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Elon Musk To Join Twitter's Board of Directors, Teases 'Significant Improvements' (cnbc.com) 124

Posted by BeauHD from the putting-his-money-where-his-mouth-is dept.
Elon Musk will join Twitter's board of directors after taking a 9.2% stake in the social media company. CNBC reports: "Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board," CEO Parag Agrawal said in a tweet. "He's both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need on Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term," Agrawal added. Former chief Jack Dorsey praised the move, saying in a tweet that Musk "cares deeply about our world and Twitter's role in it." "I've wanted Elon on the board for a long time," Dorsey later added.

Musk's term is set to expire in 2024, according to a filing with the SEC. For his entire board term or 90 days after, Musk cannot be the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of the company's common stock outstanding. [...] After he was named to the board, Musk on Tuesday teased he would push for adjustments to the product. "Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!" Musk said in a tweet.
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Elon Musk To Join Twitter's Board of Directors, Teases 'Significant Improvements' More

Elon Musk To Join Twitter's Board of Directors, Teases 'Significant Improvements'

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  • RIP Twitter (Score:4, Insightful)

    by OverlordQ ( 264228 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @05:42PM (#62420826) Journal

    Going to turn into 4chan.

    • No one ever cared what you had for breakfast.

      • No one ever cared what you had for breakfast.

        then he'd be on the board of directors....

      • Mixed feelings on the story, but at least the FP thread looks like it has interesting potential.

        But "These are not the memes you are looking for."

        At least not so far, but I have had a weird new thought about Twitter. It's even possible this story triggered it. I do think that Elon Musk is kind of evil, perhaps even deep on the dark side, but I'd be hard pressed to prove he's an idiot. So if he's investing in Twitter, then maybe it isn't as worthless as it's always seemed to me. Here's my two-part meme that

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by shanen ( 462549 )

          s/meme tag/meme of memes/

        • Why build the Truth network when you can buy 10% of Twitter and make Twitter do what you want?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by shanen ( 462549 )

            I'm not clear what point you are trying to make. Something about TFG?

            However, I think the TFG thing can be reduced to a simple paradox any way you slice it. For example, his fans insist he is smart and competent. But if he is smart and competent, then why was he unable to collect any concrete evidence of the massive election fraud he predicted in 2020 (and 2016). He insists there was fraud and yet no trace could be found? Resolution: No evidence of fraud because there was no fraud and TFG is not smart nor c

            • What point am I trying to make... I think Elon is not a lot different than Trump, other than the fact that Elon has actually been clearly successful several times. So what does Elon want with Twitter? I think Twitter gives Elon the mouth piece that he needs, but Elon needs to tweak it to serve himself better. Elon and Trump both want to control the narrative.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by shanen ( 462549 )

                Hmm... But I don't think Musk is that focused on money. Rather he's playing gold-rush games and he keeps striking it rich. Musk just loves to gamble and he's quite good at that. Or in other words, he's fairly competent, but mostly he's extremely lucky. That's why I think his interest in Twitter is more more likely to be in mining the valuable memes than in stuff like making money or even getting a bigger soapbox.

    • Twitter literally allows people to open discuss pedophilia [thenextweb.com] in ways that are disturbingly close to allowing pro-pedophilia activism while banning any dissent against transgenderism.

      You look at the list of things they do NOT allow in the name of being "inclusive" and "stopping bullying" and "standing up for marginalized voices," and it's pretty hard to not draw the conclusion that a lot of folks involved with their ToS view pedophiles as "marginalized people."

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by taustin ( 171655 )

        NAMBLA would be proud.

      • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

        by mikeiver1 ( 1630021 )
        Sure they do... What a fucking moron you are. It must be so tiresome to have even a basic conversation with a shitdiot like you are. Pedo shit is so GQP but funny how all the GQP supporters and Xtians are getting caught with kiddie porn. But they are sure the ones that scream about it, all the while jerking off to the sick shit night after night. Or worse yet, bringing along under aged girls like your hero and his buddys from flor-i-duh did for under aged fuck fests. Where this is going is to try to a

