As Twitter, renamed X, faces increased scrutiny in the EU and usage falls, Elon Musk has floated drastic action.

It is increasingly likely that the point of purchasing Twitter was to destroy it.

Edit - FWIW, I waffle back and forth on this one. I mean, the guy’s not a complete idiot. Though I don’t certainly think he’s the genius people often think he is. He’s needed had a fair amount of luck and self-serving coercion to get where he is. The Twitter stuff is just so blind to market reality that I wonder if there’s some self-sabotage in there?

(Either way, I am genuinely enjoying the the follow-on comments here!)

Well, mostly to take it away from the libs and hand it to fascists.

Expect a fire sale to Trump Social.

Except he bungled that and now it’s dying

Oh no! It’s just resting!

His point of purchasing Twitter was to pretend that he was purchasing Twitter. He never intended to go through with it.

Remember that he tried to back out but courts forced him to go through with it.

Since he was an idiot and gave a no reservations or conditions bid for the company. At way overpriced at that. The existing biard and owners must have been fainting from shock and glee.

No one sane ever gives no reservations and conditions bid. That is insanely stupid thing to do.

Twitter didn’t make Elon buy Twitter. Elon did that to himself. Under normal bid, absolutely he could back out by arguing one of the conditions his lawyers would have put in.

Either his lawyers were highly incompetent, he didn’t use them or he ignored their advice that it would be highly unusual and monumentally stupid to issue such bid while waiving ones right to have terms and conditions included. Well negotiate in terms and conditions. Since obviously otherside might refuse to accept the buying contract, if they don’t like the terms and conditions.

In this case all the judge did was looked at the bid contract and went “Mister Musk, you signed bid to buy with no terms and conditions. So you have to honor the bid.”

Sorry but that’s dumb. You don’t spend $44B to ruin it, when you can use it for own benefit.

EU doesn’t like the changes he did and started investigation. Melon hopes that by threatening to withdraw they might stop, or be easy on him.

I mean if the goal was indeed so ridiculous as shutting Twitter down, it would be easy as shutting it down. He would save his image by just doing that instead of what he is doing right now.

His goal is to turn Twitter around and use it for affecting next elections, he is running into pesky EU and their regulations.

He didn’t plan on spending 44B. The plan was to manipulatie stock price with pretending to buy, but Twitter management saw that one coming and let him sign a document for 44B that the rich idiot didn’t read.

So when the “I changed my mind” phase of his master plan started, Twitter pulled out the document and forced him to cough up the 44B. So yeah, now he pretends it was the plan all along.

It’s trying to give him a little credit to justify messing up a purchase that large.

If the intention wasn’t to shut it down or disrupt then everything that’s happened is literally just Elon being a complete dunce. Which is definitely more likely, but scary to think someone can be that reckless with 44 billion dollars

Which is yet another reason to add to the list of reasons no one needs that much money. That $44b could have positively changed thousands of lives (at least). Instead, it just continued flushing things down the Xitter.

I mean if the goal was indeed so ridiculous as shutting Twitter down, it would be easy as shutting it down.

But that wouldn’t work. If the community was snuffed out in a day then it would move to some clone pretty easily. It dying slowly means the community is divided and diluted many ways.

EU is waking up to the danger to democracy that is unregulated social networks ruled by trolls and dysonformation. They would be glad for them to leave.

~~Nah, he never wanted to buy it.~~

~~It was a pump and dump and then the SEC forced him to actually buy it.~~

He tried to back out but was forced to complete the sale.

Now he has no idea what to do with it and is just digging himself deeper and deeper and deeper.

What was Elon Musk’s strategy for Twitter?

Well, he is kinda following a random message he got from an unknown person:

The three texts were sent on April 4, 2022. In the nearly 18 months since then, many of the decisions Musk made after he bought Twitter appear to have closely followed that road map, up to and including his ongoing attacks against the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit organization founded by Jewish Americans to counter discrimination.

The text messages described a series of actions Musk should take after he gained full control of the social media platform: “Step 1: Blame the platform for its users; Step 2: Coordinated pressure campaign; Step 3: Exodus of the Bluechecks; Step 4: Deplatforming.”

Seems he’s killing it to get cheers and adulation from the far right.

Why try to back out then? If this was some catch and kill op why did he humiliate himself and involve a fuck ton of bank loans??

Also it’s not like that text is some grand fuckin plan lmao

It’s a damn copy paste from the fascist playbook, reverse victim and offender/gaslight/silence those you don’t like with your new power

If he wanted to kill it, this whole charade would be utterly pointless. He could literally just pull the plug.

He signed a contract to buy it, then tried to back out.

Good point, you are correct. I worded that incorrectly and have edited it.

To people like EM, laws are only there to force others to do what they want, not to bind or limit their actions. When he decided to back out of the deal, as far as he was concerned, he should have been allowed to.

When they sued to force the sale, it was the legal discovery that scared the shit out of him. So he had to go through with the purchase.

porque no los dos?

I think he found himself between a rock and a hard place having to buy Twitter, but now he is realizing he can’t make his money back and his attempts to alter the platform to his liking are failing miserably as well, he is probably dead set on killing it for good.

I’m not so sure.

He owns it outright now.

There are no other shareholders to answer to.

If he wanted to close it down tomorrow, he could just turn off the servers and sack everyone.

I like this take, too. I also see him spinning this into major tax write offs, or something. Even losses benefit billionaires in this country it seems.

Anyone that believes this is truly brain dead. He was humiliated when he didn’t look into the deal signed the contract and then tried to pull out when he realized what was happening. He had to beg for loans for fucks sake, putting up Tesla shares and other things as collateral.

He’s just a dumb rich piece of shit who is desperate for control and power. He will say or do anything to get what he wants (especially if he thinks it will garner attention) - that doesn’t require a master plan or any real preemptive thought for that matter

He’s a fucking piece of shit with a golden parachute out his ass and a silver spoon in his mouth since he was a child. He has ALWAYS bought his way in, look at damn near every business venture this piece of shit has had. Shit, he literally bought his way into Tesla, then OUSTED THE OGS AND LABELED HIMSELF A FUCKIN FOUNDER.

It has always worked for him so he kept trying to buy his way thru shit. Just look at his little spat with Zuck. He is ALL talk; especially when his money gets to do the talking. When shit hits the fan he scrambles. Always has always will

That makes No sense. He’s just bad at busniess

Yep, exactly. He’s an idiot who happens to be a billionaire who thinks he’s iron man with the IQ of Einstein. It’s a dangerous combination. I’m just glad he can’t become president of the US — we don’t need another of his ilk.