Why Elon Musk just bought Twitter
Twitter is set to be taken private after being purchased by billionaire Elon Musk.
The board of directors have unanimously agreed to Musk’s offer, and have sold the social media platform to him for $US44 billion.
The deal brings the internet’s most influential platform under the control of one of the world’s richest people. Musk himself, a prolific Twitter user, has repeatedly denounced efforts to moderate speech on the service: “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 said in a statement.
“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.”
“The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing,” said board chair Bret Taylor in a statement.
ln April, it was first revealed that Musk had acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him one of the company’s biggest shareholders.
Since then, Musk and the company had engaged in a corporate battle over the future of the company.
So, why does Elon Musk want twitter?
Elon Musk essentially purchased a social network that he openly admitted might cause much of the world to hate him.
“Everyone will still blame me for everything,” Musk said during an interview at a TED conference on Thursday.
“If I acquire Twitter and something goes wrong, it’s my fault 100%. I think there will be quite a few errors.”
Musk has repeatedly stressed in recent days that his goal is to bolster free speech on the platform and work to “unlock” Twitter’s “extraordinary potential”.
Others have suggested he may be more interested in boosting attention for himself, whether or not the deal goes through.
To hear Musk tell it, the goal of his Twitter offer is "nothing less than protecting civilisation as we know it".
“My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilisation.”
Among Musk’s plans for the platform are making its algorithm open source and also making it more transparent to users when, for example, a tweet has been emphasised or demoted in their feed. He has also stated he would like to have more lenient content moderation policies.
We all know Musk has long used Twitter to build his brand and communicate with his more than 80 million followers, and troll those he views as his detractors. Some might say, he is buying the platform where he derives the most popularity.
Image: Getty