Elon Musk is a Twitter super user. He has tweeted more than 19,000 times since joining the platform 13 years ago. This year, he has tweeted an average of six times a day.
At least 150 of those posts are about Twitter itself, according to a Washington Post analysis.
Musk is now locked in an ongoing battle with the social media company as he tries to back out of a deal he made in April to buy it for $44 billion. But some of his tweets make you wonder why he ever wanted her. Like many Twitter users, the world’s richest man has a love-hate relationship with the platform where he posts memes, videos of SpaceX launches and random musings about life, love, colonizing Mars and population collapse.
Unlike most Twitter users, Musk has long noticed Twitter’s problems with spam and bots. (He has expressed suspicion that many of his 105 million followers aren’t actually real people.) Now the billionaire is arguing that he should be allowed to cancel the purchase because Twitter downplayed his bot problem.
Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
What follows are some of Musk’s most important tweets about the company.
He’s Twitter, he ❤️ not
Does Musk like the company he has offered to buy? He seems to have wrestled with this question for years.
Since joining Twitter in 2009, Musk has amassed the fifth-largest audience on the site, surpassing even Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga — as well as @realdonaldtrump at his peak.
Sometimes Musk seems to love Twitter and its reach. It will survey its users about its strength as a platform for free speech. It will ask if they really want an edit button. But then he’ll get upset about spam bots or a new emoji. The billionaire also tweeted that he was taking a break from the site, most of which were short-lived.
In many ways, Musk’s feed mirrors the roller coaster of emotions experienced by many Twitter users: One minute, he loves his ability to easily share his thoughts and engage with fans and followers. Next, he’s noticing how quickly conversations can turn toxic.
In other ways, Musk’s relationship with Twitter is unique. After he posted on Twitter in August 2018 that he had “secured funds” to take Tesla, his electric car company, private for $420 a share, the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued him for allegedly defrauding shareholders. How many users have a tweet that costs them $20 million?
He has long known about robots
In May, when Musk first signaled he was hesitant about the Twitter deal, he blamed Twitter’s supposed obfuscation for the number of fake bot accounts on the site. But his tweets show he’s been aware of the bot problem for years.
In 2018, he praised Twitter’s actions to remove fake accounts. Since then, he has tweeted about bots more than 10 times.
On April 21, a week after launching his hostile takeover bid, he tweeted that Twitter had the power to defeat the bot plague. In May, Musk accused Twitter of not understanding the problem. And when he pulled out of the deal in July, he accused Twitter of “failing or refusing” to hand over information that would have helped it determine the true number of bot accounts.
Twitter has long estimated in regulatory filings that 5 percent of its accounts are fake or spam, and said it has provided Musk with sufficient information on the matter.
His concerns about free speech are new
Until last year, Musk rarely tweeted about Twitter’s role in guaranteeing free speech. But since the platform banned Donald Trump and others after the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol, he has become increasingly vocal about the idea that Twitter is essential to civic discourse.
Days after Twitter banned Trump, Musk tweeted that people would be “super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech.”
In March 2022, while Musk was quietly buying a large stake in Twitter, he shared a series of tweets calling on Twitter to be politically neutral and maintain broad access to its site or risk undermining democracy. A month later, after agreeing to buy Twitter, Musk said he would reinstate Trump on the platform.
“Twitter has become a kind of de facto town square, so it’s very important that people have … the reality and the perception that they are able to speak freely within the bounds of the law,” he said in a TED interview in April.
He has used Twitter against himself
This spring, Musk’s nearly 10 percent stake in Twitter transformed him from user to minority owner overnight. As his campaign to buy the company unfolded, he used Twitter himself to shape public perception of the deal.
Sometimes his tweets were confusing. The same week he revealed his large stake in the company, he tweeted that Twitter might be dead. The next day, Twitter revealed that he would not be joining the board after all.
Sometimes his tweets seemed like satire. His bid price for Twitter was $54.20 per share, prompting speculation that it was an inside joke. (The number 420 is associated with marijuana.)
Most importantly, he used Twitter to get his message across. He turned to Twitter shareholders when it appeared the board might reject his offer. Then, in May, he tweeted that the deal was pending. At the time, the stock market was falling — along with Musk’s personal fortune.
He continued to tweet doubts about the company — specifically claims that its user base was filled with bots — until he finally tried to cancel the deal in July. The saga is scheduled to culminate in October in the Delaware Court of Chancery, where Twitter has sued Musk to force him to complete the acquisition.
Some of Musk’s tweets may play a role in the lawsuit. Did Twitter cheat Musk? Or does his tweet history suggest that Musk has had a strong understanding of the platform’s strengths and weaknesses all along?
