What does it mean for Musk to take $44 billion to twitter?

In less than a month, the world's richest man Elon Musk and Twitter's power grab drama reversed several times, and finally Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, continuing his personal myth. However, under the slogan of creating a "digital speech square", Musk has not yet come up with a specific reform plan, and Twitter will also face an uncertain future.

The road ahead is unknown

On the 25th local time, Musk reached a final agreement with Twitter's board of directors to acquire it at a price of $54.2 per share, with a transaction value of about $44 billion.

After news of Twitter's acceptance of Musk's acquisition, the stock price closed up 5.7%.

The Twitter deal has reportedly been approved by the board of directors and is still subject to shareholder voting. Reuters quoted analysts as saying there were no regulatory hurdles expected from the acquisition.

After reaching an agreement with Twitter, Musk said in a statement on the 25th, "Twitter has great potential, and I look forward to working with companies and users to unlock it." "Twitter is a digital speech plaza where matters of great importance to the future of humanity can be discussed." ”

In less than a month, the drama between Twitter and Musk can be described as a twist and turn - Musk was first exposed as Twitter's largest personal shareholder, and then refused to enter Twitter's board of directors and "forced the palace", and finally won Twitter in one fell swoop.

After the acquisition is completed, Twitter will be privatized, ending its nearly 10-year public company status. One of the big questions of concern is whether Twitter will change hands again.

Twitter's current CEO, Parag Agrawal, has only been in office for 5 months, and it's unclear if he will stay. Musk has said he has "lacked confidence" in Twitter's management.

Agravar said at a staff meeting on Monday that twitter's future development will be uncertain after the privatization deal is completed. Inside Twitter, employees also expressed concern about the company's reform plans, the possibility of downsizing, and equity changes.

Another question is, how much will Musk actually invest in Twitter's actual operations?

Musk also runs Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies, both of which are worth trillions and hundreds of billions of dollars, respectively, and he runs two startups. Whether Musk will allow the independent operations team to take over Twitter, or whether he will do it himself, is currently unknown.

How to change?

Although Musk did not announce his specific reform plan for Twitter, he mentioned in a statement on the 25th that it will optimize the existing platform by developing new features, exposing algorithms and cracking down on fake accounts.

Based on Musk's previous remarks, he may add an "edit" function to Twitter to correct errors in tweets that have been sent. Earlier this month, Musk launched a user survey on the subject, with more than 4 million Twitter users voting, and more than 70 percent of respondents said they wanted to add the feature.

Another change could be the algorithm that exposes Twitter. Musk hopes that others outside of Twitter will also be able to view the source code and make suggestions for fixing and changing the source code to make it transparent about the specific logic of content recommendations and blocking.

In addition, cracking down on "bot" fake accounts is also one of the problems Musk wants to overcome. Musk said last week that his top priority is to eliminate spam, scam emails, and a "bot army" on Twitter, leaving only "real humans" left on the social platform.

Many media such as the New York Times believe that freedom of speech will be the general direction after Musk takes over Twitter. Musk has said many times before that Twitter's content moderation is "too broad" and interferes too much with the platform.

However, relevant experts question that these demands may encounter a lot of resistance, whether from the regulatory level, or the political level, or the user level. Some users have said they will abandon Twitter after Musk takes over.

The Associated Press commented that for Musk, how to reform Twitter after the acquisition is the real challenge.

Potential impact

What happens when the world's richest people manage the world's most influential social media?

With a large user base of 200 million, Twitter has a significant influence in setting its agenda in business, politics and society. Some in the industry worry that Musk's promotion of free speech may re-plunge Twitter into the vortex of hate speech, disinformation and other harmful content.

Along with Musk's acquisition of Twitter, it is hotly searched whether former US President Trump will return to Twitter. After the "Congressional riots" in January last year, Trump's Twitter account was blocked. But the rumor was denied by Trump.

Trump said on the 25th that he will officially join the social media platform "TRUTH Social" created by himself in the coming week as planned. "I hope Elon acquires Twitter because he's going to improve on it and he's a good guy, but I'll stay with TRUTH."

Some analysts said that the "Trump issue" actually involves the excessive politicization of social media platforms. After Trump entered the White House, he created a unique "Twitter governance" model, frequently using social media to publish messages, publicize policies, and attack opponents. What's more, it was suggested that if Trump returned to Twitter, it was possible to rewrite the script of the 2024 US election.

CNN commented that Twitter's users are relatively small compared to rival Facebook and TikTok, but its online and offline influence is amplified because the platform has a lot of politicians, public figures and media people. As Twitter founder Jack Dorsey once said, "Twitter is closest to global awareness."

Kirsten Martin, a professor of technical ethics at the University of Notre Dame, has expressed concern that Musk may be changing Twitter's intrinsic value system.

Musk's acquisition of Twitter has the support of some conservative politicians in Washington. The White House declined to comment on Musk's acquisition of Twitter, but said President Joe Biden has always been very concerned about the power of social media platforms.

(Edit email: [email protected])