Elon Musk is a billionaire entrepreneur, CEO and political provocateur. Depending on the day, he can be the world’s richest man with an estimated worth of $245 billion dollars.
Born in South Africa in 1971, he co-founded PayPal, which revolutionized online payments. Musk later founded Space X, aiming to make space travel more affordable and eventually colonize Mars. He also leads Tesla, pioneering electric vehicles and renewable energy solutions.
When Musk bought Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion, it marked a significant shift for the platform. Musk, a frequent and influential Twitter user, promised to enhance free speech and reduce moderation, leading to concerns about the spread of misinformation and hate speech.
After the acquisition, Musk made several controversial changes, including firing top executives and about half of Twitter's staff. He also restructured the platform by introducing a paid subscription model for Twitter verification (the blue checkmark), rebranding the company as "X Corp," and focusing on transforming it into an "everything app" that offers services beyond social media, like payments and messaging.
Musk's ownership led to dramatic shifts in Twitter's operations and policies, as well as polarized reactions from users, advertisers, and regulators. Some praised his push for innovation and free speech, while others criticized the platform's increasing issues with misinformation, hate speech, and declining moderation standards.
In the last year Musk has become more vocal and active for Donald Trump’s campaign for president. But now Musk has gone boosting Trump on Twitter. Last week, Musk appeared at a Pennsylvania rally alongside the former president, while performing some awkward jumps and declaring to the crowd that “I’m not just Maga! I’m dark Maga!” Musk added that “this will be the last election” if Trump doesn’t win in November against Kamala Harris.
Recently it’s been reported that Trump’s presidential campaign worked with Twitter to prevent information about JD Vance from being posted on the social media platform, a move that resulted in the journalist who revealed the information being kicked off the site.
This contradicts Musk’s previous pronouncements that the was a “free speech absolutist” and he falsely accused the previous owners of Twitter of colluding with the then presidential candidate Joe Biden to prevent information about Hunter Biden’s laptop from being spread online.
Twitter is now estimated to be worth only about $7 billion. Advertisers have fled the site as the content has become the home of scammers, racists and low rent porn stars while being overrun by bots and overflowing with disinformation.
Guest:
Ryan Mac is a Los Angeles–based technology reporter for The New York Times. He has spent more than a decade reporting on wealth and power in Silicon Valley, first on staff at Forbes, and then at BuzzFeed News, where he was a senior reporter. He led the outlet’s deep reporting on Facebook, which garnered a 2019 Mirror Award and a 2020 George R. Polk Award.
"The Source" is a live call-in program airing Mondays through Thursdays from 12-1 p.m. Leave a message before the program at (210) 615-8982. During the live show, call 833-877-8255, email thesource@tpr.org.
This interview will be recorded on Monday, October 14, 2024.
