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So, on the 14th of April, Elon Musk announced an offer to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share. On April 25th, Twitter accepted the deal. Now this is big news, the richest man in the world owning one of the biggest social media platforms? That's something not to ignore. However, what does this mean for Musk, Twitter and the world? Firstly, if you don't know, Elon Musk is the world's richest person, according to Forbes magazine, with an estimated net worth of $273.6 bn mostly due to his shareholding in electric vehicle maker Tesla which he runs. He also leads the aerospace firm SpaceX. When he announced the purchasing, Musk said on Twitter "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," He continued on by saying ""I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans," "Twitter has tremendous potential - I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."
Surprisingly but certainly not coincidentally, the move occurs as Twitter faces growing pressure from politicians and regulators over the content appearing on its platform. There are also numerous negative feedback on its poor efforts in treating misinformation within the platform. Nevertheless, this will have big implications of speech within Twitter. Now that the platform's authority is a man who is an absolutist over free speech. What will that do? Will we continue to receive misinformation? Will we continue to have platforms influence the population's opinion on certain topics such as climate change?
BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin says scientists are nervous about the potential impact of the takeover on the climate debate. He notes that Twitter announced last week it would ban advertisements that deny the scientific consensus on the climate crisis, with the firm admitting that misleading information can undermine efforts to protect the planet.
Now, can Musk turn Twitter around? As part of the takeover, which is expected to close later this year, Twitter's shares will be delisted and it will be taken private. Mr Musk has suggested this will give him freedom to make the changes he wants to the business. It's best to see that Mr Musk has said he doesn't "care about the economics" of the purchase. However, he will take on a company with a chequered record of financial performance. It is not clear who will lead the company moving forward. Twitter is currently led by Parag Agrawal, who took over from co-founder and former boss Jack Dorsey last November. Mr Agrawal told employees on Monday that the future of Twitter is uncertain. "Once the deal closes, we don't know which direction the platform will go," he said, according to the Reuters news agency.
Overall, as you can see the result of the deal is difficult to predict currently. However, all we can do is continue to use the app as it is intended, to communicate and connect with others and continue to watch the new owner of the platform try to pave the road to Twitter's future. Speaking of Twitter, DUX IT has just got one and you can follow it! Be sure to do so when you search it up @DUXIT_Australia on the website, the phone app or even just click here: https://twitter.com/DUXIT_Australia
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