Why would Elon Musk abruptly cancel plans to join Twitter's board? He may want to take over the company, or just the freedom to tweet in peace.

The appointment of Musk to the board was announced six days ago.

Just one day before this, Musk disclosed a nearly 10% stake in the social media company.

Musk said he was looking forward to working with the board to make improvements to the site.

Musk has decided not to join the Board, he said less than a week later.

Musk publicly declared his intention to join the board of directors just minutes after the original statement by Agrawal. He was supposed to be appointed to the board on Saturday, April 9, but instead he told Agrawal that he wouldn't be joining the board.

Musk has not responded to a request for comment.

One consideration is his flexibility, given his large investment in the social networking site.

When you join the board of directors of a company, your degree of freedom as an investor is substantially restricted, according to former SEC Chair Jay Clayton.

Being on a board gives you access to confidential information that is material and market moving.

That information would have made it harder for Musk to move in and out of a stock or other security.

As a condition of his appointment to the board, Musk would have had to limit his stake in the micro-blogging site to 14.9%. Since he isn't joining the board, he's free to buy the company.

This is now a Cinderella story with Musk joining the board and keeping his stake under 14.9%, which will help move the company forward, according to an analyst.

Musk has a lot of opinions on how to change Twitter.

He sees as an attack on free speech the way that Twitter moderates its users, including the permanent ban of former president Donald Trump. He has criticized the way that the platform does not have the ability to moderation the amount of bots on it.

It is possible that Musk just wants the freedom to scrutinize a service he loves and uses regularly without having to face that company's board.

Ben Gilbert, senior correspondent for Insider, can be reached via email at bgilbert@insider.com. Sources can be kept anonymous. You can use a non-work device to reach out. Please only email PR pitches.