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward
          The crazy part is you'd think stopping pedophiles is something that both parties could agree on. Instead, it's whataboutism and passive politics-as-usual.
          • The thing is this, funny how the GQP is in a panic to hang any possible shit on a Democrat they can stooping as low as to label an eminently qualified judge a pedo enabler. But honest questions about beer boy go unasked and answered. Where did all the money for paying off all his debts come from? Did he assault woman in college? Surely there are more qualified jurists than he. What about miss ABC, no real jurist experience at all and yet there she sits. Pedophilia is at pandemic levels in the churches
        • Lol, you must have just come from Twitter the way you are speaking. And thank you for proving the OPs point.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by ganjadude ( 952775 )
          i have yet to see any right wing media being pro pedo. I have however seen left wing media like salon being pro pedo....
          • Proof or shut the fuck up!
            • here is your proof, now present yours... or as you said, shut the fuck up

              https://www.salon.com/2012/07/01/meet_pedophiles_who_mean_well/
              • LO FUCKING L! One article from 2012 is your proof? You are going to have to do far more to support your position than shitting up this bullshit. This is simply an article about people that are fucked in the head, self aware enough to know it, and able to MAYBE control it. Considering the laundry list of far right religious types and politicians in the spot light nearly daily I would think that you would keep your mouth shut with piddly ass, mealy mouthed, responses like this link. But by all means, yo
                • dude. just stop. you look like a clown. I presented proof of my claim, you have done nothing but toss around bullshit accusations. you cant show me any right wing media at all protecting pedos because it doesnt happen. and you wanna talk about gaslighting? look in the fucking mirror
                  • Your link is to story in 2012 about a group of people attracted to children that share a forum to deal with it in what one would hope is a responsible manner. You assert that the liberal media supports pedos from this single article. If that is the case then the same logic could be used to assert that the right wing media supports school shooters because they continually fail to support any measures at all that might in any way limit the availability of firearms to people with mental health issues. Watch

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by beepsky ( 6008348 )
      That would objectively be a improvement for the sewer that is Twitter.
      At the very least raiding / ruining people's lives is against the rules on 4chan (not Twitter, it's basically encouraged to ruin people's lives on Twitter)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        People who have been online for decades at this point are familiar with the cycle.

        1. People are upset about moderation policies.
        2. Upset people build a new platform, or take over an old one.
        3. People realize with horror that no moderation creates a dumpster fire.
        4. Horrified people implement moderation.

    • Re:RIP Twitter (Score:5, Funny)

      by jwhyche ( 6192 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @10:44PM (#62421406) Homepage

      Going to turn into 4chan.

      I doubt even Musk can bring Twitter up to 4chans level.

    • I've had far more interesting discussions on 4chan than anything posted on twitter. Maybe you just suck at making filters?

  • Damn it. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @05:47PM (#62420838)

    I'd joke that he'll have Twitter keep launching new/updated ideas until they stop blowing up, but that actually worked out pretty well for SpaceX.

    • i hope he is not as excited about twitter as he was about discord and myspace. worry then, for sure.

    • yea, the equivalent of going back in time to kill john connor....twitter is BD(beforeDRM).

    • Yeah but how is he going to get the government to pay for all those product launches? Or do all the really hard development work for him?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by fazig ( 2909523 )
        That might be easier than you think, since Biden or another Democratic candidate is not likely to be elected the next time.
        While Biden certainly hasn't been a good president so far (my opinion), all the delusional dumbasses that don't have the first idea of how the global economy works, or what a cum hoc/post hoc fallacy is, are blaming Biden for the inflation in the US, which of course isn't limited to the US, but is currently going on almost everywhere in the world for a whole string of causes, believing

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Joey Vegetables ( 686525 )

          Trump and his global peers started it, by borrowing recklessly from the future, allegedly because of COVID.

          Biden and most of his global peers have GREATLY worsened it, by doing more of the same, on an even grander scale.

          Those of us who believe in limited government, rule of law, free enterprise, sound money, and peace through strength, have not had an ally in the White House since the days of Reagan. Trump was doing OK until COVID, but he and most of his followers bought into the lies hook, line, and sinke

  • Interesting how he was able to leverage 9.2% (Score:3)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @05:49PM (#62420842)

    I really didn't see how Elon could manage any kind of change at Twitter with just 9.2% of the stock.

    But now I see, that was a warning shot and he was basically telling them he might consider owning more than 50%... that's why a condition of them bringing Musk onto the board and working on issues with him, is that he holds no more than 15% of the stock.

    Pretty good deal to be able to change a company like Twitter buying under 10% of the stock.

    I really hope this means some positive changes coming to Twitter. Might happen if Musk continues his poll-driven collection of enhancement requests.

