The first five days of Elon Musk's Twitter

Elon Musk attends Heidi Klum's 2022 Halloween Party on October 31, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images)

Last Friday, Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest person, purchased Twitter, one of the world's most important communication platforms, for $44 billion. The first five days of Twitter under Musk's leadership have not gone well. 

Musk dissolved Twitter's board of directors and named himself the CEO. He already runs four other companies. And yet Musk has found time to act as a personal concierge to far-right political figures seeking to undermine American democracy.

Jenna Ellis is an attorney who, after the 2020 presidential election, aggressively pushed demonstrably false claims of election fraud on behalf of Trump. Justin Riemer, the chief counsel of the Republican National Committee, accused Ellis of "misleading millions of people" with nonsensical conspiracy theories. In 2022, Ellis is working on behalf of Doug Mastriano, the extremist Republican nominee for Governor of Pennsylvania. As a state senator, Mastriano introduced a resolution urging Congress to ignore the official election results, paid to bus people to DC on January 6, and was filmed crossing a police line outside the U.S. Capitol during the riot.

On Monday at 6 p.m. Eastern, Ellis tagged Musk in a tweet, complaining that the Twitter account of Arizona Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem (R) had been suspended. Less than an hour later, Musk responded, saying that he was "looking into it."

Finchem is "a member of the extremist Oath Keepers militia who was seen outside the U.S. Capitol on January 6." He is also "an unhinged election denier who’s appeared on QAnon radio shows." He co-sponsored legislation that would allow the Arizona legislature to ignore voters and declare anyone the winner of an election.

Less than an hour after Musk said he was investigating, Finchem was back on Twitter, thanking Musk for restoring his account. 

It's unclear what, exactly, Finchem did to get his Twitter account suspended or if his actions warranted a suspension. But catering to the platform's biggest charlatans and liars is an inauspicious start for Twitter's new CEO.

Musk promotes vile conspiracy theory

Musk, as Twitter's CEO, isn't just catering to purveyors of disinformation — he's pushing it himself. 

On Sunday, Musk replied to a tweet from Hillary Clinton with a link to an article by the Santa Monica Observer, "a fringe website with a history of publishing false stories." The article claimed, without evidence, that Paul Pelosi, Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, was assaulted in his home while "in a dispute with a male prostitute." 

Musk pushed this conspiracy theory after it circulated among far-right political figures. It was never credible and was completely debunked by the criminal complaint against Mr. Pelosi's alleged attacker, David Depape. The complaint states that Mr. Pelosi did not know Depape. Further, Depape told investigators he broke into the house to kidnap Speaker Pelosi and, as punishment for lying, break her kneecaps.

Musk quietly deleted the tweet, but never acknowledged his mistake or apologized. Instead, he sarcastically attacked the New York Times for reporting on his role in pushing disinformation about the attack. 

The damage, however, was done. Multiple hashtags related to the Pelosi conspiracy theory trended on Twitter. 

Musk is CEO of one of the world's most powerful communications platforms. In just a few days, he has used that role to promote disreputable news sources and disparage legitimate news sources. 

Pay to play

Musk is the world's richest man, but he does not have access to a ton of cash. Most of his wealth is tied up in Tesla stock. He financed the Twitter deal, in part, by taking out massive loans that will require Twitter to make $1 billion per year in payments. Prior to the acquisition, Twitter was not a reliable source of any profits. It frequently lost money. So Musk is under a lot of pressure to produce cash that Twitter can use to make its loan payments. Otherwise, Musk might be forced to sell more Tesla stock, tanking the value of his most profitable company. 

Musk's primary idea is to charge verified users, who receive a small blue check next to their account names, to remain verified and allow people who aren't verified to pay for the privilege. Musk originally floated a price of $20 per month for verification but, after complaints from novelist Stephen King, lowered the proposed price to $8 per month. 

There are a few problems with this plan. First, it has no chance of generating meaningful revenue for Twitter. Even if 20% of currently verified users decided to pay $20 per month to remain verified, it would only generate $15 million per year. Currently, Twitter brings in $5 billion per year in revenue, mostly from advertising. In other words, "Musk’s apparent plan would generate about 30 hours’ worth of annual revenue."

More fundamentally, it misunderstands the purpose of verification. The verification system started after Twitter was sued by former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa for allowing an account to impersonate him on the platform. Other celebrities were also complaining about fake accounts. The verification system created trust, attracted more prominent users, and helped grow the site.

Putting the blue verification badge up for sale erodes this trust. Scam artists will be able to easily purchase verification to lend credibility to their schemes. It will be "easier for fake accounts posing as banks, government agencies or notable people to fool innocent users and spread fake news." The verification badge will no longer signify anything, other than the willingness to pay Musk $8 per month. 

Advertisers, which represent Twitter's only consistent source of revenue, are eyeing Musk's action wearily. IPG, a major advertising agency, is reportedly recommending that all their clients institute a "temporary pause" of Twitter ads.