Character Limit
How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter
Kate Conger and Ryan Mac
Having read it
★★★☆☆
Despite its decent investigative reporting and clear telling of character and corporate machinations (being worth five out of five and present in most of the chapters that I read, at least) it was, overall, just too long; it felt a little too detailed in (most) places and seemingly at the expense of a flow that maintained a steady page-turning pace, in my opinion; not as interesting as I first thought it might be from its title and blurb; in modern parlance, it was TLDR and – life is short and some books you realise just aren’t worth expending further reading effort on – after 150 or so pages, which was a few chapters into act two (of three acts), I decided to skip the rest of it to just get to the epilogue and thus remove its weight of pontifications from my life and ultimately experience finishing a not particularly good book but potentially a decent doorstop which is maybe a helpful metaphor for the tome’s subject’s purpose?
A good passage
[...] Meanwhile, X continued to suspend journalists and sued critics who sought to expose the toxic stew of hate speech and misinformation that had bubbled up under Musk’s ownership.
Musk had reached an unmatched level of success driving the electric vehicle revolution and pushing to make the human race extend beyond the confines of planet Earth. Of course, he was the only person who had the means and drive to buy a global internet platform to protect free speech and free expression for all.
But that was a mission Musk had given himself. He had bumbled into buying Twitter for $44 billion, overpaying to control a global internet platform where he measured his self-worth in likes and replies. A man allergic to criticism had bought himself the largest audience in the world, and hoped for praise. It wasn’t an unheard-of pursuit-social media users everywhere seek affirmation from the universe. Musk succeeded in becoming Twitter’s main character but struggled under the scrutiny of millions of users who loved the combative ethos of the platform.
Musk may have convinced himself he bought Twitter to protect the global town square or build the world’s most important app. But the truth was much simpler. Whether or not he wanted to admit it, he had bought it for himself, and for a brief moment, he had the thing he wanted most. He owned Twitter – and then it was gone.