Elon Musk is an iconoclastic CEO. He doesn't do things like all the others.
Musk, who runs several companies at once -- Tesla (TSLA), SpaceX, Neuralink, The Boring Company -- can spend almost a day on microblogging site Twitter (TWTR) posting different messages.
This was the case on April 9. But for the past few days, the billionaire's interactions on Twitter, of which he now owns just over 9%, have taken on another meaning. Musk was offered a seat on Twitter's board of directors in exchange for his promise not to acquire more than 14.9% of the platform.
The billionaire intends to use this position to influence the future of the social network. On April 9, he got down to it by gradually revealing his intentions.
The tech tycoon first started by asking if Twitter was dying. To justify his questioning, he took the examples of the first 10 users with the most followers (he is one of them). He then pointed out that on this list, which includes former President Barack Obama, singers Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Rihanna, very few were active. A way for Musk to suggest that Twitter probably did not have interesting products or services to encourage its influencers to produce content for the platform.
A Survey to Solve The Homeless Crisis
The entrepreneur then suggested that Twitter stop flooding subscribers to paid services like Blue with ads.
He seems to have saved the best for the end of the day, since Musk just asked a question that will no doubt cause waves among Twitter employees. This question, however, is intended to solve an important social problem. This problem also undermines the authorities in large cities like New York and San Francisco. Cities where real estate prices have soared.
The question is asked in the form of a poll.
"Convert Twitter SF HQ to homeless shelter since no one shows up anyway," Musk wrote.
He gave two possible answers: yes or no.
Less than two hours after the publication of the poll nearly 40,000 people had already liked the post. More than half a million Twitter users had already voted. Users have until April 10 to vote. Musk does not say what he will do next if the yes wins, for example. Will he force Twitter to move out and give the building to the city and to nonprofits helping the homeless?
Reactions to the survey were overwhelmingly positive. Many Musk fans and critics alike have been begging him for a long time now to take care of Earth issues instead of seeking to conquer space with SpaceX.
"You could literally afford to buy the homeless a whole country, and still have billions left over," commented one user.
"Our government gets more than Elons net worth every 30 days......why doesn't our government do what you are proposing?" another said.
"I love this," said another user.
An Active CEO
Elon Musk has taken on a new dimension since the start of the year. The richest man in the world, for example, broke the codes of the approach of multinationals to political problems. Ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Musk has taken a stand for Ukraine and made it known.
He decided to send Starlink terminals to Ukraine to allow the populations of the isolated zones and the cities destroyed by the Russian not to be cut off from the world. Starlink is a satellite internet connection offered by SpaceX.
These same Starlink terminals also allow the Ukrainian authorities to have secure and independent communication networks for the war against Russia.
Musk has also proposed to put an end to this war by a duel between him and the Russian president Vladimir Putin. But the latter never responded to the mogul's proposal.
In doing so, he paved the way for other companies and CEOs to do the same. In doing so, Musk shattered the famous corporate neutrality.
