Elon Musk no longer has just a Twitter account. He has Twitter!
Elon Musk has finally taken control of Twitter, immediately made changes, and clearly showed the brand of management he wants to apply to the popular social networking platform.
“The bird has been freed,” the eccentric Billionaire wrote on his Twitter account after finalizing the purchase agreement for $44 billion. Elon Musk even entered Twitter headquarters in San Francisco holding a bathroom sink. “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in,” he wrote on Twitter.
The long-suffering Deal
Back in April, Elon Musk made his offer to acquire Twitter. Musk initially offered $54.20 per share. The total volume of the sale was about 44 billion dollars. Twitter accepted the offer; however, from the beginning, it appeared that there needed to be more problems in completing the deal.
Soon the Tesla strongman began to accuse Twitter of hiding data on the exact number of its actual users as well as the number of bots.
In July, Musk withdrew his proposal and stated he was no longer interested in acquiring Twitter. Since then, a legal dispute has started between the two sides, with Twitter claiming that Elon Musk should, based on the contract they have signed, either usually proceed with the acquisition or pay exorbitant compensation.
As the dispute between the two sides continues, Twitter shares plummet.
This week, on the eve of the deadline given by a US court to avoid going to trial, Elon Musk finally proceeds with the acquisition of Twitter and officially takes the company’s reins.
The Next Day
When Musk bought Twitter, he immediately fired Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s CEO, and two other top executives, according to the Washington Post.
After acquiring Twitter, Musk said he doesn’t want the popular platform to become a “free-for-all hellscape.”
“Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences!” he wrote in a letter titled “Dear Twitter Advertisers.”
“There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong,” Musk said. “Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.”
“In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm, and welcoming to all, where you can choose your desired experience according to your preferences, just as you can choose, for example, to see movies or play video games ranging from all ages to mature,” he added.
The First Reactions
Former US President Donald Trump, who has been permanently banned from Twitter over allegations of inciting violence following the January 6, 2021, riots at Capitol Hill, welcomed the buyout but said he would not return to Twitter.
“TRUTH SOCIAL has become somewhat of a phenomenon. Last week it had bigger numbers than all other platforms, including TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and the rest,” Trump claimed in a Truth Social post. “It also looks and works better to my eye.”
“I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs that truly hate our country,” Trump continued. “Twitter must work hard to rid itself of all of the bots and fake accounts that have hurt it so badly. It will be much smaller, but better. I LOVE TRUTH!”
Others called for Musk to lift the penalties imposed by the social media platform. In response to @catturd2, an anonymous account with 852,000 followers who is known as a big supporter of Trump’s claims of voter fraud and who said he was blocked by many users, Musk tweeted: “I’m going to indulge more today.”
“Hey Elon Musk, now that you own Twitter, will you help push back against Trudeau’s C-11 cyber censorship bill”? tweeted Canada Proud, an organization working to oust Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“First of all I heard (you),” Musk responded in a tweet.
The billionaire has not given details on how he will run the company. It has said it plans to cut jobs, leaving Twitter’s 7,500 employees to worry about their future. He also said Thursday that he didn’t buy Twitter to make more money but “to try to help humanity”.
The EU Warns
Elon Musk-acquired Twitter will have to respect the regulation on major platforms that has just been approved in Europe, warned the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, who had taken the initiative for this legislation.
Responding to the Tesla owner who wrote “the bird is freed“, Breton tweeted: “In Europe, the bird will fly according to our European rules”.
