The European Union and the United Nations have condemned Elon Musk’s decision to suspend a dozen journalists from Twitter. When Musk took over the company, he had pledged to run Twitter as a “free speech absolutist.” Faced with the avalanche of criticism, he turned around and announced that he would restore their access.
He had excluded these journalists for having reported the expulsion of a 20-year-old student who followed his movements on board his private jet. He said it put him and his family in danger. But then, why also ban journalists who simply reported the news without giving details of the location of his plane?
Since he took over Twitter, it’s been hard work in there according to his new boss’s moods. Its management of the social network since acquiring it for 44 billion US dollars last October has been chaotic: resignations and dismissals in series and cancellations of the rules on the content of the platform. Decisions that scared away advertisers. To reduce the operating costs of Twitter, whose revenues are plummeting, the company no longer pays rent for its headquarters in San Francisco and its offices around the world.
The irresistible rise of Elon Musk
Born in South Africa, he immigrated to Canada with his parents. After studying at Queen’s University in Kinston, Ontario, he moved to California in 1995. With his brother, he founded Zip2, a company that designs maps and directories for online newspapers.
By merger and acquisition this led to PayPal in 2000, of which he was ousted from the board of directors while remaining a shareholder. When Paypal was purchased by eBay in 2002, Musk used the $175.8 million obtained to found SpaceX, a spaceflight company.
In 2004, he was one of the first investors in Tesla, which he took over in 2008. In 2016, he created Neuralink, which is developing a brain-computer interface. He even plans to act as a guinea pig himself and have one implanted.
In 2018, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates financial markets, sued Musk for allegedly falsely stated that he had secured financing for the takeover of Tesla. Musk had to step down as Tesla chairman and pay a $20 million fine. His misleading statements and misinformation about COVID-19 have been heavily criticized.
Musk and Asperger’s Syndrome
In an interview with the Axios news site, Musk opened up about his life with Asperger’s Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. Einstein, Darwin and Newton would also have suffered from it. He recognizes the influence of the syndrome on his decision-making. There are few known examples of business leaders with the syndrome.
Superiorly intelligent, Elon Musk is also a bizarre, impulsive and therefore unpredictable being. After allowing him to amass his immense fortune, will his eccentricities lead to his downfall?