Tesla’s (TSLA) founder Elon Musk and former Twitter (TWTR) CEO and founder Jack Dorsey’s mutual admiration society may have just had a little falling out.
In late April, only hours after the Twitter Board of Directors agreed to Musk’s $44 billion offer to buy the social media platform, Dorsey took to Twitter to support Musk’s offer to buy the company.
“Elon’s goal of creating a platform that is ‘maximally trusted and broadly inclusive’ is the right one,” Dorsey tweeted. “This is also [current CEO] @paraga’s goal, and why I chose him,” Dorsey tweeted.
“I love Twitter. Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness,” Dorsey continued.
“In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness,” Dorsey added.
Plenty of Positive Comments
Elon Musk announced in April that he holds a 9.2% stake in Twitter and became the largest shareholder of the micro-blogging website founded by Jack Dorsey.
The two billionaires admire each other, and they have been very open about it. They often are quick to attack the elite of Silicon Valley, assuming the roles of outsiders.
Dorsey also was one of the few CEOs to back Musk amid strained relations with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Dorsey even emulated Musk in changing his corporate title from CEO to Head of Block (SQ) after Musk changed his CEO title. Musk in March 2021 changed his title from CEO to Technoking of Tesla.
When asked in February 2019 “who is the most exciting influential on Twitter right now,” by journalist Kara Swisher, Dorsey responded: “To me personally? I like how @elonmusk uses Twitter. He’s focused on solving existential problems and sharing his thinking openly. I respect that a lot, and all the ups and downs that come with it #karajack."
Musk responded at the time with a tweet: "Thanks Jack, Twitter rocks! 🤡😎🌪💩🔥🥜💨🍃💫🚀🥰."
Things Getting a Little Chippy
All of this mutual admiration sweetness soured a bit on May 14 after Musk, in an effort to encourage Twitter users to fix their Twitter feeds, claimed that users were being manipulated by its algorithm.
"Very important to fix your Twitter feed: 1. Tap home button. 2. Tap stars on the upper right of screen. 3. Select "Latest Tweets." You are being manipulated by the algorithm in ways you don't realize. Easy to switch back & forth to see the difference," Musk tweeted.
Dorsey, however, corrected Musk in a subsequent tweet: "it was designed simply to save you time when you are away from the app for a while. pull to refresh goes back to reverse chron as well."
When another Twitter user backed Musk asserting that the algorithm was designed for manipulation, Dorsey struck back.
Hasan Söylemez tweeted: "It was definitely designed for manipulation! If you had good intentions, you wouldn't have dictated this design to us. Then Elon‘s tweet would also be like this: Hey! if you want to save your time: 1. Tap Home button 2. Tap stars on upper right of screen 3. Select "Home Tweets".
Dorsey contradicted both Musk and Söylemez on the manipulation claims in a tweet: "no it wasn’t designed to manipulate. it was designed to catch you up and work off what you engage with. that can def have unintended consequences tho. which is why one should be able to choose if they use an algo or not, and which one. simple solution to all this."
Musk has not tweeted more on the matter of manipulation claims at the time of this writing. Maybe he is making up with Dorsey.
