Twitter Says Elon Musk Won’t Get Special Treatment From Its Rules

Recently we confirmed that Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a purchase of about 9.2% of Twitter shares. Elon Musk is now the owner of 73,486,938 Twitter shares worth about $2.89 billion. The acquisition automatically makes him the biggest outside shareholder in the social media stock. Although Elon Musk is known for raising quite controversial topics, influencing cryptocurrencies and his wars on the social platform, Twitter says Musk won’t be given any special treatment on the platform despite earning a seat on the company’s board of directors.

According to a statement by a representative of Twitter Adrian Zamora, the platform is ultimately “committed to impartiality in the development and enforcement of its policies and rules.” Zamora explains that the same Twitter rules that apply to everyone will be applied to Musk as well. In other words, if the need arises Musk can be subjected to a Twitter ban or suspension.

Zamora further explains that though the board members are unable to make decisions on Twitter’s policies, however, their influence counts and plays a large part in providing guidance and feedback. Zamora says “Our policy decisions are not determined by the Board or shareholders, as always our Board plays an important advisory and feedback role across the entirety of our service. Our day to day operations and decisions are made by Twitter management and employees.”

Of course, as a Board member, Musk will have a say on major aspects of the micro-blogging platform. Important aspects such as mergers and overseeing how business is performing are being approved by Board members, however, that may not include “day to day” decision-making.

Just after the announcement of Musk’s 9.2 per cent stake in the Micro-blogging platform which took place earlier in the week, the platform’s CEO Parag Agrawal made a confirmation that Musk would serve on the company’s board as a Class II director until the year 2024.

Now that Musk has tweeted his way into becoming the largest individual Twitter shareholder, many wonder about the real impact Musk may have on decisions for the platform going forward — especially given the fact that Musk is largely critical of the platform and can steer up a lot of controversies. In March, Musk reportedly held a poll on the platform to seek followers’ opinions on if Twitter “rigorously adheres” to the principle of free speech. The most recent which happened on Monday, Musk again polled Twitter followers on whether they think Twitter deserve an “edit” button.