With Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter for $44 billion finalised on Thursday (October 28), the months-long process over the ownership of one of the world’s largest social media platforms finally ended. But the changes this immediately brought about were not limited to Musk’s Twitter profile’s bio, which he changed to “Chief Twit”, and the location on his profile changed to “Twitter HQ”. He also tweeted, “The bird is free”. Musk terminated Twitter Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, according to media reports. In the months leading to his takeover, Musk had publicly feuded with Agrawal and accused Twitter executives of misleading him and Twitter investors over the number of fake accounts or bots on the social media platform. Here is how the takeover finally came to be, and what is expected to happen next. Why did Elon Musk want to buy Twitter? Time and again Musk has discussed lofty goals as the motivation behind the acquisition, saying it was driven by the need to keep Twitter free as a “public space,” in order to safeguard democracy and civilization. He has been critical of Twitter’s move to ban accounts, such as that of former US President Donald Trump, and some reports speculated Musk might restore Trump’s account soon. Elaborating in a post on October 27, Musk said Twitter has a vital function as a common digital public square – an online site where people could freely discuss and debate ideas without “resorting to violence,” but also said it was possible this goal would not be achieved. He also criticised traditional media in this post on the matter, stating they have helped polarise debates towards extremist ideology both on the right wing and the left wing. While many critics argued that Musk could unleash chaos with his attitude to free speech, he said in the post that Twitter would not become a “free-for-all hellscape”, meaning there will be some limitations on what content can be posted. He has also earlier said that country-specific laws on hate speech would apply to Twitter in those respective places. Such a message is also important for advertisers on Twitter, who Musk addressed next in the post by saying “Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.” Why did the acquisition take so many months? Musk began accumulating shares in Twitter this year, and it was known in April that he struck a deal to buy the company for $44 billion and bring about changes in policies, content moderation, etc. Soon after, he claimed that the company had failed to accurately report the number of spam accounts on its platform, and thus the actual number of Twitter users could not be confirmed. When CEO Parag Agrawal tried to explain the number of bots on Twitter, Musk responded by tweeting a poop emoji. In July, citing bots, Musk said he was no longer interested in buying Twitter, and at this point, the platform sued him for breaching the original agreement. Twitter accused Musk of trying to back out of the deal because the economic downturn had caused a decline in his personal wealth, while Musk had agreed to personally provide roughly $33 billion of the $44 billion deal, The New York Times reported. This month, Musk said he would continue the acquisition at the original price if Twitter paused the lawsuit. The case was put on hold until October 28, and Musk was given three weeks to close the deal. What is the future of Twitter under Elon Musk? It's difficult to say, but Musk has highlighted some areas of interest at different points in time. Apart from the protection of free speech and the removal of top executives who Musk did not seem in agreement with, he has hinted at a new approach towards advertising. Unlike other social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube, Twitter has not been able to achieve a similar source of advertising revenue. Its audience size is also estimated to be much smaller. Musk has also previously talked about creating a super app called X, similar to WeChat in China, or the recently-launched TataNeu app in India, where multiple services such as shopping, ordering food, ride-hailing, etc. can be requested through one all-encompassing app. “The long-term potential for Twitter in my view is an order of magnitude greater than its current value,” Musk said on Tesla’s call with analysts on October 19. But none of Musk’s plans come with a lot of information about the details. Be it changing policies on banning accounts for what they say, or improving sources for advertising, experts have cautioned that there is no surety about how or when they will come about.
