Twitter has agreed to Elon Musk's takeover offer and has sold itself to the world's richest man for $44 billion, making it the largest tech transaction of 2022. The social networking platform will be privately owned when this transaction is completed. Through this buyout, Elon Musk seeks to make some major changes in the basis of functioning of the platform. The two main changes to be made are firstly - making Twitter a platform promoting free speech and secondly - removing/reducing the amount of spam accounts which spread hate or troll other users. To further support free speech, he proposed that Twitter's algorithms be made open source. This implies that anybody can see the algorithm's code, and if a problem is found, it may be reported directly by the user, allowing for quick changes.
Being an avid Twitter user, Elon has often criticised the way Twitter operates and desired a few changes to be made. And what is the first action taken by extremely wealthy individuals when things don’t go their way; you guessed it, they buy the company. Elon Musk recently bought a 9.2% stake in the company but didn’t join the Board of Directors. After buying a stake in the company, Elon said to have realised that Twitter will neither thrive nor serve its social imperatives of promoting free speech if it remains a public company. Thus, came forward the idea of taking the company private. Although Twitter has stated that it promotes safe, inclusive, and authentic conversations, biases can often be seen. Donald Trump, the former President of the United States, has been permanently banned from using Twitter, yet the Taliban's account remains operational. Hateful narratives often entice popularity. Jack Dorskey, the founder of the platform stated, “I fully admit our bias is more left leaning”. Permanently banning someone off a platform, whether one agrees with their ideas or not, is against the concept of free speech. Limits should be set, but they can only be enforced by the country from which the Twitter user is operating.
But the question remains, Why Twitter? Twitter is neither the most profitable nor the most popular social media network. However, it is a platform that hasn't evolved much since its introduction. It's the only platform where written content reigns supreme rather than video content. Twitter has always been, is and will always be a microblogging platform. Every politician, government party, and celebrity have a Twitter account, and because the userbase is relatively small, the views of the ordinary citizen can be heard. But the main reason behind this takeover, nonetheless, remains the power Musk has as a financial influencer. With a single tweet, he can trigger significant fluctuations in cryptocurrency prices. He can create or destroy fortunes worth millions in a very short period. One day, he declares that Tesla would take Bitcoin as a form of payment, and bitcoin values skyrocket. Later, he declares that bitcoin is hazardous to the environment and that Tesla would no longer accept it as payment. Shortly after, bitcoin prices do not stop their downwards decent. Musk is the only influencer who is required to take permission from the SEC before posting a financial tweet as his message will affect millions and can cause wide fluctuations in the stock market.
Only time will reveal Musk’s real intentions with the platform as it is too early to form an opinion about the future. But as the saying goes ‘Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’.
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