Musk’s Twitter Makeover

Twitter is likely in for a big change if Elon Musk completes the deal to purchase the social-media company.

Why it’s news

Elon Musk recently reverted back to his original offer to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share—for a total of $44 billion.

The battle between Elon Musk and Twitter has been brewing for many months as the billionaire attempted to step down from his $44 billion deal to buy the social media company.

Now that he has officially reverted back to his original plan to buy the company things will most likely begin to move fast and Twitter will undergo some big changes.

Musk has voiced for many months that he believes Twitter should be a free speech platform with little to no restrictions. Civil liberties groups have already wrung their hands over how the site’s moderation will change, fearing a flood of hate speech and misinformation, according to Bloomberg writer Parmy Olson.

In the months after the Twitter deal closes Musk will likely begin the transition into free speech on the site as well as begin eradicating fake accounts.

One of the reasons for Musk attempting to abandon the deal in the first place was due to Twitter being dishonest about the number of fake accounts and spam bots on the platform.

Now, Musk says he wants to authenticate all real humans on the site. That means he could very well demand that his engineers shrink the total number of spambots from around 5% to under 1%. While other CEOs might give them a few years to do the job, there’s a good chance he will tell them to do it within the next six to 12 months, according to Bloomberg. 

Musk also has plans to make Twitter, “the everything app.” He tweeted on Tuesday satating, “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.”

The idea for this is that everything would be included in one app—including Twitter.

This isn’t a brand new idea. China has had a version of this “everything app” for a while now that they refer to as “WeChat”, but the U.S. doesn’t have an equivalent—yet.

Musk seems to have plenty of ideas for the direction of Twitter, but the deal has not yet to be sealed.

Backing up a bit

The timeline between Elon Musk and Twitter is a lengthy one.

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.” 

Last month, 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.