Tesla CEO Elon Musk is one of the most influential and active people on Twitter. On April 14, he revealed that he had offered $54.20 per share to buy Twitter in a deal that would see the value of Twitter at $43 billion. This news came shortly after he rejected a seat on Twitter’s board, a seat he was offered for being the majority shareholder’s 9.2% stake.
Musk’s attempt to buy Twitter has sparked debate about the social media site’s future. Musk said he might re-evaluate his status as a Twitter stakeholder if the company rejects his offer. Musk has even suggested that a new social network be created. This week, he also announced that he was considering making a tender offer to Twitter stockholders. However, Twitter has implemented a defense strategy known as the “poison pill,” making it difficult for Musk to increase his ownership in the firm.
Musk has openly tweeted about the changes he longs to see on Twitter, and these will likely be the first things he implements when he acquires ownership.
Content moderation
Musk tweeted about free speech being an important function of democracy. He ran a survey asking if the public or Twitter users believed that the platform adhered to the principles of free speech.
In this Twitter survey, 70% of 2 million respondents said no. Twitter can create its own rules without subscribing to the First Amendment. This was affirmed by the current CEO, Agrawal, in 2020 in the position of CTO while speaking to MIT Technology Review.
Elon Musk is not the first to question freedom of speech on Twitter. Others include the former President of the U.S., Donald Trump, especially after the deadly January 6 Capitol Hill riots. In a follow-up tweet, Musk said that Twitter served the de facto public square, meaning that failure to adhere to the principles of free speech was undermining democracy.
Other changes include;
- Release an edit button.
- Open up Twitter’s algorithm.
- Combat the increasing cryptocurrency scams.
