spewed from his disgusting voice box, it was strictly due to the fact Jones later admitted under oath that what he was saying on his now debunked podcast was a complete lie to cater to his psychotic fan base. Jones was eventually sued and ordered to payment of 1.5 billion dollars in November 2022. (info http://texastribune.com).
The Donald Trump situation was more of a conundrum, in certain aspects. There’s no doubt Trump used his immense influence within Twitter to constantly tweet ominous threats, outlandish conspiracy theories and rhetoric meant to incite his most maniacal followers on a near daily basis. Still, I do feel Twitter may have committed somewhat of a mistake by banning Trump completely. Mainly, because Trump supporters, accused Twitter of deleting Trump’s account entirely for political purposes.
Musk reasoning for reinstating Trump was ridiculous in my opinion. I’m all for the Democratic process of letting the people decide on most occasions. But when you just purchased a company of such monumental value, wouldn’t it be prudent to perform your own research on such a volatile issue like freedom of speech, and come to an educated conclusion between you and your advisors?
One of Elon Musk’s first orders of business was to instigate an unseemly round of mass layoffs, slashing Twitter’s workforce from 8,000 to 2,000 employees. Such excessive downsizing had rarely been seen within the tech industry.
According to a memo released at the time, Musk stated there was no alternative for the firings as the company was reportedly losing 4 million dollars a day. In typically Musk fashion, the affected former employees were promised a hefty severance package which they never received. Additionally, some ex-staff were forced into arbitration which Musk and Twitter refused to pay despite insisting to do so. In the summer of 2023 lawsuits against Twitter’s refusal to pay severance packages, and to give their employees 60-day notice of possibly layoffs Twitter was also slapped with further allegations of discrimination against employees based on “race, gender, age and disability. (Info courtesy of tech.co)
Elon Musk is the epitome of spoiled rich kid. Contrary to excerpts from interviews with Elon its common knowledge that his father Errol amassed millions in the emerald industry in the 1970’s, mostly in Zambia. In spite of Elon constantly assuring anyone who would listen that his family was middle class the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. (Info courtesy of futurism.com)
Who else but Elon Musk could buy a 44-billion-dollar entity, with an iconic name and logo, decades of varying degrees of success make it one of his first orders of business to alter the name of the social media empire? And not even give an ounce of creativity, I mean really Elon you couldn’t conjure anything less objectionably unoriginal than the letter X? It just proves the point that this man doesn’t have a shred of intuitiveness in his bloated, unimaginative mind. Unfortunately, when you’re worth over 200 billion dollars surely you can buy legions of “yes men” to convince you that everything you claim to have accomplish or rebrand is revolutionary.
Recently Mr. Musk is facing some more serious problems over tweets following the Hamas attacks against Israel. According to Thierry Breton, Commissioner of Europol said “Following the terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel, we have indications your platform is being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU.” These allegations of falsities allayed upon Twitter were somewhat vague, but broad enough to read between the lines. I’m of the opinion that Musk doesn’t possess the intellect or the interest to make such imperative decisions in regard to such a polarizing, sensitive issue. (info courtesy of thehill.com)
The rebranding of Twitter isn’t exactly a major news topic in our current world where wars in Russia and the Ukraine, the mass murders being committed in Palestine and the US Congress in complete disarray. Still, this turn of events, just goes to show that in the specter of Ultra Capitalism, money and money alone can present you the ability to alter a popular culture icon such as Twitter without any roadblocks. Does it bother anyone else that a talentless individual of below average intelligence wields such unabated influence strictly because of his outrageous amount of wealth?
Personally, I happen to really enjoy Twitter, and have for quite some time now. It’s really the only social media platform that I utilize, over the years I’ve met some likeminded people, from all over the world, and all walks of life whom I’m happy too say are now my friends. So, when someone of Elon Musk’s ilk, buys it and seemingly is in the process of ruining it, it does actually bother me. My hopes are that Mr. Musk’s lack of attention span, and business savvy will force him too eventually sell the platform to someone else, anyone else. But I’m fairly sure there’s no one that has 44 billion dollars plus just lying around in the closet.
Another great site by the Dangerous Globe
Great article Rob, as always.