This should come as no surprise, but Elon Musk doesn’t see a downside to being extremely online.
Ok, I have 127 million followers and it’s still growing very quickly.
“Let me check my Twitter account,” he said on a Tesla earnings call Wednesday night. “Okay, I have 127 million followers and it continues to grow very quickly.”
Just look at that marker.
“That suggests I’m reasonably popular,” Musk continued. “It may not be popular with some people. But for the vast majority of people, the tracking count speaks for itself.”
It is a strange statement from someone who is quite literal on trial on the grounds that his tweets have caused measurable chaos, both for him, his investors and his company. Musk is facing potentially billions of dollars in damages from a class of Tesla investors who allege they were misled by Musk’s tweets and said that relying on his statements to make trades cost them significant amounts of money.
“I am reasonably popular”
That 2018 tweet has already cost him $40 million, $20 million from Tesla and $20 million from him personally, to settle an SEC securities fraud lawsuit. Twitter is free for most people, but for Elon Musk, the costs have been disproportionately high.
On the earnings call, Musk delivered a quick speech to Twitter, noting that it’s an “incredibly powerful tool” driving demand for Tesla’s vehicles (the company just instituted a massive price cut to account for declining demand). ) and suggests that other automotive CEOs should tweet like him to boost sales. (Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess tried to do just that; he was out of a job a year later.)
It’s fair to say that Musk’s use of Twitter has been a disaster. The social media company’s acquisition of him has diminished his own net worth and left him saddled with debt. A growing number of Tesla owners who believed their early claims of a more sustainable future are now embarrassed to be seen driving one of their cars. His investors are begging him to stop tweeting, but of course Elon Musk will never stop.
Twitter, it is often said, is not real life. But for Musk, it’s all of that and more.