Elon Musk can now shape the direction of Twitter – where might that lead?

It will be fascinating to see how Elon Musk deploys his genius towards social media, writes Hamish McRae

US Elon Musk Twitter (AP)

When Elon Musk tweets the markets move – and massively so when he revealed he had bought 9.2 per cent of Twitter.

When the world’s richest person buys nearly 10 per cent of a social media giant, you sit up. This is, I suggest, one of those situations where you learn more from what people do than what they say – or tweet. Elon Musk has come under fire from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for his market-moving tweets, action that he has pushed back against. We have to wait and see what happens.

The SEC was founded in 1933 to police the financial markets in the wake of the 1929 share crash, and since then it has by and large done a pretty good job. This deal in Twitter shares may lead to a further spat with the SEC, for he seems to have filed details of the purchase a few days late.