Spat protection

You know the 21st century has arrived when we observe the world’s billionaires fighting over moon mission contracts and exchanging digs at each other in cyberspace.

Space tourism has arrived for those who can afford it. The great unknown will now become postcard worthy, though some have questioned its ethics when the super-rich could put their money to work fighting the effects of climate change down here on Earth.

As you may have seen, Jeff Bezos has been battling Elon Musk for a space contract, and back on the ground we have seen Jitse Goren of Just Eat spatting with his counterpart at Uber. Jitse’s Twitter talk earned him a healthy 26.7 percent drop in share price, with active investors getting tetchy over the future of the company.

It’s worrying how one angry tweet can have such grave ramifications to a company’s valuation, but this lends to the difficulty executives face in communicating with customers or even competitors on social media platforms.

Elon Musk was ordered to step down as Tesla’s chairman after violating securities laws with his tweet back in 2018, leading to investors questioning his tenancy.

Some executives will of course use their platform for greater good and promote the right messages but unfortunately, they don’t make the headlines.

The Lens wonders if – given how those invested in these underlying stocks through their pension funds are ultimately the ones affected by Twitter wars – does there need to be more protection or regulation against such forces?