Chaotic and crass: a brief timeline of Elon Musk’s history with Twitter

theguardian.com:

One of Twitter’s most controversial users became its owner on Monday, after Elon Musk brokered a $44bn deal to purchase the company.

The move was in many ways the culmination of the billionaire’s long history with the platform. Musk has been on Twitter since 2009 andtweeted as early as 2017 expressing interest in buying it. He has also been a vocal critic of Twitter, calling for changes including rolling back content moderation and prioritizing a “societal imperative” of free speech.

A prolific user, Musk has 84 million followers on his account – with whom he shares memes, news about his electric vehicle company Tesla and, like the majority of Twitter users, pithy commentary on his day-to-day life.

But Musk’s tweets are not all fun and games. The executive has faced major backlash – and in some case legal action – for his activity online.

Here are some of the key moments in Musk’s Twitter history.

Musk’s activity has in some cases cost him dearly.

In August 2018, he posted that he had funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share – a joking reference to marijuana. But the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concluded after investigation the tweets had no basis in fact and hurt investors, issuing two separate fines to Musk and Tesla of $20m.

The penalty marked a “warning for all those who make public pronouncements without regard for either the accuracy or impact of their words”. (Musk maintains that the joke was “worth it”).

Part of that 2018 settlement included a clause that Musk would have legal counsel approve tweets about Tesla in advance to ensure they do not contain market-moving news. Musk, unsurprisingly, has not abided by those conditions, flippantly wiping $14bn off Tesla’s value in 2020 with a tweet stating