Tesla’s shares experienced a rise of more than 2%, indicating positive sentiment from investors. However, some Tesla shareholders have expressed concern about Elon Musk’s involvement with Twitter, leading to questions about his commitment to Tesla, where he is also CEO. In April, progressive shareholders publicly urged Tesla’s board to ensure Musk’s prioritization of the electric vehicle company.
Musk, who also serves as CEO of SpaceX, made his mark at Twitter immediately after completing the $44 billion acquisition of the company in October. Musk’s leadership has resulted in the company’s core advertising business suffering as several companies stopped their paid promotional campaigns due to an increase in offensive speech and hateful rhetoric. Advocacy groups have documented these occurrences.
To mitigate the negative impact on Twitter’s advertising business, Musk introduced a new subscription service called Twitter Blue, which offers additional features such as longer tweet composition. The company also removed blue checkmarks from non-paying users with verified identities, potentially allowing impostors. Government accounts and some corporate accounts still maintain verification through a separate set of icons in silver and gold, respectively.
Musk has courted political controversy on Twitter with statements such as the media being racist against white and Asian people. During his tenure as CEO, Twitter has faced technical errors and outages, which coincided with massive layoffs that Musk pitched as necessary for the company’s financial health.
Recently, Tucker Carlson, a right-wing TV talk show host, announced that he would be hosting a new show on the platform after being fired from his previous employer, Fox News.
Overall, while Tesla’s recent share increase indicates investor confidence, the impact of Musk’s involvement with Twitter on Tesla’s operations remains a point of concern. It will be interesting to see how Tesla continues to perform under Musk’s leadership and whether any changes will be made to address these concerns.
