Why Elon Musk was interested in buying Twitter and how it will affect the common tweeter

The entrepreneurial billionaire Elon Musk, with such varied businesses on Earth and in space, wants the platform to be completely private to restore its commitment to what it calls “freedom of expression”, or at least it has been saying so for weeks. This Monday, the sale of the social network was finalized after the board of directors of Twitter will accept an offer for $54.2 per share, in a transaction valued at $44 billion.

Just after the purchase was announced, Musk promised that Twitter would have “new features, to defeat spam bots and open source algorithms to increase trust.”

US businessman Elon Musk said Monday that he hopes his “detractors” will remain on Twitter, alluding to the negotiations he is holding for the purchase of the social network and that could soon lead to an agreement.

“I hope that even my worst detractors continue on Twitter, because that is what freedom of expression means,” said the founder of Tesla and the richest man in the world, who finalizes the details of his purchase for 45,000 million dollars, according to press reports.

According independentEarlier this month, Musk vaguely noted that he has “sufficient assets” to complete the deal, adding, “I can do it if possible.”

A securities filing last week revealed it has raised $22.5 billion from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding to finance the offering and will pay the rest by selling shares.

The purchase agreement announced this Monday has also generated movements in the dogecoin cryptocurrency, one of Musk’s favorites, which rises 15%, and in the “spac” Digital World Acquisition Corporation, related to the social network of former President Donald Trump, which falls by 15%.

Will it affect Twitter users?

Many users celebrated the news as a “victory for freedom of expression”, and called for an end to “shadow banning” when posts disappear from people’s timelines without notice.

But others were quick to express concern that one of the biggest social media platforms was in the hands of the world’s richest person.

The week before, Musk said his motivation came from realizing that “Having a public platform that is highly trusted and very inclusive is quite important for the future of civilization”. The strange thing is that Musk has blocked Twitter users who question or disagree with him.

Another of its initiatives is to charge a fee of $2 per month for profiles that want the social network’s verification mark, which is currently shown with a white checkmark in a blue circle next to the username.

According to the details provided on the deal, it has been unanimously approved by the board of directors and is expected to close this year after a green light from shareholders, regulators and other customary conditions.

“Regulators around the world will cringe at the possible free speech implications if Musk’s takeover bid is successful,” GlobalData analyst Rachel Foster-Jones said earlier. “Musk is serious about promoting free speech for the benefit of democracy, but the lines between free speech and hate speech or misinformation are becoming increasingly blurred, and attempts to change Twitter could easily lead to these problems spiraling out of control,” according to the Independent. (I)