    • Re:Interesting how he was able to leverage 9.2% (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @05:56PM (#62420858) Journal

      It's only one seat on a board of (currently) 11. It would be trivial for everyone else to just vote down anything he wants to see happen, and thank him for the investment and self-restriction to not buy more and lead some proxy vote wars or a full-on hostile takeover.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by nonBORG ( 5254161 )
        You may not have ever been on a Board, but you get to speak to the rest of the board and decisions are made based in information and convincing. Also in my limited experience there are about 2 to 3 people on the board who are hard headed and the majority will swing either way depending on the vote. So the idea that the rest of the board would just vote him down I think is not realistic. Also note that the CEO will be reporting to the board and he can to some extent be steered simply by the questions that th
      • It is fairly common for investment vehicles (and rich guys) to buy (say) 5% of a company, then demand whatever thing they think will boost the share price so they can sell out for a quick profit.
        The huge corporation I work for had one of those "activist investors" do just that 3 or 4 years ago, but they told him to blow it out of his ear, and then lined up a a bunch of people who showed how his ideas to "unlock shareholder value" would destroy the company in the medium term, despite generating a lot of ca

      • Unfortunately all Elon has to do is post in twitter something negative about the rest of the board, and that will either get the board voted out in the next AGM, or the stock price will crash.

        Or Elon just has to step down and sell all his twitter holdings. Even if he did not say a single word about it, that will cause the stock to crash under the assumption that Elon is thinking that twitter is "unsavable" or that he may start a competitor since he has been talking about making his own social app / site rec

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by taustin ( 171655 )

      Even at 9.2%, he's the biggest single shareholder. That'd be pretty hard to ignore at any publicly traded company.

    • Just imagine if you controlled 10% of the vote in the general election, pretty powerful.
      • If a single person controlled 10% of the electoral college of the United States, they'd be able to pick who the president was every 4 years.

    • Note: he didn't change anything, yet.

  • Who better to improve the critical social underpinnings of a platform like Twitter than someone born with a congenital inability to interact socially.
  • I eagerly await the cheers of those who have such newfound love and support of "private companies" in the social media sector ...

  • Just like his email to the Tesla underlings, it should be easy to talk back to the entitled, selfish, vindictive master who welcomes being told he is wrong! Right?

    ---
    To: Everybody
    From: Elon Musk
    Date: Monday October 4 [time redacted]
    Subj. Please Note

    If an email is sent from me with explicit directions, there are only three actions allowed by managers.

    1. Email me back to explain why what I said was incorrect. Sometimes, I’m just plain wrong!

    2. Request further clarification if what I said

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by dohzer ( 867770 )

      So basically...
      Option 1: Start an argument with me so I can find a reason to fire you.
      Option 2: Tell me you don't understand, and I'll use that as a reason to fire you.
      Option 3: Do what I say, which is the only real option if you want to keep your job.

      He's such an open, understanding guy!

  • Go on. Do it merge Twitter with Truth Social. Then everyone can delete their accounts in outrage and we can get back to living in the cozy world of 2005. Before the news was shit sourced from some wonk's timeline. Before games sucked. Before pestilence, infernal fire, flooding storms and the other horse of the Acopylist.

  • He is not an innovator, he is a... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Dj Stingray ( 178766 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @07:07PM (#62421008)

    ... banker, a finance guy. People really need to stop encouraging him. Money can't buy creativity or ingenuity. The fact his first "idea" was an edit button says it all. The least creative way to solve a non-problem. Please... please... stop fanboying this man, he is not your friend and doesn't have your interests in mind.

  • Clearer rules and appeal process would be nice (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Reiyuki ( 5800436 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @07:29PM (#62421060)
    I was banned from Twitter for 'COVID misinformation', by quoting the Surgeon General stating that masks were ineffective against COVID. Kinda happy though a year later, since in retrospect 90% of Twitter was just circle-jerks and talking points anyway. Very rarely was anything is posted you can't get from other sources, and very little productive conversation or positive engagement for the time that was spent spent on it.

    • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday April 05, 2022 @08:50PM (#62421252)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • I'll bet there's more here than you innocently quoting the US Surgeon General.

        I'm inferring the offending tweet as that was the most inflammatory on my feed, and was posted within 24hrs of the account being suspended. (my feed was 80% dedicated to posting homemade engineering project updates a-la AppliedScience or AvE.)

        Nope, no warning, and nothing that violated Twitter rules that I can tell. I tried an appeal but ~4 months later got a single-line response it was closed with no update or clarification.

