(NewsNation) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now Twitter’s biggest shareholder.
The Tesla CEO acquired a 9.2% stake in the social media platform March 14, and news of that purchase Monday sent the stock soaring 27%, closing at $49.97.
“There’s certainly a new boss,” conservative business journalist and author Trish Regan said during an “On Balance” appearance Monday night.
“I think that as the biggest stakeholder in this company, he’s gonna have some influence over management. The CEO should be kind of nervous right now.”
Conservatives are now tweeting out to Elon Musk to make change to the platform’s algorithm and to reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account.
“Will the new majority shareholder return freedom of speech to Twitter?” Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted.
“It will require courage bc the regime is heavily investing in a certain industry and threats will undoubtedly come. Yet the freedom of speech restored will enable us all to defeat them.”
Twitter permanently suspended the @realDonaldTrump account following the 2021 Capitol riot.
“He (Musk) should demand the end of political censorship, company-wide reform, and the reinstatement of President Trump,” former Treasury Department official Monica Crowley tweeted.
Musk could significantly influence Twitter’s algorithm so that “more diversity is out there, and more views are shared,” according to Regan.
“The model right now has shown us, in my view, that some of these big tech companies have in fact become monopolies. They, therefore, are not beneficial to society. They are controlling a narrative. They are controlling stories in a way that is not positive for our First Amendment, free speech. It’s a negative,” Regan said.
Musk is now the largest outside shareholder, with 73,486,938 shares, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing released Monday.
Musk is an active Twitter user with more than 80 million followers.
“It’ll be super exciting to see how he tackles this one, because he’s starting with something that’s actually pretty great but has massive flaws,” Regan said.
