Elon Musk Deletes Several Tweets After Rejecting Twitter Board Seat

On the weekend Elon Musk was expected to join Twitter’s board, the billionaire tweeted to his about 81 million followers ideas and changes he wanted to bring to the micro-blogging platform and deleted a few of those tweets hours after rejecting the seat.

The week-long drama started when Musk disclosed a 9.1 percent stake in Twitter on April 4 and later said he would take a board seat. But becoming a director would have prevented Musk from becoming a beneficial owner of more than 14.9 percent of Twitter’s common stock.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, its co-founder Jack Dorsey and Musk have tweeted their way through agreements, plans and congratulatory messages since the disclosure.

Here are some tweets Musk published and erased after disclosing his stake:

April 10, 2022 Musk polled followers on Twitter asking whether the company’s headquarters in San Francisco should be converted into a homeless shelter. The tweet is now deleted. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had backed Musk’s idea.

On April 10, 2022 Twitter CEO Agrawal shared a note on Twitter saying that Musk rejected the company’s offer to join its board. Musk deleted the tweet, where he responded with an emoticon with a face-with-hand-over-mouth.

Earlier that day, Musk started a poll asking if “w” should be deleted from Twitter’s name, leaving two voting options, “yes” and “of course.” He deleted that too.

A day before, with respect to Twitter’s business model, Musk tweeted before deleting it: “And no ads. The power of corporations to dictate policy is greatly enhanced if Twitter depends on advertising money to survive.” Musk also tweeted “Everyone who signs up for Twitter Blue (i.e. pays $3/month) should get an authentication checkmark” about its subscription service that offers “exclusive access to premium features” on a monthly basis. Later, he deleted the tweet.

On April 5, Parag Agrawal also tweeted Musk was being appointed to Twitter’s board. “He’s both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need on @Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term”, a follow-on tweet said.

Jack Dorsey also welcomed Musk to Twitter’s board in a tweet and added: “Parag and Elon both lead with their hearts, and they will be an incredible team.”

Just a day before Agrawal’s tweet, Musk posted a Twitter poll asking users if they wanted an edit button. “Do you want an edit button?” Musk asked in the tweet, in response to which Agrawal said the consequences of the poll will be important. “Please vote carefully,” he tweeted. Earlier that day, tweeting for the first time since the disclosure of his stake in Twitter, Musk said, “Oh hi lol”

On March 26, Musk said Twitter failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy and asked if new platform was needed.