According to the Wall Street Journal, Twitter creator and former CEO Jack Dorsey “whispered” in Elon Musk’s ear that the social-media network should be a private firm, and other billionaire contacts pushed Musk to pursue the takeover bid he eventually completed.
Dorsey, who stood down as Twitter’s CEO in November, has publicly backed Musk’s acquisition, calling him a “unique answer” for heading the company.
Others, according to the WSJ, encouraged Musk’s Twitter interest behind the scenes, particularly those who were dissatisfied by Twitter’s content filtering judgments. That group was made up of affluent and powerful people with libertarian leanings, as well as others who agree with Musk’s strong anti-censorship views, which they believe run opposed to Twitter’s current management style.
According to the Journal, Peter Thiel and David Sacks are two of the persons who allegedly urged Musk. Thiel and Sacks, like Musk, are former PayPal executives who have become known as the “PayPal Mafia” due to the clout they have gained in the IT world as a result of their contributions to the company’s creation.
According to the WSJ, Musk’s friendship with Dorsey was clear over time.
According to Insider, their internet friendship and overall bromance began in 2016 and grew from there.
According to unnamed former Twitter officials who talked to the Journal, both Musk and Dorsey believed that Twitter would be better off as a privately held company, and that it should be viewed less as a profit machine and more as a public good.
According to the WSJ story, Musk and his allies have expressed interest in replatforming people who have been banned from Twitter or have expressed dissatisfaction with those who have been de-platformed.
According to the report, Charles Johnson, who was banned from Twitter for gathering funds to “take out” a BLM activist, texted the head of Musk’s personal investment office about the Twitter purchase and inquired when he would be able to reclaim his account.
According to the Journal, the investment chief, Jared Birchall, supposedly responded, “Hopefully soon.”
Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter. His contrasting views on how to run the platform, the chance that he may slash costs to cover the manner in which he financed the transaction, and his remarks regarding current Twitter personnel involved in content moderation all contributed to the company’s hectic week.
But, as the WSJ piece pointed out, he’s unconcerned with the dispute and probably never has been: Musk told a PR consultant in a now-public email in 2018 that he wasn’t going to stop tweeting.
“Will tweet as I wish and suffer the consequences…so it goes,” he wrote.. A request for comment from Musk, Dorsey, and Twitter was not immediately returned.