Twitter Vs Tesla In Musk's China Visit
Elon Musk went to China and his fans were curious about what he would talk about. Would it be Tesla or SpaceX? Maybe even Twitter?
Surprisingly, there was silence.
Musk stopped tweeting on Monday night. He came back on Thursday morning. He congratulated SpaceX for its human spaceflight success.
Most CEOs would say no time for social media after meetings, tours and dinners in China. But Musk tweets every day since last June.
China doesn't allow Twitter, but some can still access it using virtual private networks. People spoke out in support of Musk on Weibo. A state news outlet posted that his visit shows the problems with America's policy to "decouple" from China. The Washington Post translated their comments. They say even if the White House thinks decoupling is a good idea, people like Musk won't agree.
Tesla CEO met with China's industry minister. He wants to expand Tesla's business in China. China is Tesla's second biggest market. The foreign ministry made a statement. Musk said the economies of the two countries are "conjoined twins".
The visit affected many other businesses. LVMH's CEO, Bernard Arnault, plans to visit China for the first time due to this influence. Musk and Arnault are both competing for the title of world's richest person. This week, Musk won as Tesla's stock went up while LVMH shares dropped.
Tesla needs China, but Elon Musk invested in Twitter which had a strong stance against China's use of the platform for propaganda. The Xinhua news feed was marked as "state-owned media" and accounts of Chinese officials were marked as "government officials". Musk removed these labels during his platform verification process overhaul.
Twitter's moderation research consortium revealed information about troll accounts from state actors, including China. This went on for three years leading up to Musk's $44bn acquisition last October. Twitter published details on Chinese "state-linked information operations" during this time. However, the project is now inactive. Safety and integrity lead Yoel Roth and legal, policy and trust lead Vjiaya Gadde, who were heads of the project, lost their jobs due to Musk's recent layoffs at Twitter.
Before Musk controlled Twitter, it was obvious that conflicts of interest existed. Last year, a reporter from the New York Times pointed out that China didn't have any power over Twitter since it was banned in 2009. But for Tesla, China was important as both a market and supplier. Jeff Bezos, who is the CEO of Amazon, questioned if Musk's takeover meant that the Chinese government could now influence discussions on the platform.
It's been a year since the split incentives issue was raised but Musk hasn't commented on it directly. Twitter's relationship with foreign governments has caused controversy. Journalist Matt Yglesias highlighted Twitter's compliance with Turkish government requests to take down content after the national election. Musk called Yglesias an "insufferable numbskull" for pointing this out, and it was his last tweet before his trip to China.
