Billionaire technologist Elon Musk has called out Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, and Cristiano Ronaldo among others for rarely using Twitter. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX who recently bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter to become the largest shareholder in the microblogging company wondered if Twitter is dying with the celebrities’ refusal to use the platform more often.
The newest member of Twitter’s board of directors reviewed the top accounts on Twitter in terms of followings and wondered why they rarely use the platform, given their clouts and the site’s popularity.
Musk found that the topmost 10 profiles on Twitter with the most followers are former US President Barack Obama with 131 million followers, singers Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, football star Cristiano Ronaldo, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi among others. Musk himself is at number 8 with 81 million followers.
“Most of these ‘top’ accounts tweet rarely and post very little content,” Musk queried. “Is Twitter dying? For example, @taylorswift13 hasn’t posted anything in 3 months. And @justinbieber only posted once this entire year.”
Musk’s 9.2% Twitter stake gives him 73.5 million shares in the social media company, and Twitter’s shares soared by more than 25% to reach $49.81 after his acquisition and board membership.
Very outspoken with controversial views, Musk said he will be working to implement a lot of positive changes in Twitter, and he specifically mentioned the “Edit button” which the company has been working on for some time. He also tweeted that “Twitter’s next board meeting is gonna be lit.”
Musk is known to criticize the government and other tech companies a lot, and his involvement with Twitter is already sending chills down the spine of many people. In fact, many Twitter employees are worried that Musk is a slave master; with other people worrying that his stance on transgender issues and COVID-19 vaccination is unwholesome.