“Free speech” with an edit button

Last week I wrote about Twitter being the Wild West for comms and I referenced Elon Musk. I was making the point, via a parody on the ambiguity of what the platform’s ban/no-ban “policy” covers, that at least Mr. Musk is a public figure on the (twitter) record supporting free speech.

Gddy up, there’s a new John Wayne in town.

On Monday it was announced Mr. Musk is buying a 9.2% stake in Twitter, becoming the company’s largest shareholder. That’s, give or take, $3 billion of Mr. Musk’s money in the company as of March 14, 2022, when he made the trade. Somehow Twitter’s Board got him to agree to not not acquire more than 14.9% of the outstanding shares, while he is (now) a co-member of the Board of Directors. That is, for the two year directorship, as (sortof!) outlined in the (very pithy!) agreement. Side note, that agreement was actually made even pithier when it made it to Mr. Musk’s desk. Shocking I guess that lawyers can be brief; see that version here.

Some people are asking if Mr Musk will influence the long-debated Twitter edit button topic, and if it will finally come to fruition; I ask, “Who cares?”

What I want to know is how many SEC employees are having ulcer flare-ups over Musk on the Board of Twitter? My point? Of course, Mr. Musk is the CEO of ventures including electric car maker, Tesla, and intergalactic explorer, SpaceX. Tesla is not a small shop, a corporation with a market cap north of $1 trillion today. Oh wait, and it’s a NASDAQ publically traded company.

Musk held the same CEO position (albeit he was also Chairman back then) in August 2018 when he took to Twitter about his company and wrote, “considering taking Tesla private at 420. Funding secured”. Remember that craziness? I do.

I have worked as a communications professional for more than two decades. Back in August of 2018, I remember thinking the SEC was going to come down hard on Musk for that tweet. Surely the CEO of a public company couldn’t get away with having a random, perhaps drug-induced idea, take to Twitter, and not be scrutinized for the words and their impact on “free market” economics.

I was wrong.

Fraud chargers arose and the lawyers settled for a financial settlement. Musk also seemingly lessened his workload by taking “Chairman” of Tesla off his resume for the time being. Martha Stewart should have used Musk’s lawyers.

Financial services and publically traded companies have very strict communications guidelines. Concise, value-based, truthful messaging hasn’t been a “nice to have,” throughout my career, it’s been a must. So yes, I got worried on that day almost four years ago, when I saw a CEO use Twitter to flippantly make a thinly-veiled drug reference in regards to the very share price he is responsible for, trading on global markets.

I applaud Mr. Musk for his support of free speech but I do worry about the guardrails being removed for that of CEOs, and others in powerful roles, to potentially move markets on a whim. Are compliance offices a thing of the past?