Twitter might want to charge admission and sell popcorn at its next board meeting if a cryptic tweet from its newest member, Elon Musk, is to be believed.
Musk, who stunned the Big Tech world on Monday when it was announced he had purchased a 9.2% stake in the social media platform after questioning its commitment to free speech, warned in a wee-hours tweet Thursday that he plans to mix it up with the board he only joined this week. After his appointment, Musk promised “significant improvements.”
“Twitter’s next board meeting is gonna be lit,” Musk tweeted, with a picture of him grimacing behind a cloud of smoke and holding a marijuana joint. The photo was taken during an appearance on podcaster Joe Rogan’s show.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 7, 2022
According to Urban Dictionary, “lit” is slang for “cool, or awesome.”
HOW MUSK COULD USE THE FREE-SPEECH LEVERAGE GRANTED BY HIS TWITTER STOCK BUY
The Tesla founder and world’s richest man plunked down nearly $3 billion to become Twitter’s largest shareholder after posting a Twitter poll last month asking his 79 million Twitter followers if the social media giant respects free speech. More than 70% said it does not.
Twitter has banned a host of conservatives, most prominently former President Donald Trump, for tweets its secret algorithm dubs hateful or misinformative. It also infamously suspended the New York Post for accurately reporting on damning information from Hunter Biden’s laptop just before the 2020 presidential election. Critics see the San Francisco-based microblogging site as deeply biased and have repeatedly called for conservative platforms to compete against it. But with Musk buying in and winning a board seat, many expect him to shake things up — and his tweet indicates he intends to.
“There’s an old philosophy: The best way to change something is from the inside,” Mark Weinstein, founder of social media service MeWe and an expert in privacy and free speech, told the Washington Examiner this week. “So he goes inside, he becomes the largest shareholder, he now has influence on the future of Twitter. … It’s clear he has a philosophy. It’s clear he made what he believes is a very smart move. It’s clear he definitely will have influence on Twitter.”
Musk’s holding dwarfs the stake owned by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who owns 2.25% of the company.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who took over for Dorsey last year, has said Twitter’s mission is to “prevent efforts to manipulate public conversation” and “promote credible information,” subjective goals that critics say allow the company to silence opinions it opposes. The company told the Daily Mail earlier this week it would not reinstate Trump’s account and that the board of directors doesn’t set such policies.
“As always our Board plays an important advisory and feedback role across the entirety of our service. Our day to day operations and decisions are made by Twitter management and employees,” Twitter said in its statement to the Daily Mail.
But Agrawal, perhaps sensing a coming clash with Musk, welcomed him to the board earlier this week.
“I’m excited to share that we’re appointing to our board!” Agrawal tweeted. “Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.”
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As the company’s biggest shareholder, a board member, and owner of one of Twitter’s largest followings, the tech-savvy Musk could be poised to force change on the powerful platform.
“He’s got huge leverage now as an investor, and I think we’ll see him use that leverage,” Weinstein said.
