Elon Musk is the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, The Boring Company as well as PayPal and Zip2. Additionally he co-founded PayPal and Zip2.
Ever since purchasing Twitter, he has endeavored to turn it into an “all-purpose app.” However, these efforts to grow its business have met with considerable resistance.
It’s a battery
Elon Musk is an innovative technologist who co-founded and heads Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company. His goal is to eliminate soul-crushing traffic by developing electric vehicles, battery products and fast, affordable public transport through underground tunnels. But his eccentric behavior and remarks have brought controversy; for example when he suggested paying celebrities to maintain their blue checkmarks on Twitter – comments which caused some followers to become upset while possibly placing him at legal risk.
Musk’s purchase of Twitter fits neatly within his business model. Twitter gives him a platform on which he can promote his companies, promote libertarian ideologies and conspiracy theories, trolling his enemies, as well as feeding into fears, doubts and hatreds of unmoored fans who crave attention from him. He knows exactly how to manipulate them with self-serving advice, poop emojis and bad jokes to gain their allegiance and drive sales of his products.
He also has a reputation for aggressiveness, trying to silence critics through lawsuits or cutting salaries in order to silence reporting on his conduct. For example, he publicly mocked one disabled Twitter employee who was uncertain whether they would be laid off.
Even through all this turmoil, his company continues to flourish. Recently he revealed plans to extend Twitter’s capabilities with longer tweets and videos for Twitter Blue subscribers, as well as ways to monetize content. Furthermore, X.AI, his artificial intelligence company, is aiming at building a “super app.”
Twitter was an astute investment for Musk, an expert at viral marketing. He used it to market his companies and amass an impressive following among celebrities; and is now working towards attracting mainstream advertisers and monetising the service.
Twitter users have expressed displeasure with its new policy that requires them to pay for blue checkmarks. Though the company maintains it is necessary in order to protect creators’ rights, many prominent Twitter users – from celebrities and political figures alike – have voiced opposition. Some have even publicly declared they no longer wish to use its services while others have threatened to leave altogether unless changes are made.
It’s a charger
Elon Musk oversees an immense amount as co-founder and CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company. As such, he handles product design, engineering and global manufacturing for electric vehicle, battery, solar energy, rocket technology companies. However, his presence can often prove counter-productive; at times his antics threaten to derail businesses or damage reputations, or perhaps just seem designed to manipulate or provoke people; others seem designed solely for personal gain – as is evidenced by him becoming more outspoken as time goes on – constantly seeking attention by any means necessary – often as is his fascination for these ventures that leads him all around them!
Recent examples are seen with Twitter where Musk has infuriated users by forcing his will onto the platform with controversial policy and feature changes, staff cuts, service disruptions and calling out prominent Twitter users – prompting some to leave.
This week, he was furious to see that his Super Bowl tweet garnered less engagement than one by Joe Biden, prompting him to fly into Twitter’s offices and demand an explanation from engineers as to why his tweet had received less engagement than theirs. This action caused a storm of criticism as critics pointed out it was inappropriate for a company leader to interfere in such way with operations of their own firm.
Since his takeover of Twitter last year, Musk has introduced several features which have angered users – most notably his controversial decision to force paid accounts to display blue checkmarks to verify their identities. As a result, several notable Twitter users, such as NBA star LeBron James and singer Taylor Swift, have left. Other users like Dave Davies of the Kinks have complained that their posts have been flagged for potentially sensitive material. Many users have also been unable to tweet, receive new DMs, or follow new accounts – something Twitter has apologized for; but users remain disgruntled with how they’re being treated as it shows how unstable the company has become under Musk’s control; although he might be one of the more famous tech billionaires around, his reign of terror may not be the most secure.
It’s a phone
Elon Musk has become one of the world’s best-known entrepreneurs through his creation of Tesla and SpaceX – two electric car and rocket companies which are major competitors to traditional auto industry players – respectively. Additionally, Neuralink (working on brain-machine interfaces that connect directly to computers), Neuralink’s CEO is Elon himself; additionally he’s creating The Boring Company to develop tunneling technology to mitigate soul-crushing traffic while providing long-distance public transit via underground tunneling systems;
Since his acquisition of Twitter, Musk has attempted to reform it in ways critics consider counterproductive and potentially detrimental to its value. He fired numerous engineers, implemented his own policies on the platform and modified its algorithm in ways to amplify his own posts – sparking outrage among many by stripping labels from government-funded news organizations such as NPR and PBS as well as China Daily and Russian state-controlled RT accounts.
These actions have resulted in Twitter having to reduce its workforce since Musk took control. Twitter has suffered frequent outages and its algorithms are more vulnerable than before, leaving its users frustrated with an app which often makes itself inaccessible – even to high-profile members of its user community.
Musk has amassed an army of followers as part of his effort to develop a “super app.” They heed his every word and cheer his rocket ships, electric cars and more – an essential aspect of his business model, which relies upon selling products along with his brand as the once-in-a-generation inventor who brought them about.
But it also boosts his image and enhanced his $180 billion net worth – much of it due to Tesla shares he owns – further cementing its place as a symbol of 21st-century capitalism in which hype and image reign supreme.
It’s a wallet
Elon Musk is one of the richest people in the world, thanks to his stake in Tesla and other businesses he owns, like Neuralink and The Boring Company. Neuralink works on creating high-bandwidth brain-machine interfaces which could link our minds directly with computers while The Boring Company develops tunneling technology for alleviating traffic jams while facilitating high-speed public transit – this wide portfolio made Twitter an easy decision when looking to promote these ideas and brands.
Twitter may become less effective as a platform as a result of his purchase and may drive away advertisers as his erratic decisions seem more focused on garnering media coverage than running smoothly, leaving few engineers and support staff available to keep Twitter running smoothly.
Many of his moves appear designed to turn Facebook into a corporate propaganda outlet; however, they appear more likely to sow discord and drive away news organizations which rely on it for reporting truthfully.
Recent criticism from NPR and other media outlets was directed towards Elon Musk for adding unwarned “state-funded” labels to media accounts without warning, which have since been removed with his apology for his actions. Furthermore, Musk is paying celebrities to use Twitter blue checkmark feature which allows users to endorse content they’ve created or liked; this strategy creates excellent marketing strategy but puts celebrities at risk of lawsuits from individuals who believe that endorsement agreements were never inked with Twitter products.
Musk exploits the disillusionment and mistrust among younger Americans who no longer trust most traditional sources of moral, intellectual or cultural authority. He promises them his wisdom and humor in return for which they show loyalty through fealty.
As part of his quest to be an internet maverick, Mr. Musk has turned the Internet into an expansive soapbox that amplifies individual truths while leaving out facts and research. But this conflation between soapboxes and news organizations deepens ideological divisions; any statement coming from outside can easily be dismissed as meaningless noise, mischievous propaganda or mischief-making lies.