5 ms·

Smart move for a billionaire that wants to influence public opinion. The usual route is to buy a magazine or newspaper but in our new world, being a highly infl

Smart move for a billionaire that wants to influence public opinion. The usual route is to buy a magazine or newspaper but in our new world, being a highly influential stock owner of a social media company is the way forward.

pjc50 5y ago
The Berlusconi approach? (I'd suspect Musk of wanting to run for office, except I don't think he'd accept a lesser office than President which he's ineligible for. Maybe a state governor like Arnie?)
- geoah 5y ago
  I was wondering why that would be the case and a quick google basically comes up with this: > He was born in South Africa so he could never become President of the United States. Didn't know that was a requirement. TIL :D
  - philistine 5y ago
    If not for that detail, Arnold would have run against Obama.
  - dmurray 5y ago
    You might recall a certain movement asking for Obama's birth certificate to prove that he was born in the US, back when he ran for president. It's not completely clear that you need to be born in the US - several presidents and presidential candidates weren't - but it's pretty clear that foreigners who become naturalized US citizens later in life are not eligible to run for president.
    - jen20 5y ago
      Yes - I don’t believe there is a requirement to be born inside US territory (Ted Cruz was born in Canada and clearly desperately wants to be president!) - just to be a US citizen at birth.
    - geoduck14 5y ago
      Fun fact: George Washington was foreign born
      - dmurray 5y ago
        He was born in the British colony of Virginia. There's no point in history where you could describe that as "foreign" to the US, in the same way you wouldn't say Stalin was "foreign born" from the USSR.
      - vmception 5y ago
        The constitution explicitly has an exemption for those existing before ratification
- bko 5y ago
  Why would he want to do that? Being a politician sounds awful. He can make a much bigger impact in the private market.
  - bambax 5y ago
    Because those types of people want power, and even when you're the richest guy in the world, there are things you can't do unless you're head of a country.
    - bko 5y ago
      What power do politicians have? I guess you can nudge bureaucratic legislation to favor one group of developers over another and get favorable investment deals, but that just gets you more money. Or maybe you can elect a district attorney and go after an enemy of yours, but even that's not an easy win. And you can always buy influence for this sort of thing without going through the trouble and cost of running You certainly can't wave a magic wand and garner favor and respect from people. People hate politicians in the US. I don't know, I just don't see the "power". It's just an appeal to narcissism as people in the media would be obsessing over you and dissecting every word you say. But that's definitely not power.
      - ineedasername 5y ago
        The fewer politicians there are, the more power they have. In the US, levers of power are widely distributed compared to a typical autocratic country. If you want to avoid autocratic rule, split up the power into many hands. The end result may look like a top heavy lumbering bureaucracy, but if it's difficult to wrest control of someone's lever of power from them then you have a better defense against autocratic takeover.
        syshum 5y ago
        It almost like it was intentional on the part of the founders of the US Sadly we did not heed their wisdom and we have over the course of time consolidated power in the the hands of fewer people by putting more things into the hands of the federal government, allowed congress to shift their responsibility to the executive, and failing to increase the size of congress.
- wonderwonder 5y ago
  Why would he run for president, when he could quite possibly own a planet if he keeps moving forward with his Mars goals. If he establishes a base on mars, it is essentially his. Earth based countries are forbidden (in treaty at least) from claiming ownership of celestial bodies. What's to stop him declaring himself emperor of Mars. The person that controls the flow of supplies to an isolated world is pretty much all powerful.
  - awb 5y ago
    > Why would he run for president, when he could quite possibly own a planet if he keeps moving forward with his Mars goals. Countries have armies. Armies enforce international (and eventually planetary) rights. Countries also make laws. Laws that Musk must follow or risk consequences. > If he establishes a base on mars, it is essentially his. Earth based countries are forbidden (in treaty at least) from claiming ownership of celestial bodies. What's to stop him declaring himself emperor of Mars. He’d be a paper emperor. No method or means of enforcing his claimed dominion. > The person that controls the flow of supplies to an isolated world is pretty much all powerful. Countries control the right to launch those supplies. Musk is a few steps below that in the chain of power.
    - boznz 5y ago
      Space warfare 101. If you control orbital space nobody could touch you. By the way this is totally off-topic, Musk may say a few stupid things and piss a few people off but he is no Putin or James Bond Super-Villain.
  - vasco 5y ago
    You realise he needs permission from the government to even develop rockets, much less launch them into space and all the other crap. Unless there's an autonomous community on Mars that can defend from the US Space force, no private entity will be emperor of anything unless they are controlling things on Earth.
    - onethought 5y ago
- Havoc 5y ago
  He seems to despise gov red tape so can’t picture him running for office
libertine 5y ago
>The usual route is to buy a magazine or newspaper Or a TV channel/network, let's not forget those! I think you're on point.
- TIPSIO 5y ago
  Maybe instead he has realized the value Twitter has to these individual news organizations. He’s going to cut the head off by redoing the algorithm and establish an insane amount of power / influence by reducing everyone else’s. Bezo's "philanthropic" Washington Post purchase just became honest. Every popular power account and blue check mark is about to get blown up. It's no secret he kind of hates them.
jdrc 5y ago
or to make a news aggregator hehe
nojs 5y ago
How do you suppose he would use this ownership to his advantage?
bufferoverflow 5y ago
It's not like 9.2% ownership gives him any special privileges on Twitter. This is nothing like owning a newspaper.
- yucky 5y ago
  Why would being largest shareholder of a company not give you any special privileges in a company? Also, it guarantees him at least one seat on the board, and probably enough clout to help dictate the future direction of the company. If your largest shareholder says the current methodology used for content manipulation and account banning is bad for business, then there will be systemic changes as a result.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- namlem 5y ago
  He just joined the board of directors.

