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{"text":[[{"start":12.94,"text":"When Elon Musk finally closed his $44bn deal to buy Twitter in October 2022, despite months of trying to wriggle out of the plump contract as markets slumped, he displayed no remorse. "},{"start":23.994,"text":"“Fuck Zuck!” he shouted as he signed the papers with a flourish, in a machismo challenge to the Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, now his direct competitor in the dog-eat-dog world of social media. "}],[{"start":34.74,"text":"It was a provocative — and fitting — start to what would become one of the most dramatic overhauls in corporate culture to date. "},{"start":41.394000000000005,"text":"Within weeks, the mercurial Musk set about sacking or losing more than 80 per cent of Twitter’s staff of 7,500 and replacing its meandering, overly bureaucratic management with his “hardcore”, up-all-night working dogma, all in the hopes of ushering a new era of “free speech”. "}],[{"start":57,"text":"But in doing so, Musk didn’t just “break” Twitter — “Twitter broke Elon Musk”, argues Ben Mezrich. "},{"start":63.104,"text":"In Breaking Twitter, the bestselling American author chronicles the lead-up to and first chaotic months of the billionaire’s takeover of the social media platform, attempting to get inside Musk’s head as he seemingly unravels at the helm. "}],[{"start":75.73,"text":"Mezrich — best known for his narrative non-fiction works such as The Accidental Billionaires, about the founding of Facebook — does this by interweaving the first-person narratives of a handful of mid- to high-level staffers, with chapters from Musk’s imagined vantage point. "},{"start":89.409,"text":"It is a dramatisation, much of which has already been published, rather than a feat of deep access and dogged reporting. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":96.59,"text":"Early into the acquisition, Musk is impish and gleeful, even when events are not going in his favour. "},{"start":102.269,"text":"When his grand plan to open “blue tick” verification to all users leads to swaths of impersonations on the platform — some humorous, some malicious — Musk is seen by one of his senior staffers “laughing, sometimes uproariously, as he scrolled from tweet to tweet”. "}],[{"start":116.81,"text":"But we also see flashes of a darker side: Musk as the paranoid, thin-skinned leader who loathes betrayal. "},{"start":123.089,"text":"He becomes increasingly challenged, begins to spiral and flexes his power in response. "},{"start":128.007,"text":"When his toddler son is the victim of a stalking incident, Musk lashes out by expelling certain journalists from the platform. "}],[{"start":134.89,"text":"When US President Joe Biden gets more engagement than him on a tweet about the Super Bowl, Musk has a spectacular tantrum. "},{"start":141.694,"text":"When Twitter users vote in favour of him stepping down as chief executive in a poll that he himself posts, a sullen Musk hides away in his office for so long that staffers outside discuss whether to call the police to ask for a wellness check on him. "},{"start":153.862,"text":"At its heart, Breaking Twitter illustrates the dangers of ego and perpetuating a culture of fear. "}],[{"start":159.96999999999997,"text":"By journalistic standards, it is unclear exactly how much creative licence Mezrich has taken. "},{"start":165.49899999999997,"text":"In a note to readers ahead of the prologue, the author explains that some scenes have been re-created, dialogue “reimagined”, satire employed, even composite characters created. "},{"start":175.34199999999998,"text":"Narrative presented in Musk’s voice is “based on my own speculation as well as deep reporting”, Mezrich states. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":182.22999999999996,"text":"Either way, the goal is clear. "},{"start":184.68399999999997,"text":"The book reads as though written with a screenplay pitch in mind, rushed out ahead of the half-dozen or so other TwitterIt’s unclear how much creative licence Mezrich has taken. In a note to readers, he explains that some scenes have been re-created and dialogue ‘reimagined’