Musk dissolves Twitter's board of directors

Oct. 31 (UPI) -- New Twitter owner Elon Musk further asserted his power Monday by making himself the sole director of the social media company.

Musk dissolved Twitter's board of directors just days after finalizing his purchase of the social media behemoth for an estimated $44 billion. A company filing declared Musk the "sole director."

The move by the SpaceX owner was not totally unexpected. He began firing top executives almost immediately after taking ownership of Twitter. The bigger question is what will the platform become under his unfettered control?

Musk has often engaged in pushing conspiracy theories and loosely interacted with both verified and unverified users. His latest antics come in the wake of the violent attack of Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

In response to former New York Senator Hillary Clinton asserting Republican rhetoric led to the attack, Musk tweeted "There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye." Attached to the tweet was an article from an unreliable website which pushed an unfounded theory about why Pelosi was attacked. Musk deleted the tweet within hours of posting.

Critics of Musk are concerned over his definition of free speech, believing it will lead to the allowance of hate speech and conspiracy theories to run rampant on Twitter more than they already do. The Network Contagion Research Institute found use of the "N-word" increased by 500% upon Musk taking over Twitter, according to Forbes.

Musk assured advertisers he does not intend to allow Twitter to become a "free-for-all-Hellscape," in a tweet posted Thursday. He went on to say he purchased the company to "try to help further humanity."