Tesla CEO Elon Musk has laid out some bold, if still vague, plans for transforming Twitter into a place of “maximum fun” now that he’s bought the social media platform for $44 billion and taken it private.
It’s unlike Musk thought that process would involve vague death threats from the Russian space agency, though.
On Sunday night, Musk shared that a Russia-based Twitter account had called for him to face consequences for his support of Ukraine. Musk has made his Starlink satellite internet service available to people in the war-torn country — including the Ukrainian armed forces — free of charge.
Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, called for Musk to face punishment for supporting Ukraine in their resistance against Russia’s bloody invasion.
The word “Nazi” doesn’t mean what he seems to think it does pic.twitter.com/pk9SQhBOsG
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2022
After, Musk posted a cryptic message that seemed to imply he was in danger.
“If I die under mysterious circumstances, it’s been nice knowin ya,” he wrote.
Take a look —
If I die under mysterious circumstances, it’s been nice knowin ya
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2022
Outside his rivalry with Russian leaders, Musk has been busy since acquiring Twitter in a megadeal that shocked millions earlier this year.
Musk’s feistiest priority — but also the one with the vaguest roadmap — since taking charge is to make Twitter a “politically neutral” digital town square for the world’s discourse that allows as much free speech as each country’s laws allow.
He’s acknowledged that his plans to reshape Twitter could anger the political left and mostly please the right. He hasn’t specified exactly what he’ll do about former President Donald Trump’s permanently banned account or other right-wing leaders whose tweets have run afoul of the company’s prior restrictions.
Musk hasn’t ruled out suspending some accounts but says such bans should be temporary. His most recent criticism has centered around what he described as Twitter’s “incredibly inappropriate” 2020 blocking of a New York Post article on Hunter Biden that was labeled fake news… but was later confirmed by the New York Times.
Musk has also called for posting the underlying computer code powering Twitter’s news feed for public inspection on the coder hangout GitHub.
And Musk has repeatedly said he wants Twitter to “authenticate all humans,” an ambiguous proposal that could be related to his desire to rid the website of spam accounts.
Musk might also be considering offering more people a “blue check” — the verification checkmark sported on notable Twitter accounts — like Musk’s — to show they’re who they say they are.
Musk has suggested users could buy the checkmarks as part of a premium service.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article