Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter

by Kate Conger

“just setting up my twttr,” Dorsey wrote. It was the world’s first official tweet.

the site was governed by a simple principle: the tweets must flow.

Twitter’s unique culture that put people and speech over profit and speed.

“The value of social media is shifting away from content hosting and removal, and towards recommendation algorithms directing one’s attention.”

They envisioned it as a place where anyone could say anything—but not everyone would be able to tap into the viral potential of Twitter’s recommendation algorithm.

Gayle King, the prominent television host, called the proposed takeover a “gangsta move” and told the billionaire he was “not like the other kids in the class.”

Thiel was not a fan of Twitter. “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters,” Thiel famously once said, mocking Twitter’s original value proposition.

Voting records would later show that Musk didn’t vote at all.