Elon Musk Pens 7 Of 10 Top Tweets In First Week Owning Twitter

Topline

Nascent Twitter owner Elon Musk appears to have had no problem taking over the platform, at least in terms of his tweet interactions, as the billionaire is responsible for seven of the 10 most popular tweets over the past week, according to data compiled by social media tracking firm NewsWhip.

Elon Musk attends Heidi Klum’s 2022 Halloween Party at Sake No Hana at Moxy LES on October 31, 2022 … [+] in New York City. (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

Musk posted the top tweet of the week at 11:49 p.m. Eastern time last Thursday night—roughly the time he formally took control of the company—saying, “the bird is freed.”

The tweet has attracted more than 2.9 million interactions, mainly through nearly 2.5 million likes.

Musk’s Friday afternoon message, “Comedy is now legal on Twitter,” is the second-most popular tweet of the week with nearly 2.7 million interactions, while a picture he posted of himself and his mother in Halloween costumes is the third-most popular tweet with just under 1.2 million interactions.

Two tweets about charging $8 a month for a blue verification check and another post saying, “If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if Trump is coming back on this platform, Twitter would be minting money!” were also among the top 10 tweets of the past week.

Surprising Fact

Musk has tweeted frequently over the past few days about the upcoming $8-per-month Twitter Blue package, which will apparently be the only way for verified users to retain their blue check marks. He seemed to spontaneously come up with the price early Tuesday morning during an interaction with horror fiction writer Stephen King, who complained about an earlier reported $20-per-month price tag, saying, “they should pay me.” Musk responded: “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?”

Key Background

Musk faced a court-ordered deadline of October 28 to either close on his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter or go to trial against the company, but he started making moves the day before, firing CEO Parag Agrawal, legal chief Vijaya Gadde and other top executives. Musk first let the world know he had arrived at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters on October 26, when he tweeted a video of himself walking into a Twitter lobby holding a bathroom sink, apparently just to make a pun. “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” Musk said.

What To Watch For

Musk reportedly plans to fire about half of Twitter’s roughly 7,500 member staff starting Friday as he embarks on radical changes to the company. Speculation is also growing that the world’s richest man might relocate Twitter’s headquarters to Texas.

Tangent

The popularity of Musk’s tweets also vaulted during the final week of April, when he committed to the deal to buy the company. Musk penned eight of the 10 most popular tweets during that time frame.

Forbes Valuation

We estimate Musk to be worth $200.7 billion, making him the richest person in the world.