Elon finally gets his Musk all over Twitter with confirmed acquisition
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The on, off, off, off, again saga of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s planned Twitter takeover has finally come to an end. After signing the deal reportedly worth a staggering $44 billion, Musk has wasted no time making his unique mark on the social media giant — firing several top executives from Twitter.
CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, Policy Chief Vijaya Gadde and General Counsel Sean Edgett are among the victims, with Bloomberg (opens in new tab) reporting Edgett in particular was guided from Twitter’s headquarters. That detail, if true, would indicate that Musk still has some fears about the legal ramifications of his initial backflipping on plans to buy Twitter earlier this year.
But what does this change mean for Twitter users? Well, maybe enough. An outspoken libertarian, it was long believed that Musk’s takeover of Twitter would see content moderation on the platform drastically change, and the man himself would almost confirm this. And further elements of Musk’s ambitions for the future of Twitter suggest even bigger plans for how the user experience on Twitter will change in the coming months.
The wild ride to now
Musk’s first step on the journey to the official Twitter takeover began even before he filed a deal for the platform. In early 2022, Musk slowly started buying shares in Twitter to become the largest shareholder of the social media company in early April. Later that same month, the first signs of the reported $44 billion deal emerged.
Half a month later, in mid-May, the deal between Musk and Twitter abruptly stalled. Musk suggested that his discovery that Twitter reportedly had more fake accounts and bots than he’d been led to believe sparked his sudden change of heart.
However, Twitter was not satisfied and filed a lawsuit hoping to keep Musk from his end of the planned deal.
The legal proceedings started soon, but were not far advanced to achieve the desired result. Earlier this month, Musk finally admitted to going through with the deal, on the condition that all legal proceedings would be immediately adjourned.
Subsequent signs of the takeover approaching its long-awaited end point only peaked yesterday (Oct. 27), when Musk tweeted images of himself walking through Twitter’s doors with… a sink.
Entering Twitter’s HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7October 26, 2022
Everything but the sink
If Musk himself is to be believed, the (adversary) Twitter takeover is one he considers a philanthropic venture. In a statement on its Twitter account, the divisive tech giant also made suggestions about what kind of changes he might have in mind for the social media platform now that he’s behind the wheel.
“The reason I took over Twitter is because it is important for the future of civilization to have a common digital city square, where a wide range of beliefs can be discussed in a healthy way, without resorting to violence ,” Musk wrote: (opens in new tab). “There is currently a great danger of social media fragmenting into far-right and far-left echo chambers that generate more hatred and divide our society.”
“That’s why I bought Twitter. I didn’t do it because it would be easy. I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help the humanity I love.”
Typical of a longtime entrepreneur like Musk, Twitter’s new owner also flagged plans to rework ad processes with the platform. In a bold statement, Musk suggested his ambitions for Twitter to become “the most respected advertising platform in the world.”
“Low relevance ads are spam,” Musk wrote. “But highly relevant ads are content!”
In a personal text message released during the discovery process of the legal proceeding between Musk and Twitter, prominent Musk friend and popular podcaster Joe Rogan asked Tesla founder, “Are you going to free Twitter from the censorship-happy mob?”
Musk does indeed intend to “liberate” Twitter, but perhaps not in a way that would improve the experience for the majority of its users. More ads, less moderation seems to be the desired game plan for Twitter under Elon Musk and, with past leaders already pushed out the door, that game plan is likely to go into full effect sooner rather than later.