pjc50 5y ago

The Berlusconi approach? (I'd suspect Musk of wanting to run for office, except I don't think he'd accept a lesser office than President which he's ineligible for. Maybe a state governor like Arnie?)

geoah 5y ago
I was wondering why that would be the case and a quick google basically comes up with this: > He was born in South Africa so he could never become President of the United States. Didn't know that was a requirement. TIL :D
- philistine 5y ago
  If not for that detail, Arnold would have run against Obama.
- dmurray 5y ago
  You might recall a certain movement asking for Obama's birth certificate to prove that he was born in the US, back when he ran for president. It's not completely clear that you need to be born in the US - several presidents and presidential candidates weren't - but it's pretty clear that foreigners who become naturalized US citizens later in life are not eligible to run for president.
  - jen20 5y ago
    Yes - I don’t believe there is a requirement to be born inside US territory (Ted Cruz was born in Canada and clearly desperately wants to be president!) - just to be a US citizen at birth.
  - geoduck14 5y ago
    Fun fact: George Washington was foreign born
    - dmurray 5y ago
      He was born in the British colony of Virginia. There's no point in history where you could describe that as "foreign" to the US, in the same way you wouldn't say Stalin was "foreign born" from the USSR.
    - vmception 5y ago
      The constitution explicitly has an exemption for those existing before ratification
bko 5y ago
Why would he want to do that? Being a politician sounds awful. He can make a much bigger impact in the private market.
- bambax 5y ago
  Because those types of people want power, and even when you're the richest guy in the world, there are things you can't do unless you're head of a country.
  - bko 5y ago
    What power do politicians have? I guess you can nudge bureaucratic legislation to favor one group of developers over another and get favorable investment deals, but that just gets you more money. Or maybe you can elect a district attorney and go after an enemy of yours, but even that's not an easy win. And you can always buy influence for this sort of thing without going through the trouble and cost of running You certainly can't wave a magic wand and garner favor and respect from people. People hate politicians in the US. I don't know, I just don't see the "power". It's just an appeal to narcissism as people in the media would be obsessing over you and dissecting every word you say. But that's definitely not power.
    - ineedasername 5y ago
      The fewer politicians there are, the more power they have. In the US, levers of power are widely distributed compared to a typical autocratic country. If you want to avoid autocratic rule, split up the power into many hands. The end result may look like a top heavy lumbering bureaucracy, but if it's difficult to wrest control of someone's lever of power from them then you have a better defense against autocratic takeover.
      - syshum 5y ago
        It almost like it was intentional on the part of the founders of the US Sadly we did not heed their wisdom and we have over the course of time consolidated power in the the hands of fewer people by putting more things into the hands of the federal government, allowed congress to shift their responsibility to the executive, and failing to increase the size of congress.
wonderwonder 5y ago
Why would he run for president, when he could quite possibly own a planet if he keeps moving forward with his Mars goals. If he establishes a base on mars, it is essentially his. Earth based countries are forbidden (in treaty at least) from claiming ownership of celestial bodies. What's to stop him declaring himself emperor of Mars. The person that controls the flow of supplies to an isolated world is pretty much all powerful.
- awb 5y ago
  > Why would he run for president, when he could quite possibly own a planet if he keeps moving forward with his Mars goals. Countries have armies. Armies enforce international (and eventually planetary) rights. Countries also make laws. Laws that Musk must follow or risk consequences. > If he establishes a base on mars, it is essentially his. Earth based countries are forbidden (in treaty at least) from claiming ownership of celestial bodies. What's to stop him declaring himself emperor of Mars. He’d be a paper emperor. No method or means of enforcing his claimed dominion. > The person that controls the flow of supplies to an isolated world is pretty much all powerful. Countries control the right to launch those supplies. Musk is a few steps below that in the chain of power.
  - boznz 5y ago
    Space warfare 101. If you control orbital space nobody could touch you. By the way this is totally off-topic, Musk may say a few stupid things and piss a few people off but he is no Putin or James Bond Super-Villain.
- vasco 5y ago
  You realise he needs permission from the government to even develop rockets, much less launch them into space and all the other crap. Unless there's an autonomous community on Mars that can defend from the US Space force, no private entity will be emperor of anything unless they are controlling things on Earth.
  - onethought 5y ago
Havoc 5y ago
He seems to despise gov red tape so can’t picture him running for office

libertine 5y ago

>The usual route is to buy a magazine or newspaper Or a TV channel/network, let's not forget those! I think you're on point.

TIPSIO 5y ago
Maybe instead he has realized the value Twitter has to these individual news organizations. He’s going to cut the head off by redoing the algorithm and establish an insane amount of power / influence by reducing everyone else’s. Bezo's "philanthropic" Washington Post purchase just became honest. Every popular power account and blue check mark is about to get blown up. It's no secret he kind of hates them.

jdrc 5y ago

or to make a news aggregator hehe

nojs 5y ago

How do you suppose he would use this ownership to his advantage?

bufferoverflow 5y ago

It's not like 9.2% ownership gives him any special privileges on Twitter. This is nothing like owning a newspaper.

yucky 5y ago
Why would being largest shareholder of a company not give you any special privileges in a company? Also, it guarantees him at least one seat on the board, and probably enough clout to help dictate the future direction of the company. If your largest shareholder says the current methodology used for content manipulation and account banning is bad for business, then there will be systemic changes as a result.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
namlem 5y ago
He just joined the board of directors.