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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Sarah Manavis

Twitter users voted Elon Musk out. But CEO or not, he’ll still call the shots

Elon Musk and Twitter logo
‘What has made it all the more surreal is that, throughout this never-ending car crash, Elon Musk has consistently tweeted every few hours.’ Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

Since its launch, few people have embodied the worst of Twitter like Elon Musk. The site is a magnet for the self-involved, the kind of people who think a few likes and retweets confirm that they are always right; the types who walk through life with blinkers on and a mirror fixed directly in front of them.

Through relentless efforts to be seen as funny, tweeting stale memes and tired jokes, and his transparent desperation to be liked, tanking his own stock price to delight his followers, Musk’s Twitter persona was infamous. But it was also a common type on the site: someone eager to be seen as in on the joke, a lovable troll, but, crucially, someone who is also actually bad at using Twitter on a basic level. The adulation of his diehard fans sometimes masked the fact that most people don’t like these kinds of characters online.

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