The European Union and the United Nations have condemned Elon Musk’s decision to suspend a dozen journalists from Twitter. When Musk took over the company, he pledged to operate Twitter as a “free speech absolutist.” In the face of the avalanche of criticism, he turned around and announced that access would be restored.
He had disfellowshipped those journalists for covering the expulsion of a 20-year-old student who tracked his movements aboard his private jet. He said it puts him and his family at risk. But why then also ban journalists who simply reported without providing information on the location of their aircraft?
Ever since he took over Twitter, it’s been hard work there at the whims of his new boss. His management of the social network has been chaotic since its $44 billion acquisition last October: a string of resignations and layoffs, and the lifting of rules on the platform’s content. Decisions that turned advertisers off. To lower operating costs, Twitter, whose earnings are flat, is no longer paying rent for its San Francisco headquarters and offices around the world.
The irresistible rise of Elon Musk
Born in South Africa, he emigrated to Canada with his parents. After graduating from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, he moved to California in 1995. With his brother he founded Zip2, a company that designs maps and indexes for online newspapers.
Through merger and acquisition, this resulted in PayPal in 2000, from which he was ousted from the board of directors but continued to be a shareholder. When PayPal was bought by eBay in 2002, Musk used the $175.8 million he received to start SpaceX, a space company.
In 2004 he was one of the first investors in Tesla, which he acquired in 2008. In 2016 he founded Neuralink, which develops a brain-computer interface. He even plans to act as a guinea pig himself and have one implanted.
In 2018, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates financial markets, sued Musk for falsely claiming that he secured funding for the Tesla acquisition. Musk had to resign as Tesla boss and pay a $20 million fine. His misleading statements and misinformation about COVID-19 have been heavily criticized.
Musk and Asperger’s Syndrome
In an interview with news site Axios, Musk spoke about his life with Asperger’s Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. Einstein, Darwin and Newton would also have suffered from it. He recognizes the influence of the syndrome on his decision-making. There are few known examples of executives with the syndrome.
Exceedingly intelligent, Elon Musk is also a bizarre, impulsive and therefore unpredictable creature. After allowing him to amass his immense fortune, will his eccentricities lead to his downfall?