Elon Musk’s legal wrangling with Twitter had been rather quiet since the social media company’s board voted in favor of the billionaire’s buyout earlier this month. Now, leaked messages between Musk and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey shed new light on Uncle Elon’s motives.
Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey texted privately about Twitter several times before and after the Tesla billionaire became financially involved in the company, newly revealed court records show.
Dorsey, a Twitter co-founder and former CEO, first texted Musk on March 26, according to a text log filed as part of Twitter’s ongoing lawsuit against Musk.
In his initial text to Musk about Twitter, Dorsey said “A new platform is needed. It can’t be a company. That’s why I left.”
Musk quickly responded, according to the text log, asking “What should it look like?” Dorsey proceeded to explain what he has said publicly, that Twitter should become an “open-sourced protocol” that looks “a bit like what Signal has done,” referencing the encrypted messaging app. Dorsey also said that Twitter “cant have an advertising model.” Advertising is currently the central business model of social media companies.
To be specific, selling users’ information to advertisers without compensation is social media companies’ business model. Big Tech wouldn’t wield nearly as much influence as it does now if existing property rights were enforced online. But here we are.
Musk told Dorsey, “I’d like to help if I’m able.” Dorsey proceeded to tell Musk that he’d actually pushed for his addition to Twitter’s board a year earlier, but Twitter’s board “said no.” He added the Twitter board saw Musk “as more risk, “Which i thought was completely stupid and backwards.”
“That’s about the time I decided I needed to work to leave, as hard as it was for me,” Dorsey continued. This was also the time activist investor Elliot Management got involved in Twitter, demanding a number of changes to the company’s business toward growth and profitability.
“Growth and profitability” being codewords for propaganda and censorship.
Fun fact: Elliot Management is the same activist outfit that bailed out Barnes & Noble.
When Musk eventually made a deal on April 5 with Twitter to join its board, the day after his more than 9% stake in the company became public, Musk texted Dorsey to set up a time to “speak confidentially.”
A couple of hours later, the two texted referencing the call. Dorsey told Musk that he “couldn’t be happier you’re doing this.”
“I’ve wanted it for a long time,” Dorsey added. “Got very emotional when I learned it was finally possible.”
When Musk asked Dorsey to advise him if ever he was doing or not doing “something dumb,” Dorsey replied: “I trust you but def will do.”
Just a few days later, on April 9, Musk pointed to conversations with Dorsey in explaining his decision to take the company private in order to fix it.
“This is hard to do as a public company, as purging fake users will make the numbers look terrible, so restructuring should be done as a private company,” Musk wrote in a text to Twitter chairman Bret Taylor. “This is Jack’s opinion too.”
Jack Dorsey has taken a lot of flak – much of it rightly. But along among the Big Tech robber barons, he at least tried to preserve some degree of free speech. These secret messages indicate that his efforts were genuine.
We can also put paid to accusations that Elon Musk was only interested in buying Twitter as some kind of cynical stock ploy or just for profit.
But at this point, even if he’s ordered to buy Twitter, it’s unlikely the regime will let Musk roll back censorship on the platform. To be honest, we’ll be better off if he destroys the company and implements an open source replacement like Jack suggested.
The trial is set for October 17, so we’ll learn Twitter’s fate soon.
While you’re waiting, read my space pirate horror book.
