Elon Musk admits his Twitter takeover ‘may fail’

Elon Musk has fans all a Twitter, after his latest post on the social media site.

In a tweet, the SpaceX CEO admitted that his $44 billion takeover of the app ‘may fail’ and went on to claim that there were no ‘great social networks’.

While he’s not saying bye-bye birdie just yet, Musk has come under increasing criticism for how he’s managed the social media site in recent months.

Getty Images/ Chesnot

The tech mogul took over the platform in October 2022, after months of wrangling with the company.

Shortly after this, Musk laid off at least 200 members of staff, including some senior execs - according to the New York Times.

The troubled Twitter takeover continued with the Tesla CEO then scrapping the blue tick system, in favor of a subscription-based verification.

He even removed the iconic blue bird logo, which had been a symbol of the site since its foundation in 2006 and rebranded the app to ‘X’.

Understandably, the near-constant controversy has left some users concerned about the future of the site, especially after rival app, Threads, was released by Meta's Mark Zuckerberg.

In an uncharacteristically unconfident tweet on 19 August, Musk admitted that his takeover ‘may fail’.

He wrote: “The sad truth is that there are no great 'social networks' right now.

"We may fail, as so many have predicted, but we will try our best to make there be at least one.”

The post came after Friday’s (18 August) announcement that Twitter - sorry ‘X’ - will be deleting the block button from the site.

Musk revealed the reason behind the blocking button’s removal, saying that the feature ‘makes no sense’ and that users could simply ‘mute’ accounts from their timelines.

Understandably, many users argued against this, including Monica Lewinsky who tweeted: “Please rethink removing the block feature.

"As an anti-bullying activist (and target of harassment) I can assure you it’s a critical tool to keep people safe online.”

However, the SpaceX CEO then appeared to poke fun at people’s concerns with a pointed tweet on Sunday night (20 August).

He joked: “Pretty fun blocking people who complain that blocking is going away. How does the medicine taste?”

Even this could distract from the site’s issues over the weekend, with the platform temporarily deleting anything posted prior to 2015 - including Ellen DeGeneres' iconic Oscars selfie.

Maybe Musk should just stick to spaceships instead?