        I have since moved to a freer platform and have rebuilt a good chunk of my geekly

      • i just got banned for replying to a blue check who said that celebrities need to be smacked more (in response to the will smith smack)

        My reply was simply "I agree, slap um all"

        Perma ban for "targeted bullying"

        oh, and the dude i replied to is still up and running though, and my acct has not had any bans or warnings prior...

    • I think the trick with social sites like Twitter and Reddit is to avoid the "main page" full of political dumpster fires or talking kittens. Twitter is great if you follow a select few for updates on technology (or whatever you like) but avoid trending topics. I have found nothing positive with Facebook or TikTok however.

    • I was banned from Twitter for 'COVID misinformation', by quoting the Surgeon General stating that masks were ineffective against COVID.

      And? Twitter wasn't wrong. Just because you quoted misinformation doesn't make your post any less misinformation.

      • It's the hypocrisy that gets me.

        If Twitter actually cared about misinformation they would have banned the Surgeon General and not someone retweeting him.

        • How about reposting the tweet here?

          • How about reposting the tweet here?

            Granted Slashdot ain't what it used to be, but I'd rather not risk being de-platformed.

            It's probably safe posting the MSM news article talking about it though, so: https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/29... [cnn.com]

            • So you're a pussy then.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by tragedy ( 27079 )

              Granted Slashdot ain't what it used to be, but I'd rather not risk being de-platformed.

              I'm confused here. How long have you been on Slashdot? It looks like you've only been posting since Feb of 2019. Did you have another account before this one? Or did you lurk for a long time before you got an account. I did that. I started reading in 1997 a little bit after the name change, but waited for a while to actually get an account.

              Also unsure of what you mean by "what it used to be" in the context of being "de-platformed". This is Slashdot. The moderation system has always been user centric and bas

              • It looks like you've only been posting since Feb of 2019

                One can read Slashdot articles without having an account. I was around back when sites getting 'slashdotted' due to traffic was still a thing, hehe.

                Twitter's process for warnings/suspensions/appeals is notoriously arbirary, and without a large base or friends in high places, it's not uncommon for a suspended account to be permanently suspended, even by accident. https://www.cnet.com/tech/serv... [cnet.com]

                I'd suggest doing a cursory Reddit/Google search for users wrongfully/arbitrarily suspended by Twitter to f

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by tragedy ( 27079 )

                  One can read Slashdot articles without having an account. I was around back when sites getting 'slashdotted' due to traffic was still a thing, hehe.

                  Which I did note as a possibility in my post and did ask you about. I still find it hard to imagine anyone going quite that long before ever getting an account. You're not me, of course, so you do you.

                  Twitter's process for warnings/suspensions/appeals is notoriously arbirary, and without a large base or friends in high places, it's not uncommon for a suspended account to be permanently suspended, even by accident. https://www.cnet.com/tech/serv... [cnet.com]

                  No disagreement there. Among the reasons why I don't have a Twitter account. Another being that the artificially short message size it started with was ridiculously confining, but also seemed, from my perspective, to be intentionally designed to drive conflict. This is because I have a (perhaps naïve) pri

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tragedy ( 27079 )

      Was the quote:

      "They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus, but if healthcare providers can't get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk!"

      from Surgeon General Jerome Adams back in Feb. 2020? Trump's (although, oddly, not sworn in by him for some reason, with Pence doing it instead) surgeon general? The one from a tweet that he deleted? That he later tried to walk back by saying:

      "I was saying that then because of everything we knew about coronaviruses before that point told us that people were not likely to spread when they were asymptomatic. So the science at the time suggested that there was not a high degree of asymptomatic spread. We learned more,"

      I mean, he was certainly a better choice for Surgeon General than Ronny "[Trump] has incredibly good genes" and "BTW, would you like some hard drugs that I happen to have in my pocket" Jackson (the first quote is real, the second one is not an actual quot

  • Did Elon wake up and think "You know what hasn't happened in a while? The SEC threatening to fine me over things I said on Twitter." And then he decided to do something about that.

  • What Twitter ultimately needs is a user-programmable algorithm. Before you idiots say that would fuck-off the CPU/data usage .. it can be done without fucking off the CPU -- but thats not a topic for this comment. Anyway, what I am saying is that users should be allowed a limited amount of programmability in their feeds to create or purchase third-party algorithms to determine what shows up in it. For example, if you decide to follow a certain hashtag, you can have your algorithm apply certain criteria to d

  • Not sure that is a good outcome.

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