New book 'Character Limit' explores Musk's impact on social media after buying Twitter

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Amna Nawaz: He is the richest person in the world, but also one of the most controversial and increasingly engaged in polarizing political debates.

A new book details the tumultuous leadership of Elon Musk and his approach to owning the social media platform X. It was two years ago this month when he shocked the world with a huge deal to buy what was then known as Twitter.

Ali Rogin has that conversation for our Bookshelf series.

Ali Rogin: The $44 billion deal gave Elon Musk total control of one of the most influential media platforms in the world. Now X, the company and its site, have changed dramatically.

New York Times technology reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac are co-authors of “Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter.”

And they join me now.

Thank you both so much.

Elon Musk, as you relay in the book, characterized himself as the savior of Twitter. What did he think was wrong with it and why did he feel like he needed to come in and save it?

Kate Conger, Co-Author, “Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter”: Elon Musk really disagreed with a lot of the content moderation decisions that were being made by Twitter’s former leadership.

There were accounts being banned that he disagreed with. And he just wanted a more free-flowing platform that allowed different kinds of speech. So when he sought out the deal, he said he didn’t care about the finances of it. He didn’t care if he made money. He just sort of wanted Twitter as an ideological tool.

Ali Rogin: And what did free speech mean to Elon Musk? Because it certainly seemed to end up meaning something different to him.

Ryan Mac, Co-Author, “Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter”: It’s kind of unclear, right?

He’s talked about this idea of free speech when he bought the platform. And maybe he was talking about this kind of unfettered world where there’s no content moderation. But he’s also said free speech to him means that he will abide by whatever local law Twitter is operating under.

So it means if there’s a law in India, for example, that requires him to take down content, he will abide by that. And he’s done that so far. And so that, by most definitions, isn’t necessarily free speech. And it’s been a bit weird to see how he’s operated the platform.

Ali Rogin: Morale at the company began to flag as soon as rumors of the deal came about. So walk us through how that went and how bad it got and how fast it went so bad.

Ryan Mac: Yes.

I mean, when he — there were rumors of his takeover, a lot of people were concerned about layoffs and they were concerned about their jobs. There was subsets of people that were also excited about him coming in and changing things. Twitter wasn’t a perfect place before the takeover either.

But there were rumors flying around, 75 percent cuts, for example, of jobs. And he comes in pretty soon before closing the deal. He’s walking around the office saying, oh, he’s trying to assure people he’s not — that’s not going to happen. Well, lo and behold, a series of cuts have happened since then and thousands of people have been laid off.

And so it’s been, from a morale standpoint, a disaster.

Ali Rogin: And it seems like some of the people that he brought in really treated him like the leader of a cult. You know that many people got that impression of him. Tell us about that.

Kate Conger: Yes, so the people around Elon Musk really view him as a once-in-a-generation leader. And they’re very attached to the missions that he puts forward for his various companies, whether that’s expanding green energy through Tesla or getting humanity to Mars through SpaceX.

They’re very bought into those missions and they feel like they need to do whatever is possible for them to protect him and protect the mission. And so that really means walling him off from any kind of criticism or pushback as he makes these very uncomfortable decisions.

Ali Rogin: He’s obviously been very politically outspoken lately. He recently tweeted and then deleted a question about why there haven’t been assassination attempts against President Biden and Vice President Harris.

Tell us about his political evolution.

Kate Conger: Yes, so Elon Musk started off not being particularly invested in politics. It wasn’t something that interested him deeply. He was really focused on other issues.

And we saw a couple of moments in reporting on the book that really radicalized him, one being the COVID shutdowns in California. He was very upset that those disrupted the operations of his Tesla factories. And he was also going through some personal strife at that time with one of his children who was going through a gender transition.

He really objected to that. And he now refers to his daughter as dead to him, essentially. So he had these big radicalizing moments that shifted him more towards right-wing politics. And he also began to feel snubbed by the Biden administration. He felt like he was being left out from an electrical vehicle summit that the White House held.

And so he started to become more critical of Biden and shift towards Trump and other Republican contenders.

Ali Rogin: And he’s destroyed the valuation of this company. He — and lost a lot of his and other people’s money.

Ryan Mac: Yes.

Ali Rogin: And yet he’s hailed as such a visionary and a success in many other industries, of course, leading in electric vehicles, in space exploration.

Ryan Mac: Right.

Ali Rogin: How is it that a leader like him could experience such different highs and lows in these different industries that he…

(Crosstalk)

Ryan Mac: Yes, let’s talk about that value loss. It’s $44 billion he paid for it. He’s now personally valuing it internally at $19 billion. We have investors like Fidelity who have marked it down to about $12 billion. That’s a massive loss in valuation.

And I think there’s a lesson to be learned here. This is someone who has electrified cars, he has sent things into space, revolutionized those industries, no doubt. But just because you have done that doesn’t necessarily make you an expert in running a social media company. And he came in with this hubris, this confidence that he could run it better than anyone else, and he’s learning the hard way.

Ali Rogin: Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion. But he can weather that — those losses. Did he get what he wanted here? I mean, did he succeed in what he set out to achieve with this acquisition?

Kate Conger: I think so. I think he really wanted control of the platform from an ideological perspective.

And he’s been able to do a lot of the things that he wanted to do, bringing back accounts that had been banned, like President Donald Trump’s, for example, shooting himself to become the most followed account on the platform, becoming more and more popular, and getting more engagement and attention there.

So, in a lot of ways, this has been very successful to him. I don’t think that means he’s not bothered by the financial losses. I think that is of great concern for him. The loans on this deal, he has to pay a billion dollars in interest alone every year.

So it is a financial pressure, even for someone as wealthy as him. And that may come to bear more and more on the company as we go forward.

Ali Rogin: The book is “Character Limit.”

Ryan Mac, Kate Conger, thank you both so much for coming in.

Ryan Mac: Thank you.

Kate Conger: Thank you so much for having us.