Twitter is appointing Elon Musk to its Board of directors, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal confirmed the appointment via a pair of tweets and called Musk “both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service”.
Musk responded that he looks forward “to making significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”.
Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
Seemingly already making moves towards these improvements before his new position was announced, Musk polled his followers on whether Twitter should add an edit button.
This comes after years of community debate over the addition of such a feature and Twitter saying on April 1 that it was “working on an edit button”.
This also follows Musk’s purchase on Monday of a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him the largest individual shareholder in the company. The Tesla CEO’s appointment to the Board of directors will limit him from buying more than 15% of Twitter stock.
Response from other Twitter stakeholders has been positive. Former Twitter CEO and current board member Jack Dorsey put out a tweet saying he was “happy” about the appointment and that Musk “cares deeply about our world and Twitter’s role in it”.
Despite Musk’s history of infamy on Twitter and his direct criticisms of the platform, the move seems likely to be very positive for the social media giant.
Following Musk’s large purchase of Twitter stock on Monday, the company’s stock value already rose 26%.
Pure financial gain aside, this appointment is likely to improve Twitter’s often turbulent community perception, at very least among Musk’s large and vocal fan-base, who now have a reason to be rooting for Twitter rather than against it.
Musk will serve as a director until 2024.
IOL Tech