One of the most controversial aspects of social media is how much influence a user can have on how people view real-world events. Especially on Twitter, the boom of trending topics and hashtags can sound like market manipulation (see: meme stocks like AMC and GameStop and the volatility of crypto valuations).
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Elon Musk has been accused of causing market disruption with frequently tossed tweets, but new findings suggest he is deliberately manipulating Tesla stock prices using Twitter bots. a report by Los Angeles Times states that over the course of seven years, starting in 2013, more than 30,000 tweets praising “positive” sentiments about Tesla were posted by automated accounts, or bots.
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University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business professor David A. Kirsch and his assistant, Moshen Choudhury, found that after studying more than 186 Tesla-focused bots, Tesla’s stock rose more than 2% after launch. each.
The tweets reportedly began around 2013 after Tesla took a hit in a negative news cycle amid reports of fires for drivers in the company’s cars. The pair found that one-fifth of the volume of tweets about Tesla were bot-generated. Times Reporter Russ Mitchell. This is not in line with giants like Amazon and Apple, but their bots leading the stock market and tech stocks in general with those companies as leaders, but not focused on any particular narrative about the companies. “
The report suggests that even though Tesla’s stock valuation skyrocketed along with Musk’s net worth throughout 2010, the carmaker actually lost an estimated $5.7 billion over the same period — an unusual anomaly.
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The news comes as Musk has been making headlines recently for his acquisition of Twitter shares, making him a majority stakeholder in the platform. However Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal announced this week that, contrary to initial speculation, Musk would not be joining the company’s board.
“I believe it is for good,” Agarwal tweeted. We have and always will have input from our shareholders whether they are on our board or not. Elon is our largest shareholder and we will be open to his input.
Analysts have since pointed out that if Musk were to join the board, he would be limited to holding only a 14.9% stake in the company.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Twitter was down about 35% year over year. Tesla was up 42% over the same time period.
