Elon Musk asks Twitter users if they want an edit button; shares rise in premarket trading
Elon Musk has asked Twitter users if they want an edit button to be added to the platform — hours after taking a 9.2% passive stake in the company, making him the largest shareholder.
Twitter’s stock rose around 4% on the Nasdaq stock exchange in premarket trading Tuesday morning. It was up 3.44% at 4:26 a.m. and trading at $51.67 a share. The rise comes hot on the heels of Twitter’s best day of trading since its IPO in 2013, with shares surging over 27% on Monday.
“Do you want an edit button?” Musk asked in the tweet late Monday.
At the time of writing, the poll had received 2,333,856 votes, with some 73.6% voting “yse” and 26.4% voting “on.”
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal retweeted Musk and urged people to “vote carefully” as the consequences “will be important.”
On April 1, or April Fools’ Day, Twitter tweeted a message through its official account saying that it was working on an “edit” button. When the company was asked if it was a joke, it said: “We cannot confirm or deny but we may edit our statement later.”
Musk’s investment in Twitter comes after he said he was considering building a new social media platform. The Tesla CEO does not like that his tweets are scrutinized by regulators like the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” Musk tweeted March 26. “What should be done?”
Musk was subpoenaed by the SEC in November after he asked his Twitter followers if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock — causing shares to fall.
