Elon Musk “twisted” Mark Zuckerberg’s control over Meta in an interview on April 14.
Musk was asked about his recent offer to acquire Twitter during an interview at the TED conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. Interviewer Chris Anderson asked Musk if being the richest person on the planet and one of the top influencers on Twitter could present a conflict of interest.
Musk took the opportunity to mention Mark Zuckerberg – the boss of Meta. “In terms of so-called media ownership, I think, you’ve got Mark Zuckerberg owning Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp with a shareholding structure where the ’14th Zuckerberg’ can still control the companies. there,” Musk said.
“Something like that,” Musk added amid laughter from the audience. “We don’t have that at Twitter.”
Musk’s statement alludes to Mark Zuckerberg’s descendants, making people think of King Louis XIV, who has ruled France for more than 72 years – known as the longest-reigning monarch.
The Tesla CEO also mentioned Zuckerberg’s “stronghold” on Meta – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The Facebook founder holds 55% of the voting shares of the company – meaning Zuckerberg has essentially a complete veto over other shareholders when it comes to the future of the company. Meta’s 2-class share structure gives Zuckerberg and some executives superior power because one share of them equals 10 votes while other shareholders are limited to 1 vote per share. promissory note.
A spokesperson for Meta did not comment on the incident.
Tesla doesn’t have a two-tier stock structure, but Musk still exerts tremendous influence. He is the largest individual shareholder of this electric car company, with a 17% stake. While Musk doesn’t have the same degree of control over the company as Zuckerberg does with Meta, Tesla does have a majority voting rule that requires two-thirds of shareholders’ approval to pass major changes – providing Musk a degree of veto power.
If Twitter is successful, Musk said he will structure the company in a way that avoids any perception of a conflict of interest, including making the platform’s source code open source.
Musk said the offer to buy Twitter was “not to make money” but an effort to protect freedom of expression. Tesla’s CEO also objected to Meta’s handling of information on this social network. Meta has been heavily criticized for its handling of misinformation about Covid-19 as well as the siege of the Capitol. Musk seems to want to go from a dissemination standpoint, as long as it’s legal in the countries in which the platform operates.