TWITTER and MUSK.

Musk's attempt to buy 
Twitter looks more like
a stock market manipulation 
scheme .

Elon could have gotten a whole lot more bang for his bucks if his interest in free speech had piqued earlier. Smooth and orderly are not exactly what the world has come to expect from mercurial billionaire Elon Musk. He relishes moving markets with his tweets as much as he loves sharing duck memes with his more than 82 million Twitter followers. I remember a few days ago there was news that Elon was going to join Twitter’s advisory board. Then that deal fell through and things were quiet for a few days. (1)>>Now he apparently wants to buy twitter.Over the last several weeks (1.2)>>Elon Musk (the richest person in the world) bought up enough Twitter stock to become the single largest shareholder. As a result, Twitter offered him a seat on the board of directors of the company which would have allowed him some sway over the company but not any authority to make direct decisions. For instance Musk suggested that anyone could get a verified (blue checkmark) account and that Twitter should add an edit button. However Twitter clarified that even if he joined the board of directors (2)>>Musk's suggestions wouldn't necessarily become company policy. Musk's attempt to buy Twitter is probably  he's just manipulating the stock to get people to buy into it to then sell his shares. Elon Musk seems to be the only one abusing this power, but I feel like any billionaire could have the same effect. Can you imagine if Warren Buffet made a statement every week like "hmmmm, maybe I'll buy Walmart tomorrow" or "Berkshire Hathaway is way overvalued in my opinion"? He could toss the market around like his own personal play thing if he really wanted to.Former Reddit CEO Yishan Wong said Elon Musk is "in for a world of pain" if he buys Twitter, arguing that the Tesla CEO doesn't fully understand the challenges of content moderation and enforcing free speech on the internet.  "Elon is not going to fix some problems. I am absolutely sure of this. He has no idea what he's in for," Wong said in now-viral Twitter thread. What’s very funny is that Wong reveals Silicon Valley’s real bias, which is toward coding fun stuff. (This is much like journalism’s real bias, which is to get the news out as fast as possible. This bias often leads to mistakes!) Most programmers and execs at social media companies don’t want to have to police users’ bad behavior. But they are nonetheless spending a lot of time preventing us all from creating flame wars that could engulf all of online. This is a lot less fun than making, for instance.If he owned Twitter he would also be able to make whatever changes he wanted to the company.  (3)>>He (among others, especially Donald Trump) have shown the incredible power that comes from having a large following on social media. But, of course, the social media companies are able to regulate what appears on their platform and ban users who repeatedly break the rules. It's also pretty evident that it is very difficult to get a new social media company up and running (for an example look at the failure of Truth Social). At this point it's easier for someone like Musk to simply buy a social media company. It would ensure that he has total control over his online platform (and could never be de-platformed by having his account banned) which he uses to bring attention to himself and make money.Since Musk regularly attempts to manipulate the stock market and crypto value using tweets (for instance last year Musk added #bitcoin to his Twitter profile which caused the value of bitcoin to jump 20% which would have also increased the value of any bitcoin he personally held) many see his current interactions with (4)>>Twitter as another manipulation. His offer may simply be an attempt to raise the price of Twitter's stock to increase the value of the stock he already owns (which has already happened since he made the offer - the speculation is that he has made somewhere around $700 million)..The purchase comes less than two weeks after Musk criticized the company, polling people on Twitter about whether it adheres to free speech principles. “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” Musk tweeted. “What should be done?”

NOTES AND COMMENTS: 

 (1)>>Now he apparently wants to buy twitter.The day after Musk announced his proposal to buy Twitter, the company’s board responded with a poison pill. This is basically the board’s way of saying, “Thanks, but no thanks.”The poison pill consists of a new “shareholder’s rights plan” to give certain shareholders the right to purchase more stock if Musk or another buyer attempts to seize control. And it signals that Twitter’s board intends to fight Musk’s bid to take sole ownership of the company.  (1.2)>> Musk (the richest person in the world) .Musk, the world's richest person with a $273.6 billion fortune according to a Forbes tally, rejected an invitation to join Twitter's board on Saturday after disclosing his stake, a move analysts said signaled his takeover intentions as a board seat would have limited his shareholding to just under 15%. read more.  (2)>>Musk's suggestions wouldn't necessarily become company policy. Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter to save free speech. “I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” wrote the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire — who recently acquired a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter — in a filing. “However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”It’s not clear how this gambit will play out, but there’s also a more fundamental question: what does Elon Musk think free speech is, and who’s threatening it? Free expression is a cornerstone of an open society, and with governments across the world eyeing crackdowns on internet platforms, there’s a complicated interplay between different visions of what should be allowed online. But despite his sweeping declaration, Musk’s eye seems almost entirely focused on the far smaller question of Twitter’s own internal rules.(3)>>He (among others, especially Donald Trump) At some point you read Donald Trump’s last tweet and you didn’t even realize it.Fifteen months after his Twitter ban, Trump unfortunately still dominates the social network's timeline. The MAGA diaspora continues to using hashtags and Journalists race to Trump's deliberately tweet-like statements that his office sends over email. All the media has the same discourse. There is no space to think different. All the ones who disagree are considered pointed or discredited. All the super rich tell us what is good or bad. We are being directed and brainwashed.Musk made point today that Twitter should be slower to implement permanent bans. Think good question for @elonmusk to answer would be if Trump would get a ban/permanent ban if Musk were running Twitter in 2020/2021?(4)>>Twitter as another manipulation.  There’s an odd irony to Elon Musk’s ability to move the market, while attacking what he sees as unnatural market forces in short-selling,Musk disclosed that he bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him the micro-blogging site's largest shareholder and triggering a rise of more than 27% in the company's shares. The filing said that March 14, 2022, is the date of the event that required the disclosure. read more. While Musk’s Twitter actions have had a particularly pronounced affect this week, he’s been shifting stocks and cryptocurrencies for a while now.In a court filing (pdf) earlier this month Musk’s lawyers said the SEC agreement violates Musk’s free speech. But the SEC disagrees. In a federal court document filed today (March 22) the agency said as long as Musk uses his Twitter account to give information to investors, the SEC “may legitimately investigate matters relating to Tesla’s disclosure controls and procedures, including Musk’s tweets about Tesla.”Musk’s proposal at this point in time may not quite be a “hostile takeover” in the way the tactic is usually described — he is not (yet) trying to do an end-run around Twitter’s board — but it sure is a hostile attempt to take over.“I am not playing the back-and-forth game,” Musk told Twitter board chairman Bret Taylor of his unsolicited offer. “I have moved straight to the end. It’s a high price and your shareholders will love it.”