The richest man on earth and tech’s most petulant CEO, Elon Musk, turned the largest shareholder of Twitter final month, a social community he mentioned was “failing to adhere to free speech principles.”

Musk’s new acquisition was made public in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing launched on Monday. The submitting disclosed that Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, purchased roughly 73 million shares, or 9.2%, of Twitter on March 14. To put that into perspective, the social media community’s founder, Jack Dorsey, owns 2.2% of firm inventory. Musk’s shares are value roughly $2.89 billion based mostly on Twitter’s closing value final Friday. The firm’s inventory value rose 26% on the information.

Dorsey appeared to reply to the information the identical morning with mourning for a long-gone decentralized model of the web.

“The days of usenet, irc, the web…even email (w PGP)…were amazing. centralizing discovery and identity into corporations really damaged the internet. I realize I’m partially to blame, and regret it,” the Twitter founder wrote.

News of Musk’s buy comes after a weekend the place gossip swirled round the tech mogul. A witness mentioned they noticed Musk denied entry on the Berlin membership Berghain, infamous for its stringent and inscrutable entry necessities. Musk denied the assertion, protesting that he had “refused to enter.”

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Monday’s disclosure introduced renewed consideration to Musk’s March 25 poll concerning the state of free speech Twitter, which was made after his buy. He known as Twitter “the de facto public square.”

“Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” the tech mogul wrote in his ballot. He added: “The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.”

Overall, the ballot acquired a little bit over two million replies, with 70.4% voting “no” and 29.6% voting “yes.”

In response to the vote, on March 26 Musk tweeted that “failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.” He then requested his followers what they believed ought to be performed within the state of affairs and whether or not a brand new platform was wanted.

Considering Musk’s obsession with Twitter — which he retains utilizing despite the fact that it routinely will get him into bother and makes him fork over tens of millions for unhealthy conduct — the acquisition isn’t precisely stunning. What can be fascinating, nonetheless, is what Musk decides to do together with his shares.

According to Bloomberg, the kind of submitting used to report Musk’s buy, referred to as the 13G, signifies that the client isn’t planning to hold out an organization takeover or have a say in who leads it. Analysts who spoke to CNBC acknowledged that the acquisition is a “passive stake,” however speculated that Musk taking a extra aggressive stance on this case would additionally make sense given his latest feedback.