After having purchased a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him the largest shareholder, Elon Musk was invited to join the company’s board of directors.
NBC KSBY reported, Twitter Inc. said in a regulatory filing that it entered into an agreement with Musk on Monday that will give the billionaire a seat on its board, with the term expiring at its 2024 annual shareholders meeting.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal confirmed that Musk has been appointed to Twitter’s board of directors on the app. “I’m excited to share that we’re appointing (Elon Musk) to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board” the CEO said in a tweet.
He added, “He’s both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need on (Twitter), and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term. Welcome, Elon!”
As per the agreement, Musk will not be able to hold more than 14.9% of stock while he is a member of the board, or for 90 days after. Regardless, the sole purpose of the board is to represent shareholders, of which Elon is the biggest.
Musk has teased that improvements are to come to the platform. These improvements seem to revolve especially around free speech and censorship.
“Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!” Musk said in a tweet replying to the company CEO.
Musk recently called Twitter the “De facto town square” and noted that censoring speech on the platform is an undermining of democracy. Leading up to the announcement of his big purchase musk ran polls on his own Twitter account, asking users if they felt Twitter allows free speech.
Before buying out four times more stock than Jack Dorsey owns, Musk had been publicly criticizing Twitter’s moderation tactics for some time.