Elon Musk deletes tweets critical of Twitter after weekend barrage

Elon Musk went on a tweetstorm in excess of the weekend, lobbing many critiques of Twitter. But the Tesla and SpaceX CEO appears to have deleted a number of of his spiciest can take, as he’s dropped his prepare to be part of the social media company’s board.

Musk’s tweets incorporated ideas on how to renovate Twitter and its goods. On Saturday, he requested his roughly 81 million Twitter followers to vote on no matter whether the firm need to convert its San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter.

In a next since-deleted tweet, Musk advised Twitter Blue subscribers should really be allowed to shell out with dogecoin, get an “authentication checkmark” and continue to keep the offering cost-free of advertisements.

“Absolutely everyone who signals up for Twitter Blue (ie pays $3/month) really should get an authentication checkmark,” Musk wrote. “And no ads. The ability of companies to dictate plan is considerably improved if Twitter depends on marketing cash to survive.”

Musk posted a independent poll, which has given that been deleted, asking folks to vote on no matter if Twitter need to drop the “w” from its name.

It’s unclear why the tweets were being deleted, and he failed to reply to a ask for for comment. A Twitter spokesperson declined to remark.

Even just before disclosing a 9% stake in the enterprise very last week and then briefly agreeing to join its board, the Tesla CEO has experienced a very long and sophisticated connection with Twitter as a communications resource.

In 2018, the Securities and Trade Fee billed Musk with generating “wrong and deceptive” statements to buyers when he declared by means of Twitter that he’d secured funding to get Tesla personal at $420 a share. Musk and Tesla eventually agreed to a settlement with the govt that was later revised.

Under the arrangement, Musk and Tesla every had to fork out $20 million in fines to the SEC. On top of that, Musk could no for a longer time be chairman of Tesla, and he experienced to have tweets made up of material small business data vetted just before they could be posted. Musk and his brother, Kimbal, a fellow Tesla and SpaceX board member, also are currently being investigated by the SEC over their tweets and investing.

The most up-to-date spectacle commenced on April 4, when Musk disclosed his Twitter stake in an SEC submitting. To the shock of buyers, he’d abruptly come to be the company’s major shareholder. The inventory jumped 27% on the information.

The up coming day, Twitter introduced that Musk would be becoming a member of Twitter’s board.

But that arrangement speedily unraveled. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted Sunday night that Musk knowledgeable the enterprise about the weekend that he would not be a board member after all.

“There will be distractions ahead, but our plans and priorities remain unchanged,” Agrawal wrote.

Now off the board, Musk is no for a longer period constrained to possessing just 14.9% of the corporation, which had been section of the agreement. That has started off analysts to speculate no matter whether Musk will bolster his stake in Twitter and potentially pursue a hostile takeover.

As for deleting tweets, it’s an action that Musk has taken in the earlier.

Earlier this yr, he deleted an offensive meme that when compared Canadian Key Minister Justin Trudeau to genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler. And in 2018, he took down a racy tweet that incorporated a image of Miley Cyrus twerking on phase at a new music awards display, together with the remark, “They expand up so rapidly.”

The latest deletions are distinctive mainly because the tweets pertained directly to a organization that Musk had just backed to the tune of billions of dollars.

Continue to, some of his controversial remarks stay on the site. For case in point, Musk failed to delete one particular of his weekend tweets inquiring if Twitter is “dying.” In the submit, he pointed out that some of Twitter’s most preferred consumers, like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber, seldom tweet.

On Monday, he also appreciated a tweet that stated, “Permit me break this down for you: Elon grew to become major shareholder for Absolutely free Speech. Elon was explained to to play wonderful and not discuss freely.”

Meanwhile, Musk is fighting a lawful struggle to keep alive a 4-yr-previous tweet. In 2021, the Countrywide Labor Relations Board ordered Tesla to make Musk delete a 2018 tweet that was witnessed as threatening to labor organizers inside of the corporation.

The tweet read through, “Nothing at all stopping Tesla group at our auto plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they required. But why fork out union dues & give up inventory choices for nothing at all?”

Tesla has appealed the administrative court’s choice.

Enjoy: Elon Musk however wants to impact modify at Twitter, claims Loup’s Gene Munster