It’s on. Elon Musk has formally filed to kill his personal Twitter acquisition, and Twitter is looking his bluff. They’ll see Musk in court docket. And whereas it’s solely going to get messier from right here, one essential verdict has already been rendered by Elon Musk himself: he doesn’t have what it takes to run Twitter. And that’s a damning blow to his personal central mythology.
We’ll have a look at the specifics of Musk’s formal SEC submitting in a minute, however first it’s essential to keep in mind what he’s stated about the deal and why he wished to do it in the first place. It’s not like the world pressured the acquisition of a comparatively small social community on the world’s richest man. And Musk’s conduct surrounding the deal has been marked by quite a lot of apparent troll conduct. An inexpensive particular person would conclude he was by no means critical about it to start with, which is already main to quite a lot of Musk stans and Twitter haters divining a 4D-chess narrative that makes his blunder appear intentional. But.
There are some issues Musk stated in the frenzy of the Twitter takeover that may’t be ignored. That’s as a result of they strike at the coronary heart of what constructed his unique popularity: as a visionary, a daring industrialist, a futurist, and perhaps even the man who would resolve local weather change and multi-planetary civilization. Sure, currently he works tirelessly to entice an enormous base of social reactionaries and varied right-wingers who care extra about his trolling than the missions of SpaceX or Tesla. But Musk’s actual credibility — if he ever had any — was being the face of genuinely enormous and impressive efforts to change the world and make it higher.
He in all probability didn’t want to, however he introduced that very same world-saving power to the Twitter deal:
- Musk stated he was motivated by the undeniable fact that Twitter had turn out to be a “de facto town square” and that it’s “really important that people have both the reality and the perception that they’re able to speak freely.” (He talked about “free speech” so much throughout this time.)
- Speaking at a TED convention, Musk stated the deal is just not a means to become profitable. Some of his actual phrases: “it’s about the future of civilization, but you don’t care about the economics at all.”
- Later, talking internally to staff of Twitter, Musk stated “I want Twitter to contribute to a better, long-lasting civilization where we better understand the nature of reality.”
- Musk: “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.”
These statements stand out above all the things else as a result of (a) issues which might be essential to the way forward for human life usually are not stuff you usually troll individuals about, and (b) that needs to be very true if you’re Elon Musk, who has spent his complete trendy profession since Tesla cultivating the thought that he’s on a mission to save the way forward for humanity and unfold civilization throughout the stars. Does he tweet dumb memes so much? Yes. Did he ship a automobile into house as a joke? Sure. But the missions of his corporations are useless critical. Tesla’s mission is “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” Neuralink desires to construct units that assist individuals with paralysis to “regain independence.” And SpaceX? That’s about nothing lower than “enabling people to live on other planets.”
So: Musk has deliberately spent his profession leaning into a few of the world’s most difficult-to-solve issues. He provides a lot of keynotes, throws massive concepts on the board, and makes a lot of guarantees. Incidentally, this marketing campaign to save the world earned him one in every of the greatest and most energetic fanbases on Twitter. And let’s be actual: the man loves to tweet. The solely particular person in the world who would possibly love tweeting greater than Elon Musk has been banned from the platform and impeached twice by the United States Congress.
But keep in mind: Musk didn’t say “I want to buy Twitter because I love tweeting and I command an army of users here.” He stated Twitter was essential to the way forward for human civilization. And so, spiritually, the deal joined the ranks of the Teslas and the SpaceXs of the world.
What form of issues would forestall this man from unlocking Twitter’s true potential? To assist steer it and, alongside together with his different corporations, assist humanity flourish in the future? He solely actually makes two assertions in his SEC submitting:
- Twitter received’t give him information essential for him to determine what number of spam bots are on the platform.
- Twitter fired some individuals and misplaced some executives.
This is weak crybaby stuff.
Musk has been happening about the alleged bot problem for some time, even stepping into public beefs with the CEO of Twitter about it. I’m not going to unpack this complete spat — the Delaware Court of Chancery is about to study that in some element — however the TL;DR is that Musk desires to tank an enormous deal over an issue identified to each social media firm on the planet, who’ve all devoted huge quantities of assets towards fixing over a number of many years. It’s only a basically unserious place from a man who’s keen to resolve world-shaking issues like local weather change
But let’s assume only for enjoyable that Musk is true. After he began the deal and regarded below the hood and laid out his plans for Twitter’s employees, he found Twitter’s bot inhabitants is extra like 20% than 5%. So what? What’s a variety of 90 million customers when TikTookay and Facebook are forward of you by billions? If your place is that Mark Zuckerberg is an unelected tyrant of speech, how is abandoning Twitter going to assist you take him on? And why would you argue in your SEC submitting that income from energetic customers is at stake? That doesn’t sound like “not caring about the economics at all.” That feels like solely caring about the economics.
And as for blowing the deal as a result of a couple of Twitter execs fired employees whereas persevering with to function usually and roll out new options (hello, co-tweeting!) — get actual. You’re shopping for Twitter for $44 billion. It’s yours now. You can clear home in order for you to and proper or reverse all of the ill-advised choices that introduced the platform inside your sights initially. Nobody will cease you! The SEC couldn’t even get you to cease tweeting!
There are many potential theories for why Musk put himself, Twitter, and the world via this charade. But in the finish, Musk wrote a test his delusion couldn’t money.
We’re left with two prospects. Either Musk doesn’t suppose he can do the job he promised at Twitter, and he’s not the world-changing pressure he’s been made out to be. Or, he was mendacity about the sorts of lofty beliefs and visions that constructed his corporations and his picture.
What form of man trolls the world about a greater future?
