After what felt like thousands of years (but was really just a few months) Elon Musk, finally, officially, and with no-take-backs, owns Twitter… now here comes the fun part.
What happened: The deal may have closed Thursday night, but Musk really sealed the deal by tweeting “the bird is freed” and then firing Twitter’s policy chief, the CFO, and the CEO.
- Musk will reportedly act as the interim CEO, per Reuters, spreading himself a little thin tbh considering he’s also CEO of Tesla and the chief engineer of SpaceX.
What’s next: Now, isn’t that the question on everyone’s mind?
While Musk has teased the idea of X, the everything app, he tweeted out a message captioned “Dear Twitter Advertisers”, which laid out his utopian vision for Twitter 2.0—a civilization-saving “common digital town square”, which to him means:
- A place for free speech but not a “free-for-all hellscape”. His first step will be lifting permanent user bans (remember that one former US president?) ASAP.
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“The most respected advertising platform in the world” that cuts out spam and serves up highly-relative ads (a slight retreat from past comments.)
- A place where users control what they see, the same way they can choose what kinds of movies they watch or video games they play.
Of course, Musk could always sell his shiny new toy in a few years if he gets bored (which wouldn’t be out of character), especially if whatever changes he makes boost its value.
Yes, but: Musk faces obstacles a-plenty, like backlash from Twitter employees, advertisers not assuaged by his message, and tightened Big Tech regulations (especially in the EU).
Why it matters: The richest person on Earth is now in control of what constitutes “free speech” on one of the world’s largest sources of news and opinions, which could have broader implications for what the concept of free speech (at least online) means at all.