The Atlantic By Marina Koren 4/26/2022
For a hint at how Twitter will fare under its new owner, consider how he operates his other enterprises.
But one way to think about how Twitter might fare under Musk is to look at how the billionaire operates those other enterprises that occupy his mind. More than any Muskian pronouncement, that history can hint at what his ownership might mean—for Twitter as a company with thousands of employees, a platform with millions of users, and an unruly public forum on an unruly internet. I’ve described Elon’s world before as the Musk Cinematic Universe, and in his businesses, as in Marvel movies, certain themes appear again and again, impatience first among them. Here are four axioms for what to expect next.
1. If Twitter has a factory floor, Musk might try to sleep on it.
Musk is a well-known workaholic. During particularly intense production sprints at Tesla, Musk was at the company’s offices day in and day out, sleeping under his desk, on a couch, and even on the factory floor itself. The goal in those moments was to produce several thousand Model 3s a week, a decidedly more concrete effort than managing algorithms. But if Musk decides to really dive into Twitter, its employees can expect this level of involvement. He certainly has the time. -----
2. He’s interested in his ideas, not your complaints.
Some Twitter employees reacted with “shock and dismay” at Musk’s takeover, according to The Washington Post, worrying that Musk “would attempt to break down safeguards to protect everyday users that staff had built over many years." And he has given at least one sign that he would not step in between vulnerable users and aggressive, dangerous behavior. Last month, Musk said that following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “some governments (not Ukraine)” had asked SpaceX to configure its Starlink internet satellites to block Russian news sources; Musk said “we will not do so unless at gunpoint.” Among several possible scenarios for a Musk-owned Twitter, the most likely outcome, as Charlie Warzel writes in his newsletter at The Atlantic, is that Twitter will return to an earlier state, circa 2016, when the platform “prioritized free-speech maximalism and underinvested in tools for users to protect themselves,” producing an environment with minimal moderation and more rampant harassment and hate.-----
3. Prepare for rogue proclamations.
Musk has a reputation for setting unrealistic deadlines. In the fall of 2019, for example, Musk said that his Starship rocket would reach orbit in less than six months; SpaceX has not even made its first attempt yet, and likely won’t until later this year, when—as is often the case with experimental rockets—the first one will probably explode. The space community refers to Musk’s ambitious approach to timelines as Elon Standard Time. Building spaceships takes much longer than reprogramming one function of a website, but don’t expect your user experience to change within days of a tweeted decree.-----
4. Musk could go full “maker of civilization” on Twitter.
Last night, Jack Dorsey, the founder and former CEO of Twitter, tweeted that he believes Musk will put Twitter on the right path, saying “I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.” Where have we heard that before? From Musk, of course, who uses the line often when he talks about sending people to Mars and making our species “multiplanetary.” These goals, he says, are necessary to preserve earthly life. Already, he’s doing the same with Twitter, elevating what happens on the platform to a concern of civilizational importance and even a civilizational good. “Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a press release yesterday.
More:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/04/elon-musk-spacex-tesla-twitter-leadership-style/629689/
