Named the consequences of the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk

Not having time to become the owner of Twitter, Musk immediately played the role of the same broom that sweeps in a new way. More precisely, sweeps – it is reported that the new owner fired Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and several other top managers (CFO and chief legal officer).

However, layoffs can threaten not only the old team of leaders. According to documents seen by The Washington Post, Musk told investors interested in financing his acquisition of the company that he plans to cut 75% of the workforce. True, during his first visit to the company on October 5, the billionaire promised employees that he would not lay off so many workers. However, some cuts cannot be avoided.

The closing of the Twitter acquisition removes the cloud of uncertainty that has hung over the company for much of this year. After initially agreeing to buy the company in April, Elon Musk struggled for months to pull out of the deal, citing concerns in part about the number of bots on the platform. In this regard, the prospect of litigation loomed before the multi-billionaire. But the deal is still completed.

However, Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the immediate layoff of some of the company’s top executives are now raising many new questions about the future of both the social media platform itself and the many sectors of society associated with Twitter.

The acquisition of the company will allow Musk to expand his influence in different directions. The super rich already owns, controls, or has significant stakes in companies that develop cars, rockets, robots, and satellite Internet, as well as more experimental ventures such as brain implants. Now he has taken control of an Internet platform that affects how hundreds of millions of people around the world communicate and receive news.

Elon Musk spoke about his plans to rethink Twitter’s content moderation policy in favor of a more maximalist approach to “free speech”. He expressed disagreement with the practice of this social network to constantly block those who repeatedly violate its rules.

A self-described “free speech absolutist,” Musk has expressed concern that Twitter downplays certain messages with its algorithms that track what the user sees. In an interview before he agreed to buy the platform, he expressed concern that “tweets are being mysteriously promoted and demoted without understanding what’s going on.” He suggested that an open source algorithm could solve this problem.

This sentiment seems to raise the possibility that a number of previously banned controversial users may reappear on Twitter. And in this regard, it is very interesting what will happen to former US President Donald Trump – will he be allowed to return to using his favorite tool, which, frankly, he abused during his stay in the White House (and then was excommunicated from the social network).

Donald Trump was “indefinitely” banned from the social network in January 2021 after the riots staged by his supporters in the Capitol, and his access to his account with 88 million followers was blocked. Moreover, in January last year, Twitter shut down more than 70,000 accounts of Trump supporters in less than a week, accusing them of spreading conspiracy theories.

Musk made it clear that he could reverse the decision on the former president. When asked about Trump in May, he said, “I would lift a permanent ban,” adding that Twitter is “left-leaning.” Other figures banned from Twitter include American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and right-wing commentator Katie Hopkins in the UK.

So with the new owner of Twitter, Trump and others like him may get the right to return to the platform. And depending on the timing, Trump’s return to the freedom to tweet could have major implications for the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, as well as the 2024 presidential campaign.

“The reason I bought Twitter is because it’s important for the future of civilization to have a shared digital ‘town square’ where you can discuss a wide range of beliefs in a healthy, non-violent way,” Musk says.

True, there is a strong suspicion that the new owner of Twitter does not guarantee absolutely unlimited freedom to users of the social network. Especially since Musk had previously published an open letter to advertisers, stating that he did not want the platform to turn into “a free hell where you can say whatever you want without any consequences.”

“In addition to complying with the laws of the country, our platform must be warm and welcoming to everyone,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, supporters of censoring tweets point out that immediately after the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk, a stream of racist and other misanthropic posts poured into the social network. And the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, is sounding the alarm: they say that the billionaire’s position as an “absolutist of free speech” could turn the social network into a platform for inciting hatred. And he warns that “in Europe, this bird (a hint at the Twitter logo. – “MK”) will fly according to our rules.” At the same time, the European official used the hashtag #DSA in his tweet, containing a reference to the law on digital services, which tightens the regulation of social networks in the EU.

By the way, it is worth recalling that on March 4 this year, Roskomnadzor announced the blocking of Twitter in the territory of the Russian Federation.

And another interesting consequence of the acquisition of Twitter by the billionaire could be the acceleration of the creation of a universal application “for everything” promised by Musk. At a meeting with the company in June, Elon Musk said that the platform should be more like the Chinese application WeChat, which provides instant messaging, social networking capabilities and mobile payments: “If we can recreate this with Twitter, then we will achieve great success “.