Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter has been anything short but uneventful. The world’s wealthiest man pulled out showmanship on his first day as the social media company’s new owner by bringing a kitchen sink to the office in a literal expression of the phrase. He followed that up with a massive round of job cuts, changes to Twitter’s free speech policies, a staff ultimatum, and continuous delays to the blue check verification service.
Below are some thoughts on Musk’s ownership of Twitter thus far:
Barbara Otis calls Musk’s running of Twitter, “a case study in how not to be a boss.” Otis writes that good leaders foster a culture and business environment that automatically motivates employees to want to work harder and be loyal to the company. Good leaders do not have to send emails to their staff asking them to work harder.
Firing people and talking of potential bankruptcy and further catastrophic events is straight out of the Elon Musk playbook of how to run a company. Musk used the same tactics at his two other companies Tesla and SpaceX writes Ryan Mac and Jack Ewing. The pair detail former staff accounts of how Musk creates conflict and chaos within his companies to foster a “hardcore” work environment that ultimately motivates employees to deliver results.
Musk’s purchase of Twitter is akin to any other media buyout where the next wannabe media mogul comes in, gets rid of high-ranking employees via severance packages and installs new lieutenants who are at constant odds with the rank and file who want to keep some form of quality in place. Austin Carr writes Musk is running Twitter like a failing newspaper business.
In some of his latest actions at the helm, Musk has allowed the artist formally known as Kanye West, Ye, to return to Twitter following a two-week hiatus after anti-semitic comments he made on the platform. Musk has also invited former US president Donald Trump to return to Twitter after he was banned from the platform for life following the January 6 riots in 2021. Zeeshan Aleem writes that Musk’s decision to reactive Trump’s account over the weekend shows how he intends to reshape the platform and use Twitter as a political weapon.
