Elon Musk has decided not to join the Twitter board, despite becoming the company’s single biggest shareholder.
The social media giant’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, said the Tesla and SpaceX founder relayed his decision on the very morning he had been due to be officially appointed.
“Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input,” he added in a statement on Twitter.
Twitter had already informed the US securities regulator that Musk would join the board as a Class II director after he bought a 9.2% stake worth almost $3bn.
Musk has since been proposing a series of possible changes to the platform, including allowing users to pay for its premium subscription service – Twitter Blue – with the cryptocurrency dogecoin.
The offer of a seat on the company’s board of directors had concerned some Twitter employees, who were worried about his stance on moderation.
Several staff told Reuters news agency that Musk’s views could weaken years-long efforts to make Twitter a place of healthy discourse, and might allow trolling and mob attacks to flourish.
After Donald Trump was barred from Facebook and Twitter, the billionaire tweeted that many people would be unhappy with US tech companies acting as the “de facto arbiter of free speech”.