Twitter is likely one of the web’s favourite locations for web beef and Elon Musk is not any stranger to it. A specific beef involving a college student tracking his private jet was the catalyst for the billionaire buying shares of Twitter, commencing his takeover of the social media platform, in accordance with a brand new guide in regards to the ordeal.
“Musk had additionally unsuccessfully petitioned Agrawal [CEO of Twitter at the time] to take away a Twitter account that was monitoring his non-public aircraft,” says an excerpt from Battle for the Hen, a brand new guide on Musk’s takeover, printed by Bloomberg on Thursday. “The billionaire began shopping for Twitter shares shortly after Agrawal denied his request.”
The brand new guide is an in depth investigation into the facility battle at Twitter, now referred to as X, in the previous few years. The guide appears to verify that Musk’s private gripes performed a key position in his $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform.
Musk touts “free speech” as the primary cause he purchased Twitter, however the billionaire was actively attempting to silence a school pupil he had a feud with earlier than he was CEO. A Twitter account monitoring Elon Musk’s non-public jet, @elonjet, was entrance of thoughts for the billionaire in Jan. 2022 when Musk began shopping for inventory within the firm, in accordance with a tweet from the guide’s creator Kurt Wagner.
Almost a 12 months later, Musk’s acquisition was full and he ended up banning @elonjet. The particular person behind the account, Jack Sweeney, is a school pupil who’s now well-known for monitoring the non-public jets of Musk and Taylor Swift. Sweeney merely amplifies publicly out there flight data, however celebrities hate him.
Musk promised to not ban Sweeney’s account a month earlier than he did, crediting “his commitment to free speech,” regardless that the account posed “a direct private security danger.” Sweeney now operates @elonjet on Threads.
The billionaire’s feud with Sweeney is a case examine of Musk’s motivating elements. Sure, free speech is vital to him, however not as vital as getting his means. Shopping for Twitter made Musk king of the sandbox, and he’s definitely exercised that management within the 12 months since.
Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has all the time been complicated. It’s extensively been seen as a misstep for the billionaire, distracting him from different initiatives at Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI. Musk was closely targeted on selling right-wing speech when he purchased Twitter, which was missing underneath Jack Dorsey’s administration, but additionally on settling his web beef.
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