- Kyle Chua
Elon Musk Says He’ll Be Twitter CEO, Dissolves Board of Directors
Elon Musk is cementing his control of Twitter just a week after completing the acquisition of the social media company for US$44 billion.
The controversial billionaire said on Monday, 31 October in a filing that he’ll be the Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, a move he first hinted at when he previously changed his bio on the microblogging site to “Chief Twit”.
The position was left vacant after Musk fired former CEO Parag Agrawal last week, declaring in a tweet that “the bird is freed”. Other top company executives were also fired including Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal.
According to the same filing, Musk has also dissolved Twitter’s board of directors, effectively making him the “sole director” of the company.
Musk, the world’s richest person, also runs electric vehicle maker Tesla, aerospace company SpaceX, brain-chip startup Neuralink and tunnelling services provider the Boring Company.
His takeover of Twitter has seemingly drawn widespread scrutiny among users and lawmakers alike, with plans to revamp the popular social media site’s content moderation policies in the name of “free speech”. He said he’ll establish a council to govern those decisions but has yet to reveal any details of how the process works.
Musk said he doesn’t want the site to become a “free-for-all hellscape” but rather a “common digital town square” that’ll facilitate an exchange of different views and opinions.
Not all users, however, trust his leadership, with some already deactivating their accounts and leaving the site entirely. A number of advertisers have also reportedly threatened to boycott the site if Musk allows former U.S. President Donald Trump back in.
Musk is already considering big changes for Twitter in his takeover. Among his plans is to make the site’s Blue subscription mandatory for verified users. He also wants to hike the price of the subscription from US$5 to US$20. Once the change is final, verified users will have 90 days to subscribe, otherwise they’ll lose the blue check mark on their profiles.
Apart from this, the new Twitter CEO is said to be considering more layoffs soon, having already asked managers to start drawing up lists of employees to cut.
Elon Musk said in a filing he'll be the Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, a move he first hinted at when he previously changed his bio on the microblogging site to “Chief Twit”.
The position was left vacant after Musk fired former CEO Parag Agrawal last week, declaring in a tweet that “the bird is freed”.
According to the same filing, Musk has also dissolved Twitter’s board of directors, effectively making him the “sole director” of the company.
Musk runs four other companies, namely Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and Boring Company, apart from Twitter.