Only a few years ago “Musk” was a bad perfume (and some would say it still is). It’s now almost impossible to list the innovations associated with the name “Musk”. But like the laundry list of other brands that have transformed from “good” too “bad”, Elon and his Twitter purchase risk a similar fate. Yet again, he never ceases to surprise… And you can ask a lot of institutional investors, it can be costly to bet against him.
So what to make of this Twitter purchase? Dorsey seems on board. Is it a caprice of the ultra-wealthy? The mainstream media seems to think so. Is there some innovative vision behind the purchase? His fan club is on-board. Are there integration possibilities, us commoners refuse to see? A Twitter-SpaceX-Boring Phone? Maybe more profoundly, what impact will his purchase have on privacy and ultimately free speech?
The response to this question is more clear. Instead of leaving the rules for this public-square moderation in the hands of a “corporation”, they’re moving firmly into the hands of an “individual”. One thing that would dull the fear of so much influence resting in the hands of Musk, would be to open-source the algorithms that drive’s Twitter’s success.