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Did fear of background checks prevent Elon Musk from taking Twitter board seat? Internet theories erupt

After Twitter's CEO confirms Musk won't have a seat on the board, the Internet exploded with conspiracy theories

After much anticipation and speculation, Twitter's CEO Parag Agarwal has confirmed Elon Musk won't have a seat on the company's board. Agarwal put out a short statement on the social networking site, confirming that for now at least, Musk won't have a position despite being Twitter's largest individual shareholder. He said it "was for the best", which immediately set off conspiracy theories and alarm bells online. 

Many users, including Twitter's own employees, were fearful of the changes Musk would bring if he took a position on the board. Others, including far-right Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene, were hoping Musk would "bring back" free speech to the platform and restore their accounts. Musk himself fuelled those speculations, with a series of tweets and polls in the days following his 9% stake purchase. 

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However, Agarwal poured cold water on all those theories, saying on April 10 that "Elon shared that same morning that he will no longer be joining the board." However, that statement has now fuelled a whole different set of conspiracy theories, mostly around why Musk declined to join the board.

Why did Elon Musk decline a seat on Twitter's board?

As many users have pointed out, there could be a few reasons for this. The first is that Twitter only allows shareholders to own a maximum of 14.9% of shares. That means Musk can't just buy his way to Twitter's leadership from the inside. However, if he isn't a board member, then he is not subject to that limit. "Musk can now pursue a hostile takeover if he so chooses," noted journalist Jordan Schachtel. It was echoed by another user, who said, "Elon musk opting to not join the twitter board so he can be free to just complete a total hostile takeover of the company instead is probably the most plausible theory i've heard yet."

That claim appears to have some amount of truth to it, at least according to Seth Dillon. The CEO of Babylon Bee tweeted on April 5, "Musk reached out to us before he polled his followers about Twitter's commitment to free speech. He wanted to confirm that we had, in fact, been suspended. He even mused on that call that he might need to buy Twitter. Now he's the largest shareholder and has a seat on the board."

Alternatively, other theories were also floated. One user joked that Musk bought stock in Twitter "for the memes", sharing a screenshot from Musk's famous February 2018 tweet. Another tweeted, "Elon musk twitter stock purchase -> Elon musk on Twitter board -> Trump gets his account reinstated -> Trump wins 2024 election -> Elon pays less taxes." Another speculated, "Scared off by a background check, hmm?", while a fourth user claimed, "So basically he refused to join the board so that he could continue to talk s--t about twitter without get sued lol."

Musk's plans for Twitter have always been vague. Ever since the acquisition, the Tesla CEO has been extremely silent on what exactly he plans to do next. In one of his saner tweets, Musk said, "Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!" So if he declined a board seat, it does appear as if a hostile takeover is on the cards, giving Musk majority control over the platform.

Whatever the reason, we probably won't know it. Only time will reveal Musk's true intentions for Twitter.