Behind the Failed Plan for Elon Musk to Save Twitter

In the two years leading up to Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter (now X), there was plenty of upheaval at the company—which made conditions ideal for the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive to swoop in. Now, about 16 months into the Musk era at the social media platform, its revenue is just a fraction of what it was before he arrived, and his plan to (as he described it) restore free speech at the service has come with all kinds of stumbles and controversy. Meanwhile, when asked last April if he thought Musk had “proven to be the best possible steward” for Twitter, ex-CEO Jack Dorsey answered earnestly, “No,” saying “it all went south.”