The spacecraft carrying Samantha Cristoforetti and her colleagues runs towards the space station. On time and running smoothly, thanks to the thrust of Space x's Falcon 9 rocket. Indeed, at two in the morning, when the Crew Dragon arrives at its destination, the company's technicians of Elon Musk will have already completed the recovery of the engine, to be reused for the next NASA missions. Another miracle, not so small, by Mr. Tesla, the genius who has found a way to considerably lower the cost of space adventures.
The repercussions on the Tesla stock
But Wall Street, merciless, yesterday celebrated the tycoon's successes with a sensational drop in the Tesla stock: -12%, or 126 billion dollars lost because of a bird. the news of thebuying Twitter sparked sales on electric car stock, in the belief that Musk, to buy all the shares of the social network, has in practice endangered the control of the electric car. To find the 44 billion necessary to buy Twitter, Musk had to give 60 billion in securities as a guarantee to the banks that partially financed (23 billion) the operation, first of all Morgan Stanley. But he also had to pull others out 21 billion out of pocket, likely selling the latest stock premiums packed into these months. It's not every day that the richest man in the world put 10-15% of your assets at risk for a personal betwithout relying on the market.
Musk's opponents
In short, a move that can be a stroke of genius or madness. Or both. Also because, as analyst Jeffrey Halley writes, “Wall Street is starting to wonder how Elon Musk will be able to manage Tesla, Starlink, Space-X and Twitter simultaneously.” Even genes have limits. And many potential enemies are wondering why this move. Where does the tycoon who promises to become the first man to land on Mars want to go?
And so Musk's outing on Twitter immediately triggered a series of reactions and suspicions. Both in the US, where the enemy Jeff Bezos has spoken of a possible favor for China, site of a Tesla factory, which in Europe.
EU commissioner Thierry breton, referring to the recent European legislation on the rules to which social networks must submit, the Digital Act Service, he intervened underlining that “it will be up to Twitter to adapt to the rules. I think Elon Musk knows Europe very well – he added – He knows very well that we have some rules for the automotive sector and he understands them. So in Europe, to protect free speech and to protect individuals, any company will have to abide by our rules."
Musk and the first amendment
Well-founded concerns? Probably yes, judging by the plans announced by Musk. The tycoon has already lined up for absolute freedom of speech under the first amendment. Hence the will to minimize moderation of the contents, which in his eyes as a libertarian still appears to be censorship: anyone, he repeated, should be able to write anything, within the limits of the law. Uncensored, because “I hope even my worst critic stays on Twitter,” Musk said.
Why does Musk want to unhook Twitter from the Stock Exchange?
Twitter will become a private company, away from the stock exchange, so be more free from rules and constraints. It will no longer be under the eye of the Security and Exchange Commission, which in 2018, after the announced (and never materialized) privatization of Tesla, had prohibited Musk from tweeting without a prior check to prevent his statements from impacting the stock of the electric car company.
The new Twitter, freed from the constraints of the Stock Exchange, will be able to aim for a different growth model: less constraints with advertising, the development of subscriptions and other services, less dependence on short-term turnover.
Twitter, Trump and Texas
In this frame it seems obvious the end of the disqualification of Donald Trump, already a big user of the social network, ousted together with the far right afterwards the assault on Capitol Hill of January 6, 2021. Even if the former president has already said that he now has alternative networks to express his thoughts. But the Republicans rejoice. “Expect – declares a GOP senator on Wall Street Journal – that progressives start yelling at the upcoming news. One start might be to break up what appears to be the monoculture at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters. Maybe Musk will move the company to Texas, like he did with Tesla. How many Twitter programmers have ever been to a rodeo?”
Limits and potential of Twitter
Who knows, maybe it will be more difficult to move the bird to Texas than to get an astronaut into space. Also due to the particular nature of Twitter, a social network that so far he didn't make a single dollar and which, before Musk's offer (54,20 dollars per share), was floating on the Stock Exchange at 39 dollars, far from the highs of 80. But it is an influential network, as a communication tool for VIPs (including Musk himself stands out, who has 84 million followers), albeit with his own 217 million users per day it is very far from the numbers of Meta/Facebook (1,9 billion daily contacts) or other social networks. A virtual square that draws its importance from the prestige of those who have chosen it as the ideal place to debate. Free, or almost.
