Elon Musk has some big changes in store for Twitter and here’s what he has said he will do so far.
Key Details
- After six months after he expressed interest in purchasing Twitter, Elon Musk has officially taken the reins.
- Musk has been very open about the changes he plans to make to the social-media platform throughout the whole acquisition process.
- Some of the changes include—ending permanent bans, moderating content, and allowing longer-length tweets.
Why it’s news
The battle between Elon Musk and Twitter has been making headlines for months as the billionaire tried to escape the $44 billion acquisition deal.
Now “the bird is freed,” Musk says on his Twitter feed, and is now the owner of the social media company.
Since his announcement of his plans to buy the company back in April, Musk has discussed many things he wants to change on the platform and those could become reality in the weeks following the acquisition.
Possible changes
Musk has been open about the changes he wants to bring to the social media platform and here is what could possibly be in store.
Permanent bans
In the early stages of the deal, Musk said he would end permanent bans on the site including reinstating former President Trump on the app. He said that he feels permanent bans go against his idea that Twitter should be a place where everyone can voice their opinion.
Although he wants to stop permanent bans he said temporary bans could still be in place for people who tweet something “that is illegal or destructive to the world.”
Moderation
From the beginning Musk has wanted Twitter to be a free speech platform, in order to do that he wants to scale back on content moderation.
He has stated that he doesn;t think content should be moderated beyond what is required by the laws of the countries it operates in.
Spam bots
Musk has stated that one of the reasons he wanted to end the Twitter deal was due to the amount of spam bots on the platform. Now under his guidance, he wants to introduce a way to authenticate all humans on the site.
Longer tweets
Currently, Twitter only allows tweets of up to 280 characters. Musk said he wants to change that and allow long-form tweets.
Open algorithm
Musk stated that he thinks there are biases in Twitter’s algorithm and wants to create an open-source algorithm.
He created a poll on Twitter asking followers if they would like an open algorithm where around 83% said yes.
Backing up a Bit
The full timeline between Elon Musk and Twitter is long.
It all started in April, Elon Musk announced that he held a 9.2% stake in Twitter, which made him the social-media company’s largest shareholder. Twitter’s stock price soared 25% after the announcement.
Later that month, the billionaire entrepreneur offered to buy all of Twitter at $54.20 per share—equaling about $44 billion. He said he originally invested in the platform because he believes it is failing in its potential to be the leading platform for free speech around the globe. In fact, he asked his 2 million followers if Twitter adhered to principles of free speech, and 70% said “no.”
In July, Musk decided to back out of the deal, claiming there were too many fake accounts on the platform. Twitter has since sued Musk in Delaware Court of Chancery to complete the deal and requested the trial to take place in September. Musk, on the other hand, wanted to delay the trial until February 2023, stating that a case of this size takes time to prepare. Twitter was granted its wish of an expedited trial, with Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, the presiding judge, setting a five-day trial for October.
Musk then countersued Twitter, stating his reason for the termination was due to Twitter not being upfront about the number of fake accounts on the platform.
Then, Elon Musk and his legal team subpoenaed Twitter’s founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, to get him to release documents that provide accurate information on bots and spam accounts on the social-media platform and now these documents have come out from Zatko and Musk and his lawyers have subpoenaed him as well.
Then, Musk’s text messages were revealed in court filings and it showed that Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey tried to facilitate Musk’s Twitter takeover, which led to Musk officially reverting back to his original deal to buy the social-media company.
