Elon Musk has finally completed his $44bn takeover of Twitter.
The deal means an end to the months-long legal saga between Elon Musk & the Twitter board over his planned takeover.
He dropped out earlier this year due to his disagreement with Twitter’s management and policies, and after criticising Twitter’s management for providing ‘misleading information’ about their user numbers.
Musk, known for Tesla and SpaceX, confirmed the news with his tweet: “the bird is freed” – referring to the site’s iconic bird logo.
But even though the deal has now been completed, questions remain as to the future direction of the social media platform under Musk’s leadership.
Just as his takeover was confirmed through filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, some of Twitter’s top executives were fired.
CEO Parag Agrawal, along with Ned Segal, the site’s chief financial officer, and Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top legal & policy executive, were all said to have left the company’s headquarters in San Francisco, and would not be returning.
Musk, Trump and Twitter
Musk has previously stated that he would reverse bans on suspended users – possibly including Donald Trump, the former US President, who was excluded from the site following the Capitol Building riot in January 2021.
Musk, who has deemed himself a “free speech absolutist,” said in May 2022 that Trump’s ban from Twitter last year was a “morally bad decision” and “foolish in the extreme.“
He added that as Twitter is a “town square where everyone can voice their opinion,” permanent bans on users like Donald Trump “fundamentally undermine trust” in the site.
Trump was widely criticised during the 59th US presidential election, in November 2020, for spreading misinformation on Twitter to keep him in power.
Trump accused the Democrats of stealing the vote from him, and called for America to “stop the count!”
The Capitol Building riot, in January 2021, ended with a police officer being killed, and further tweets from the outgoing President prompted Twitter executives to review his account and tweets.
In their review, Twitter found that two of Trump’s tweets at the time were in “violation of the Glorification of Violence Policy” and that he should be “immediately permanently suspended from the service.”
Explaining the ban in a blog post, Twitter said that Trump’s tweets could “encourage and inspire people to replicate the criminal acts that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
Almost every majorly-popular social media platform quickly followed suit to ban Trump from their sites, ranging from Meta’s Facebook and Instagram to Discord, Snapchat, Reddit, Twitch and (ironically) TikTok.
Trump moved on to Parler, but its app – described as “Twitter without rules” – was then quickly removed by Apple, Google and Amazon from their app stores, prompting the former POTUS to set up his own site called ‘Truth Social.’
According to CNBC, Trump posted on Truth Social that he was: “very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs.”
Other Twitter bans
Aside from Donald Trump, other users who have been banned and who are feared could be allowed back onto the site, under Elon Musk’s leadership, include:
- Azealia Banks, the 31 year old rapper who was banned in 2016 for making homophobic and racist remarks;
- Alex Jones, the founder of conspiracy website InfoWars, who was banned in 2018 after falsely claiming the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting was faked; and,
- Katie Hopkins, whose account was suspended in 2020 after breaching Twitter’s ‘hateful conduct’ policies.
Appealing to the site’s wider demographic, Elon Musk tweeted a large statement on Thursday captioned “Dear Twitter Advertisers,” in an effort to dispel conspiracy theories regarding the true reasons why he bought Twitter.
In his tweet, he explains that he believes it is “important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.
“I didn’t [buy Twitter] to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love.
“That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”
“In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all, where you can choose your desired experience according to your preferences.”
KPH tech blog 
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