Elon Musk will join Twitter's board of directors, the social media platform announced on Tuesday. The news comes one day after a regulatory filing revealed the Tesla and SpaceX CEO purchased 9.2% of Twitter stock, officially setting him up as the company's largest shareholder.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal shared the news in a tweet Tuesday morning saying, "Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board." Agrawal added as a "passionate believer and intense critic of the service," Musk would, "make us stronger in the long term."
Musk responded that he was, "Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!"
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO will serve for a term that concludes in 2024 and has made an agreement he will acquire no more than 14.9% of the company's shares while on the board. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey currently holds only 2.3% of the company's shares.
Twitter gave @elonmusk a board seat so he won’t take over the company. pic.twitter.com/4vyBEogT1W
— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) April 5, 2022
I’m excited to share that we’re appointing
— Kimberley Johnson 🇺🇦 (@AuthorKimberley) April 5, 2022
money to our board! Through conversations with money in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board. MONEY!
crazy how much power you can purchase
— dennis hegstad (@dennishegstad) April 5, 2022
Last November, Dorsey stepped down as Twitter's CEO and was replaced by Agrawal, who at the time worked as chief technology officer. When the announcement came out, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison tweeted that Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Palo Alto Networks and Twitter were now all run by CEOs from India, to which Musk replied: "USA benefits greatly from Indian talent!"
A few days later Musk took to Twitter again sending out a meme that depicted Agrawal as Joseph Stalin and Dorsey as the former Soviet leader's confidant which Stalin later assassinated.
His first move should be to remove the current CEO.
— Lavern Spicer (@lavern_spicer) April 5, 2022
The news of Musk''s board appointment came as a surprise to many as Musk has been a long time critic of the platform. His shares in the company as well as his influence over the social media platform have drawn concern.
And all of a sudden tweets that criticize Tesla's low quality cars, the comically underdelivering Elon Tunnels, or the Starlink mission to fill low earth orbit with space junk, magically disappear.
— Hans C. Schellenberg (@hanscs) April 5, 2022
So he bought his way in.
— sh!pper 🌎🌻 (@shipper_xphi) April 5, 2022
To force his rules onto the platform.
That is truly censorship, but he’ll scream ‘free speech’ while doing it.
🤢🙄
Go ahead and announce Trump’s return cause we all know where this is leading.
— 🇺🇸🇺🇦Drekavac🇺🇦🇺🇸 (@Drekavacs) April 5, 2022
Twitter commenters were quick to point out Musk's questionable history with the social media platform. With over 80 million Twitter followers, Musk's frequent tweets have often led to controversial results, one time going so far as to involve the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The newest member of Twitter’s board of directors once went on Twitter and called a U.S. Senator “Senator Karen” because she suggested he—the richest man in the world—should pay income taxes.
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) April 5, 2022
He paid $0 in income taxes last year.
RELATED: Elon Musk ignites Twitter with controversial meme mocking Ukraine
Musk tweeted in 2018 that Tesla was going private and funding was secured for $420 a share. Funding, however, had not been secured at that point and as a result of the tweet, the vehicle manufacturer's share prices spiked as high as 13.3% in violation of SEC laws. Musk settled the lawsuit brought by the SEC and stepped down as Tesla's chairman while retaining his position as CEO.
I’m trying to imagine any other context where a publicly traded company had seen a customer use their product to break federal law, and to try to destroy the lives of innocent people, and then added that person to their board.
— anildash (@anildash) April 5, 2022
He literally used your platform to break the law and target his critics, what the hell are you doing
— Louisa 🌈👭 (@LouisatheLast) April 5, 2022
Musk has also recently been in the news for a lawsuit filed against Tesla by the state of California over accusations of what employees describe as "a racist work environment."
If Elon's vision for Twitter is anything like his Tesla factories, then racists will get verified and people of color will be told to be "cool" about it https://t.co/pn4MlonXph
— Dr. Jorge A. Caballero stands with 🇺🇦 (@DataDrivenMD) April 5, 2022
This is the track record of corporate governance that qualifies you for a seat on Twitter’s board. https://t.co/X0zVUYPbk1
— anildash (@anildash) April 5, 2022
RELATED: Elon Musk's Tesla factory in California sued (again) as alleged racist work environment
While Musk has indicated he will be making "significant improvements" to Twitter it is unclear what those improvements will be. On Monday he tweeted out a poll asking if people wanted an edit feature added to the platform.
And all of a sudden tweets that criticize Tesla's low quality cars, the comically underdelivering Elon Tunnels, or the Starlink mission to fill low earth orbit with space junk, magically disappear.
— Hans C. Schellenberg (@hanscs) April 5, 2022
