When libertarian-ish billionaire Elon Musk bought the social media giant Twitter for $44 billion, most people around here knew it was a bona fide disaster. A little more than half a year later, under the weight of Musk’s ego leadership, Twitter is on the brink of collapse.
On Tuesday, Fidelity marked down its stake in Musk’s right-wing speech haven, valuing the company at one-third what Musk purchased it for just seven months ago. Fidelity has steadily lowered the value every month or two since Musk became CEO.
Musk himself admitted he was “obviously overpaying” for the social media platform when it became apparent he was … obviously overpaying for the platform. But he assured everyone that his big brain saw Twitter as “an order of magnitude greater than its current value.”
We can see how well that has worked out for him.
RELATED STORY: Twitter’s collapse is imminent, here’s what’s next
After Musk took control of the social media company, he quickly fired around 75% of Twitter’s workforce. Then Musk disabused his crypto-tech bro following of the notion that his faux-free-speech absolutism was genuine by banning accounts he didn’t like while offering up garbage reasons for his censorship.
Musk began bringing back the (predominantly) far-right misinformation accounts that had been banned by Twitter’s moderation team in previous years. This led advertising revenue to begin a descent into an economic abyss it has never recovered from. Musk’s next bright idea was to monetize the “blue check” verification system to generate a new revenue stream, as they say in the business world.
Of course, the blue check verification system was ostensibly created in order to add integrity to the site. That integrity—relied upon by media outlets, businesses, and celebrities alike—was not simply a way to protect Twitter from libel claims. It was a promise to advertisers that their money was being spent on something people could believe was (mostly) true.
Since that time, news traffic has declined and advertising remains in a free fall. Musk, clearly feeling the pressure from all of his business ventures, announced he would be stepping aside to bring in a new CEO, Linda Yaccarino. The move is most likely Musk’s last-ditch attempt to win back advertisers by bringing in someone who isn’t Elon Musk. Yaccarino seems to share Musk’s penchant for supporting misinformed conspiracy theory, and digging out of the hole Musk has created may be an impossible task.
On the one hand, Musk went about applying, then clawing back, and then re-applying these measures with a kind of erratic narcissism usually associated with a midlife crisis. But the results have been very targeted: Twitter is now a far-right social networking service. There aren’t nearly as many customers in the land of MAGA, and definitely not enough advertisers to sustain a $44 billion purchase.
Musk and his iteration of Twitter don’t seem to be willing to do anything meaningful to right the ship. There is now a very real chance the platform will be shut down completely in Europe if it is unable and unwilling to cooperate with the code of practice set to become law in August 2023.
While Musk will remain one of the richest men in the world, Twitter will probably continue to morph into a stew of anti-vaxx and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
RELATED STORIES:
Report says Elon Musk plans on firing 3/4 of Twitter’s workforce
Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue is a verified disaster
Elon Musk has turned Twitter into a disinformation service for hire, and it’s getting much worse
Will Twitter’s new CEO be worse than Musk?
We have Rural Organizing’s Aftyn Behn. Markos and Aftyn talk about what has been happening in rural communities across the country and progressives’ efforts to engage those voters. Behn also gives the podcast a breakdown of which issues will make the difference in the coming elections.
