Tesla’s CEO is now the sole director of the social media giant after concluding a $44bn deal to buy the company.
Elon Musk has fired Twitter’s board of directors and given his unfettered authority over Twitter according to a filing by the company.
Elon Musk became the “sole director” of Twitter after completing his $44bn acquisition of the company this week, according to documents submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday.
The Tesla CEO later tweeted on Monday that the agreement was “temporary” without elaborating.
Musk is also the CEO of the space-flight company SpaceX and a neurotechnology company Neuralink Musk, who started his time at the company on Thursday with dismissing top management such as chief executive Parag Agrawal as well as the Chief of Finance Ned Segal.
Musk has also said he will buy back Twitter’s bonds that are outstanding, as per an SEC filing.
Musk is the richest person, has completed the acquisition of the company using the use of his own fortune, investments funds, as well as bank loan.
A separate SEC filing revealed it was Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal who had become Twitter’s second-largest shareholder.
Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator from Connecticut said he’d request for the Committee on Foreign Investment to look into the safety implications for Saudi Arabia’s investment on the platform.
Musk’s acquisition of the renowned social media site has sparked an intense debate on the right balance between freedom of speech and the need to protect vulnerable groups from harm online.
Musk who self-describes as a “free-speech absolutist”, has criticized Twitter’s moderation policies, and claimed that the company is in favor of left-wing beliefs.
While Musk hasn’t yet announced his specific strategies for his platform he’s widely believed to relax restrictions on moderation and reduce an important portion of the workforce.
While acknowledging that Twitter is not a “free-for-all hellscape”, Musk has stressed the necessity of a “common digital town square” that allows a range of opinions can be expressed and discussed.
Musk who has expressed his displeasure with Twitter’s dependence on ads has expressed an interest in making people buy the blue checkmark which is used to verify accounts with a high profile and also offering different versions of the service built around a film-like rating system.
