The on-again, off-again, off-again, on-again saga of tech billionaire Elon Musk's planned takeover of Twitter has finally come to an end. After signing the deal worth an estimated €44 billion, Musk wasted no time putting his unique mark on the social media giant: he fired several top Twitter executives.
Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, Policy Director Vijaya Gadde and General Counsel Sean Edgett are among the victims. Bloomberg (opens in a new tab) reports that Edgett was notably escorted from Twitter's corporate headquarters. This detail, if correct, would suggest that Musk is still distraught over the legal fallout from his initial pushback on plans to buy Twitter earlier in the year.
But what does this change mean for Twitter users? Well, maybe a lot. An outspoken libertarian, it has long been speculated that Musk's takeover of Twitter would drastically change content moderation on the platform, and the man himself all but confirmed it. And other elements of Musk's ambitions for the future of Twitter point to even bigger plans for how the user experience on Twitter will change in the coming months.
The wild ride so far
Musk's first step on the road to officially acquiring Twitter began even before he submitted a deal for the platform. Musk slowly began buying shares in Twitter in early 2022 to become the social media company's largest shareholder in early April. Later that same month, the first signs of the reported €44 billion deal emerged.
Half a month later, in mid-May, Musk's deal with Twitter abruptly stalled. Musk suggested that his discovery that Twitter contained more fake accounts and bots than he had been led to believe was the impetus for his sudden change of heart.
However, Twitter was not happy and filed a lawsuit in hopes of keeping Musk until the end of the planned deal.
Legal proceedings soon began, but not much progress had been made in achieving the desired result. Earlier this month, Musk finally agreed to go ahead with the deal, on the condition that all legal proceedings be stopped immediately.
More signs that the acquisition is nearing its long-awaited completion point only came to a head yesterday (October 27), when Musk tweeted images of himself walking through the doors of Twitter holding... a sink.
Entering the Twitter headquarters - let him in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq726October 2022, XNUMX
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Everything except the kitchen faucet.
If Musk himself is to be believed, the (reluctant) acquisition of Twitter is something he considers a philanthropic endeavor. In a statement posted to his Twitter account, the divisive tech giant also offered suggestions on the kinds of changes he might have in mind for the social media platform now that he's behind the wheel.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is that it is important for the future of civilization to have a common digital public square, where a wide range of beliefs can be discussed in a healthy way, without resorting to violence,” Musk wrote (opens in a new tab). “Currently there is a great danger that social media will split into far-right and far-left echo chambers that generate more hate 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 humanity, which I love."
Typical of a longtime entrepreneur like Musk, the new owner of Twitter has also announced plans to rework advertising processes with the platform. In a bold statement, Musk hinted at his aspirations for Twitter to become "the world's most respected ad platform."
“Low relevance ads are spam,” Musk wrote. "But highly relevant ads are content!"
In a personal text message posted during the discovery process of the legal proceedings between Musk and Twitter, prominent Musk pal and popular podcaster Joe Rogan asked the Tesla founder, "Are you going to free Twitter from the happy crowd of censorship?
In fact, Musk plans to "liberate" Twitter, but perhaps not in a way that would improve the experience for most of its users. More ads, less moderation seems to be the desired game plan for Twitter under Elon Musk and with previous execs already being ousted, that game plan should kick in sooner rather than later.