--- title: Is this exactly what Elon Musk wanted? - The Hustle description: Elon Musk is losing money, but he has inserted himself in every news cycle. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1349857922-HS-News-Brief_2022-12-19T003446.776Z.webp --- # Is this exactly what Elon Musk wanted? ![Mark Dent](https://thehustle.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/0-3-1.jpeg?width=48&height=48&name=0-3-1.jpeg) [Mark Dent](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/mark-dent) Published: April 11, 2023 Updated: October 11, 2023 Back in April, when Elon Musk first made a bid for Twitter, people wondered why the leader of SpaceX and Tesla would want a largely unprofitable social media website. ![Is this exactly what Elon Musk wanted?](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1349857922-HS-News-Brief_2022-12-19T003446.776Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1349857922-HS-News-Brief_2022-12-19T003446.776Z.webp) *Vice* posited [a theory](https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7dkv4/elon-musks-twitter-main-character-syndrome): Musk had “terminal main character syndrome,” a desire to be the guy everybody talked about all the time. Two months into his ownership, he has largely succeeded. A new story about Twitter and Musk breaks into almost every news cycle. **Last week…** … started with Musk [getting booed](https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/business/elon-musk-booed-dave-chappelle/index.html#:~:text=According%20to%20several%20people%20who,on%20stage%20without%20much%20reaction.) at a Dave Chappelle performance and continued Wednesday when Twitter [suspended](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/14/technology/twitter-private-jet-accounts-suspended.html) an account that tracked Musk’s private jet, citing a new policy banning the release of any person’s live location. But that was just the warm up: - On Thursday, Twitter[ suspended](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/15/technology/twitter-suspends-journalist-accounts-elon-musk.html) the accounts of several high-profile tech journalists — and then a* *[*Fox Business* reporter](https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/1604173704690569218?s=21&t=oro512y3s4yH9_Fs9rr3vw&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sendto_newslettertest&stream=top#_ga=2.95042971.649100130.1671383088-893531155.1668703007) who covered the suspensions. - On Saturday, Twitter [suspended](https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-boots-wapos-taylor-lorenz-from-twitter) *Washington Post* reporter Taylor Lorenz, who said she had recently asked Musk for a comment on a story. **Musk’s lust for the spotlight has cost him** In the short term: - Tesla is [slumping](https://thehustle.co/12162022-tesla-stock/)*.* - *Forbes *[calculated](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/12/elon-musk-is-no-longer-the-richest-person-in-the-world.html) Musk was no longer the richest man in the world. - A senior EU official tweeted that the “arbitrary suspension of journalists” could lead to sanctions under the Digital Services Act, [according to *Bloomberg*](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-16/musk-faces-threats-from-european-lawmakers-over-twitter-bans?sref=3Ac2yX40). But in the long-run Musk [says](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1602810411648065536) his Twitter ownership will be good for Tesla (without providing details), and his actions have spurred growing influence for media companies outside the mainstream, [per *Axios*](https://www.axios.com/2022/12/18/musk-twitter-media-conservative-account-suspensions), including Twitter itself. Plus, Silicon Valley still likes Musk. Many tech execs and VCs are [applauding](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/16/technology/elon-musk-management-style.html) his Twitter takeover as a leading example of “bossism,” the belief that management has ceded too much power to workers and must take it back. That’s good for Musk, seeing as he’s [looking for investors ](https://www.semafor.com/article/12/16/2022/elon-musks-team-is-seeking-new-investors-for-twitter)as advertisers leave Twitter. **But**… he also [tweeted a poll](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097) on Sunday afternoon asking if he should step down as head of Twitter, promising to abide by the results. Topics: [Media](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/tag/media) [Twitter](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/tag/twitter) ## Follow us on social media prev next - ![Even without that giant ‘X’, there’s still a lot of light pollution](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1218946738-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-lightpollution_20230731220428.webp) ### Even without that giant ‘X’, there’s still a lot of light pollution - ![Can you name someone with a harder job than Linda Yaccarino? We can’t](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/19829585-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-yaccarino_20230724220332.webp) ### Can you name someone with a harder job than Linda Yaccarino? We can’t - ![We tried Threads, Meta’s Twitter competitor](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1037422333-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-threads-meta_20230706225014.webp) ### We tried Threads, Meta’s Twitter competitor - ![It’s game time for a horror giant](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/209472429-HS-News-Brief_2023-02-23T015919.413Z.webp) ### It’s game time for a horror giant - ![Amazon says its media moves are working](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1251850792-HS-News-Brief_2023-02-07T041724.684Z.webp) ### Amazon says its media moves are working - ![A tense situation at the happiest place on earth](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1267498600-HS-News-Brief_2023-01-18T013240.895Z.webp) ### A tense situation at the happiest place on earth - ![New business data on the state of kids’ TV](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/508294142-HS-News-Brief_2023-01-09T020052.258Z.webp) ### New business data on the state of kids’ TV - ![One fake Tweet may have cost Twitter a lot](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1854753406-HS-News-Brief_2022-11-15T004910.531Z.webp) ### One fake Tweet may have cost Twitter a lot - ![What’s happening with Twitter?](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/523835087-HS-News-Brief_2022-11-01T010009.526Z.webp) ### What’s happening with Twitter? - ![MrBeast’s raising money to go beast mode](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/965053856-HS-News-Brief_2022-10-25T234350.407Z.webp) ### MrBeast’s raising money to go beast mode Pop up for Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter Get the 5-minute news brief keeping 2.5M+ innovators in the loop. Always free. 100% fresh. No bullsh*t. JOIN FREE ### 100% Free CRM Nurture and grow your business with customer relationship management software. Signup for a free account Close modal ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Mark Dent", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/mark-dent" }, "datePublished" : "2023-04-11T05:29:44.000Z", "headline" : "Is this exactly what Elon Musk wanted?", "image" : [ "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1349857922-HS-News-Brief_2022-12-19T003446.776Z.webp" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/12192022-elon-musk-twitter", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject" } } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "#article", "@type" : "NewsArticle", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Mark Dent", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/mark-dent" }, "dateModified" : "2023-10-11T19:39:55+0000", "datePublished" : "2023-04-11T05:29:44+0000", "headline" : "Is this exactly what Elon Musk wanted?", "image" : [ "https://7355427.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/7355427/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1349857922-HS-News-Brief_2022-12-19T003446.776Z.webp" ], "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 112, "url" : "https://fs.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/Blog%202021/Images/Logos/HubSpot%20Logo%20112X112.svg", "width" : 112 }, "name" : "HubSpot", "sameAs" : [ "https://www.facebook.com/hubspot", "https://twitter.com/hubspot" ], "url" : "https://www.hubspot.com" }, "speakable" : { "@type" : "SpeakableSpecification", "xPath" : [ "//title", "/html/head/meta[@name='description']/@content" ] } } ```