Why has Elon Musk decided not to be part of the Twitter board of directors?

the tech tycoon Elon Musk will not finally enter the board of directors of Twitter. The executive director of Tesla has backtracked just six days after learning that it had acquired 9.2% of the social network, becoming the platform’s largest shareholder.

The CEO of the company, Parag Agrawalreported this Sunday of Musk’s decision. “Elon’s appointment to the Board of Directors was officially going to be effective on April 9, but Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board. I think this is good,” he explained in a tweet.

Elon has decided not to join our board. I sent a brief note to the company, sharing with you all here. pic.twitter.com/lfrXACavvk

— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 11, 2022

It was Agrawal himself, at the helm of Twitter since the end of 2021, who celebrated “excited” last week that the popular and controversial businessman joined the platform board to provide “great value”. Musk has not yet provided explanations for his change of course; True to his style, he has limited himself to publishing an emoticon covering his mouth and smiling, as if it were a prank. He has since deleted the tweet.

The American tycoon of South African origin has invested 2.4 billion dollars to buy 73.5 million shares of Twitter. This has led him to become its largest shareholder, quadrupling the share held by the platform’s founder himself, jack dorseywho stepped down as CEO last November.

Musk’s entry into the shareholding of Twitter had a direct impact, causing the company’s shares to soar on the New York Stock Exchange, with a revaluation of more than 27%. However, his troll character, unpredictable and critical of the social network had raised a sea of ​​speculation about how his entry on Twitter could change the way the platform works.

In recent weeks, Musk had questioned whether Twitter “rigorously” respected the freedom of expression, criticizing the content moderation policy of the company he just joined. Company employees were concerned that his entry into the company and his growing power of influence in it could result in a change in the blocking of the former US president’s account donald trumpwho was expelled for instigating the violent assault on the Capitol in Washington with which his followers sought to forcibly stop the certification of the presidential victory of Joe Biden.