Having already established himself in the automotive and aerospace businesses, Elon Musk is now venturing into social media. Musk has acquired a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, making him the company's biggest shareholder. Here's why.

The Context Behind Elon Musk's Purchase

Elon Musk boasts an impressive 80 million followers on Twitter. He has, however, a history of posting controversial tweets that have either raised the stock price of his company or, in one case, made a crypto coin fly to new heights.

In 2018, Elon Musk was fined for claiming to have sufficient funding to take Tesla private, increasing the company's share price. According to the SEC's official press release, he paid a hefty fine of over $40 million to settle the case.

Furthermore, Reuters reported that he isn't happy with the SEC's recent refusal to let him end the 2018 agreement, which involves monitoring his Twitter usage and requiring the pre-approval of tweets.

In the background of all that, in April 2022, Musk conducted a poll asking his followers whether Twitter adheres to free speech or not. More than 70% of the 2 million votes he received voted no, suggesting Twitter isn't as democratic as it should be. At least according to Elon Musk's acolytes.