On October 27th 2022 Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter. He didn’t want to, but the courts said “You have to, or you get to pay a large fine.” One would think that a reasonable person would regard the situation with care so that the $44 billion* (USD) one spent wouldn’t go completely to waste… But, it would seem the new owner of Twitter has nearly ruined the site in less than two months, wasting this purchase by destroying what value it had.

* $44 billion was about $30 billion more than Twitter was valued at at the time of the offer. It was not a prudent offer to make.

The Problems

His handling of it is as chaotic as it gets. He rewrites the rules, and creates havoc almost every single day either through what he’s doing in his management attempts or by what he’s tweeting.

It manifests in some of the following ways:

  • Firing half the people, just because. No really, there was no rhyme or reason to it.
  • Firing people who didn’t swear their loyalty.
  • Rehiring some of those people, then firing them again.
  • Firing more people for… no apparent reason. (The Safety Team)
  • Taunting users, namely the press.
  • Making transphobic statements about his own child.
  • Letting literal neo-Nazis back on Twitter. (This was part of one tantrum.)
  • Tweeting out obvious neo-nazi dog whistles.
  • Running random, arbitrary polls about how to run Twitter, which only serve to further destabilize things. (e.g. Should we let Trump back on? Should I step down? …etc.)
  • Lashing out any any perceived threat by banning:
    • Journalists critical of him.
    • Comedians who mocked him.
    • So-called “competing companies” which host links to articles critical of him. (almost all social media) 1
    • The most popular link aggregators where people might link to their other social media accounts. 1
    • …etc. (I won’t list them all.)
  • Ordering Twitter Support and Twitter Safety to change their metrics and rules to his whims, as well as to outright lie.
  • Taking the Spaces feature offline because security was a little goofed up and most of that team was fired or quit so there wasn’t any expedient fix.
  • …etc

And the list goes on, and on. I won’t list every infraction, because there are so many, and in such a short time. He’s acting like a college frat-bro without a clue how to run a social media company.

What Does This Tell Us?

One thing is clear: Musk cannot handle criticism nor sunlight, as evidenced by all the banning, and blocking of other social media. His constant claims of “Vox Populi. Vox Dei.” ring hollow when he suppresses information and bans or suspends journalists. He clearly has no interest in anything other than controlling the narrative. The truth is not something he is interested in telling nor hearing.

But here’s the funny thing. If he had any clue about social media he would know that in doing this he’s strangling the platform, slowly, clumsily, and turning it into yet another Truth Social or Parler.

I also think this mask off behavior gives us great insight into how he behaves at his other companies. This should scare you.

But Why?

That is the million dollar question. Either he’s extraordinarily incompetent, or he wants this for some reason. It might be as simple as before his takeover, Twitter was a great place for scientists and journalists to hold people in power accountable and he doesn’t want that. Destroying Twitter would put a damper on that for a little while.2

Generally the very rich and very powerful (which he is one of despite his behavior) do not like being held accountable. Furthermore in tech circles there is a very large amount of arrogance. This arrogance manifests as techies thinking they can literally do everything better, from government to feeding your pets.

This power, level of arrogance, and attitude that he knows better than everyone is how he got force to buy Twitter in the first place. He thought he could make an insincere, but legally binding offer. It didn’t work in his favor. And he didn’t have any handlers inside of Twitter. So unlike his carefully curated image at Space X and Tesla, we got to see the real man.

So, in my opinion he is throwing a long series of tantrums, each sparked by someone trying to hold him accountable for his behavior. Silencing the folks who cause him pain is just a bonus to him. The primary motivation is the same as the four year old who pitches a fit over not getting to eat dessert first.

The Fallout

People are out of jobs because his tantrums. Journalists are being cut off from their ability to do their jobs from these tantrums. Hate speech is out of control.

People are leaving for Mastodon, Post.News, Counter.Social, …etc.

This leaves entire communities that depended on Twitter in turmoil. Medical Twitter, TTRPG Twitter, Black Twitter, and Disability Twitter are represented by various people I’m following. And they all say the same thing: “Twitter provided a unique experience we aren’t finding elsewhere.” Plus reestablishing those same ties on new platforms is a chore, when it’s possible.

In short, it’ll be a while before any one leader in social media reclaims the journalistic diaspora underway from Twitter. I doubt Mastodon will be where it all lands. It’s far too siloed by comparison. While I can’t predict the future, I do have a site or two I’m hopeful will fill that void.

What is certain is that letting billionaire man-babies own social media sites is a colossally bad idea.

Does He Even Care?

No. He’s been very up front about not giving two thoughts to how his actions impact others. He tries couching it in managerial doublespeak but the message is the same: “I’m legally3 allowed to do this. So, stop picking on me.”

That’s right, he cares more for being called a bad manager than if his behavior is causing problems. He cares so much so that he bans those who say it. (Those with large followings, for now.)

Since his behavior bodes poorly for him, directly, it’s very odd that he seems not to care. But that seems to be the case, given his behavior.

End Notes

  1. Mere minutes before I “clicked the publish button” Musk’s team had removed the policy. This further underscores the volatility and chaos in his stay as owner. I chose not to re-edit the post until morning as it was my bedtime. On waking I decided an end note was more appropriate than removing effected the items.
  2. A replacement is all but inevitable. However, the odds are it won’t be a drop-in, feature for feature replacement. Rebuilding the professional, community, and personal networks will take time.
  3. The matter of legality he appears to be thinking of is strictly within the USA. This is the incorrect focus. Twitter is a company, that by its very nature, does business internationally. The EU has laws that prohibit blocking competing social media. And since he’s also crashing Tesla stocks, which he leveraged to buy Twitter, he’s likely running afoul of US laws too.

Change Log

  • 2022-12-18 21:45 (US Central) - Initially posted.
  • 2022-12-19 05:42 (US Central) - Added TOC. Added end notes. Moved an item to end notes. Other minor changes.
  • 2022-12-19 06:32 (US Central) - Removed TOC, jekyll plugin incompatible with GitHub Pages.