Elon Musk becomes Twitter's largest stakeholder and, yes, there are memes

Elon Musk has become the majority shareholder of Twitter after buying a 9.2 per cent stake in the social media platform, just days after dropping hints that he was about to do so.

It was revealed that the South African billionaire, who is currently the richest man in the world, had brought the largest state in the company on Monday, with Twitter's pre-market trading value surging 26 per cent on after the announcement was made.

Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX, is one of Twitter's biggest personalities, well known for speaking his mind and posting often bizarre and sometimes controversial memes.

Just 11 days before the announcement was made, Musk ran a poll on Twitter asking his 80 million followers "Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?" Musk also added a caveat: "The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully."

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The result of the poll was a landslide with 'no' winning by 70.4 per cent of the vote.

Just a day after he posted this poll, Musk added: "Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?" He also asked: "Is a new platform needed?"

Given that these polls were posted just over a week ago, many have noticed that the tech mogul has not kidding and wasn't slow to get involved with Twitter on a corporate level and of course, there are memes.

Musk's arrival is likely to be a seen a big test for new Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who replaced Jack Dorsey in December. Musk also owns a significantly higher percentage of Twitter now than Dorsey who only has 2.25 per cent to his name.

Musk has yet to comment on his high profile acquisition but he's been recently raving about his trip to Berlin, where he was refused entry to the famous Berghain nightclub.

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