A couple of weeks ago, Elon Musk completed the purchase of Twitter for US$44 billion. Since then, several celebrities have decided to leave the social media platform, even directly blaming the company’s new CEO for his actions: first came the mass layoffs, then the plan to charge users with verified accounts. In fact, public figures such as Gigi Hadid (famous model), Shonda Rhimes (creator of “Grey’s Anatomy”), and Toni Braxton (singer) say that Twitter is no longer a “safe space” and that they do not want to be part of “whatever Elon has planned.”

But what is Musk's real plan? Given the criticism the businessman has received, it can be inferred that he is seeking to reduce content moderation on the platform, with the aim of strengthening “free speech.” Furthermore, various sources indicate that he may be seeking to support Donald Trump’s candidacy for the upcoming U.S. presidential election, a move that has had a strong impact on the public. At the same time, another move that caused widespread unease in the community was the complete layoff of the company’s Human Rights team.

These messages have not been well received by Twitter users, which has led to this wave of account suspensions and even the withdrawal of advertisers. On this matter, Musk points to activist groups that, according to him, “are trying to destroy free speech in the United States.” The truth is that this has led to a massive drop in Twitter’s advertising revenue and has even spurred the growth of an alternative social network: Mastodon, which now has more than 650,000 users (with more than 230,000 new sign-ups in the last week).

But can even a giant like Twitter fall? And that quickly? This demonstrates the impact that certain decisions can have, and the value added by a C-level team whose personal goals are aligned with those of the company. This is precisely why the founding team is the primary factor evaluated by venture capital investors. This is, in fact, borne out by Elon Musk himself: technically relentless, he was able to create two giants, Tesla and SpaceX, but today, it seems, he’s not making the right moves and is showing signs of bringing an empire crashing down.

By Tomás Latorre

AGF Team