Stelter: ‘Fear’ of Elon Musk Buying Twitter Shares, Joining Board

There’s been a flurry of activity at Twitter this week as exocentric billionaire Elon Musk bought enough shares to make him the largest single investor on Monday, and Tuesday saw him join the company’s board of directors with the promise of “significant improvements” on the way. But while conservatives and libertarians rejoiced, CNN’s Brian Stelter was busy on his CNN+ show, The Daily Sources of Reliable Information stoking the “fear” and “weariness” people on the left had about the situation.

After news of Musk’s acquisition of shares broke, Stelter brought on CNN Business writers Clare Duffy and Sara O’Brien to discuss. According to Stelter, there’s “fear I think sometimes or weariness”This is the idea of “so here’s the richest man on the planet who just bought a big chunk of one of our most important communications tools.”

 

 

To seemingly complete his cartoon of Musk as a movie villain, Stelter noted Musk is “one of the largest owners of satellites in the world.” “So, he’s incredibly powerful,”He exhibited trepidation as he warned “to use the word ‘strange’ when talking about Elon Musk[.]”

Duffy and Stelter shared a laugh about Musk’s “colorful history” with Twitter and his tweeting:

DUFFY: He does indeed have an interesting past.

STELTER: He’s out tweeting in Berlin about nightclubs. Yeah.

DUFFY – Yes. There is some colorful history, especially on Twitter.

STELTER: A colorful history.

“I think the potential for him to make significant changes there is big,” Duffy said. “It’s definitely there. Yeah,” Stelter agreed.

And with Musk joining Twitter’s board of directors, Stelter seemed to be a bit concerned by a tweet where the billionaire said he was “Looking forward to working with Parag and the Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months.”

 

 

“What do you think those ‘significant improvements to Twitter’ are going to be,”Alex Heath was the senior reporter at The Verge. After sharing a laugh about Heath saying he had “no idea,” Heath scoffed at Musk’s desire to have Twitter “adhere to principles of free speech”:

Elon talked about Twitter need to What does it mean to adhere more strongly to the principles of freedom speech? Right? Elon may have pushed the limits of what public figures can tweet better than any other. So, if there’s anyone who’s actually benefitted from Twitter’s kind of lax content moderation policies over the years it’s Elon. So, I’m not really sure what he wants.

“Lax content moderation” on Twitter? What? This is the company that conducted a Soviet-style purge of the Hunter Biden laptop story that was falsely labeled “Russian misinformation.” People were banned for simply sharing the New York PostStory breaking the bombshell. Stelter has yet to address it on any of the shows.

Citing Heath’s reporting on Twitter releasing a statement saying “Our policy decisions are not determined by the board or shareholders,” Stelter suggested, “it sounds like what Twitter’s trying to communicate right now is, Elon Musk isn’t going to be allowed to come in and rewrite the rules.”

Heath agreed but thought Musk brought benefits to the table since he’s “an engineering CEO”:

Twitter might use some help in this area. It could ship code quicker and take greater risk with the actual product. Elon joined the board because he is the most frequent user of the product. He’s definitely the most influential member of the board who actually uses Twitter now.

So, he could benefit them actually to have someone who’s a power-user on the platform.

“That’s a great point: it is important to have board members who actually use the app, use the product,” Stelter agreed.

Below is the transcript. Click “expand to read:

CNN+’s The Daily Source: Reliable Sources
April 4, 2022

(…)

BRIAN STELTER: There’s interest in billionaires. There’s celebration of the Musk. There’s also fear I think sometimes, or weariness of, “okay, so here’s the richest man on the planet who just bought a big chunk of one of our most important communications tools.” And as one of the earlier programs today, Go There pointed out: he’s also like one of the largest owners of satellites in the world. So, he’s incredibly powerful, incredibly – I don’t know, am I allowed to use the word ‘strange’ when talking about Elon Musk?

CLARE DUFFY : He does indeed have an interesting past.

STELTER: He’s out tweeting in Berlin about nightclubs. Yeah.

DUFFY

STELTER: A colorful history.

DUFFY: In 2018, the SEC accused him of fraud. He was required to submit all his Tesla tweets to Tesla executives as part of the settlement. It is clear that he has had a complex history on Twitter. He also has large followers, so I see the opportunity for him to make major changes.

STELTER: It’s definitely there. Yeah.

(…)

April 5, 2022

STELTER: Elon Musk joins the Twitter board. Everyone wondering what’s that going to mean. Here’s the statement from Elon and from the Twitter CEO. They’re saying they’re excited; this is going to be a journey. Here’s Musk saying, “Looking forward to working with Parag and the Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months.”

So, before we get to your breaking news, what do you think those “significant improvements to Twitter” are going to be?

ALEX HEATH – Brian, it’s not clear. And I’m not sure Twitter does either–

STELTER: That’s the best answer on TV. That’s what I love. That’s so honest. That’s all we know.

HEATH Right? Elon seems to have pushed the limits of what public figures can tweet. So, if there’s anyone who’s actually benefitted from Twitter’s kind of lax content moderation policies over the years it’s Elon. So, I’m not really sure what he wants.

STELTER: Here’s what you just posted. This is from Twitter today saying, “Our policy decisions are not determined by the board or shareholders.” So, it sounds like what Twitter’s trying to communicate right now is, Elon Musk isn’t going to be allowed to come in and rewrite the rules.

HEATH: That’s what they’re trying to say. I mean, they obviously don’t want it to look like this guy who just came in and straight out of secession bought 10 percent of the company is now going to be influencing specific content moderation policies. I would want to give them the benefit of the doubt on that, but it’s clear they feel the need to clarify that.

If I were to guess, Elon would be an engineer CEO. Twitter would benefit from a boost in shipping codes faster and taking greater risks regarding what the product does. Elon joined the board because he is the most frequent user of the product. He’s definitely the most influential member of the board who actually uses Twitter now.

So, he could benefit them actually to have someone who’s a power-user on the platform

STELTER: That’s a great point: it is important to have board members who actually use the app, use the product.

(…)

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