Elon Musk just bought Twitter. What now? What happens when the richest man in the world buys a social media platform used by more than 200 million people? The short answer is no one knows. The long answer requires a bit more backstory.
In January, Musk began to buy up as much Twitter stock as possible and was able to amass 10 percent of it by the end of the month. Three months later, in April, Musk made an official offer to purchase the company for $43 billion. At the time of the offer, Musk had an estimated net worth of over $300 billion.
He seemed enthusiastic about the potential purchase, but as negotiations progressed stock for his electric car company, Tesla, plummeted. Tesla is the company that afforded Musk his title as the richest man in the world. While he has many other business ventures, it is the most well known of his companies for many people.
By July 8, Musk had threatened to back out of the deal- supposedly because the company was unwilling to release information regarding “bots.” These “bots” were one of the main reasons why Musk wanted to purchase the company: to rid Twitter of fake accounts. Only four days later, July 12, Twitter sued Musk in an attempt to force him into sticking with the deal. This almost immediately led to a countersuit, and a judge quickly announced that the cases would go to trial in October.
Just weeks before the trial, Musk abandoned his original threats and agreed to buy the app for $44 billion. By the end of the month, Oct. 28, the deal went through.
Musk fired nearly half of Twitter’s staff, reasoning that cutbacks were “necessary” since the company was losing so much money. Many of these people worked to monitor the platform for inappropriate content and misinformation.
“I think that was stupid. People post really crazy stuff on Twitter, and we need people to filter it out,” junior Ryder Schmitt said.
One of the issues for many Twitter users is that they are worried Musk will allow former President Donald Trump back on the platform. Trump’s account was suspended by the very board that Musk sacked after the events of Jan. 6, 2021. If you don’t see the connection between Trump’s suspended account and Musk’s takeover, Musk has been incredibly outspoken about his views on censorship in social media, stating many times that he is totally and completely against fake news. He is also vehemently against censorship because he believes it compromises Americans’ right to free speech. In fact, he originally was contemplating making an alternative to Twitter because he was questioning their policy on freedom of speech.
Musk claims he bought Twitter to “help humanity,” not to make money which many people dispute. Many notable people have threatened to leave the app after Musk instituted the new blue check subscription. Now, anyone can purchase the verified blue check for $8 a month. Stephen King was in clear opposition to this tweeting on Oct. 31, “if that gets instituted I am gone.”
“I do use Twitter, but will probably stop because of Musk,” senior Caroline Vigil said.
The fate of Twitter is unknown but one thing is certain, whatever happens will be entertaining.