Source: CCTV news client
On October 27, after a six-month commercial tug-of-war, Elon Musk, known as the "Iron Man" of Silicon Valley, completed the acquisition of the social media platform "Twitter". A series of subsequent "blood exchange" operations made Deutsche Welle call "Twitter" becoming "Muskized". Coupled with the approaching mid-term elections in the United States, the public opinion war on social media is becoming increasingly fierce, and the fall of "Twitter" into the hands of Musk at this time has aroused a lot of speculation and attention.
On October 27, Silicon Valley "Iron Man" Musk posted a 9-second video on Twitter, which received more than 1 million likes, becoming the most popular tweet of the week.
The video was shot a day earlier, on October 26, when Musk entered Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco with a sink in which the text described: Enter Twitter's headquarters and let the sink in.
Musk, of course, is not working as a porter, in fact, he is playing a popular "meme".
"Let that sink in" literally means let the sink in, and by extension the meaning is similar to "you taste, you taste".
Musk, who moved the sink, wants everyone to savor the Twitter acquisition that is almost a foregone conclusion.
On the same day, he changed the self-introduction of his personal Twitter account, which has 1.1 million followers, to "Twitter boss" and the address to "Twitter headquarters".
A day later, on October 27, Musk completed the acquisition of all shares in Twitter for $44 billion.
On October 28, Twitter suspended trading on the New York Stock Exchange, and according to documents released by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Twitter will be officially delisted from the New York Stock Exchange on November 8 after nine years of listing.
Securities company analyst Ivis: Yes, the process of taking Twitter private starts today, and Musk is trying to change the company.
This also gives Musk, 51-year-old Musk, CEO of Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies, another new identity.
On October 28, Musk made his first tweet after entering Twitter: The bird is free.
Twitter's logo is a bird, and Musk has long slammed Twitter's content controls for keeping the bird shackled.
In March, Musk launched a poll on his Twitter account: Do you think Twitter follows the principle of free speech?
Out of more than 2 million votes, more than seventy percent of participants voted negative.
Musk, a self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist," has long opposed Twitter's permanent ban on users for certain speech. After the Capitol Hill riot in January 2021, Twitter banned Trump's account, which Musk considered "stupid" and "immoral".
Musk: I do think banning Trump is incorrect, I think it's a mistake. I think I'll revoke the permanent ban.
After Musk took control of the blue bird, Trump immediately spoke out on his self-created social media platform "Truth Social": It's good that Twitter is now in the hands of sober people.
Scowler, Interactive Investors Analyst UK: Musk has described himself as an absolutist of free speech, which signals that the social media giant will change a lot in the direction of the future. Maybe Trump will be invited back to the (Twitter) platform.
However, American conservative cartoonist Ben Garrison believes that things are not so simple.
In his pen, Musk is portrayed as a half-man, half-cat, breaking into the birdcage of Twitter, pinching the bird's neck and saying: Beautiful bird! I'm going to teach you to say "freedom of speech"!
Ordinary people also have different views on Twitter's change of ownership.
New Yorker Jennas: A lot of people think it's a freedom that will lead to free speech.
NYC Jonah: I think it's scary, if you give one person too much power, one person has too much power, and that's what is the case with Twitter right now. I don't think that's a good thing.
Social media has always liked to emphasize its own technology platform attributes and is not responsible for information control.
But the proliferation of fake news is obvious to all, and the existence of online violence cannot be ignored.
On October 28, Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the "number three" in American politics, was attacked at his home in San Francisco, and suspect David DePape broke through the glass door of the house and smashed 82-year-old Paul with a hammer.
San Francisco Police Chief Scott: The suspect took Mr. Pelosi's hammer and violently attacked him with the hammer.
During the attack, De Pipes shouted, "Where is Nancy?" The FBI revealed that his original plan was to take Nancy Pelosi hostage.
This reminds the AP of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, when Trump supporters also shouted as they stormed the Capitol: Where are you, Nancy, we are looking for you." Nancy where are you.
As speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi is seen as one of the main spokesmen of the Democratic Party, and the New York Times said that the attack revealed the current situation of increasing political violence in the United States before the midterm elections.
But Musk questioned the incident on Twitter: there is a slight possibility that there is something else behind this story.
He attached a link to a report titled "Terrible Truth: Paul Pelosi Drinks Too Much Again and Clares with a Male Prostitute on Friday Morning."
The report, from a website called the Santa Monica Observer, claimed that the suspect, David DePap, was a "male prostitute" who left a gay bar with Paul Pelosi that night and subsequently had a physical altercation at Pelosi's home.
Hours later, Musk deleted the tweet without explanation.
But a number of American mainstream media did not let go, and they continued to follow up, while refuting rumors about the matter, while slamming Musk for spreading "conspiracy theories".
The New York Times and other media pointed out that the "Santa Monica Observer" website that publishes the report is known for creating fake news, often spreading various political conspiracy theories of far-right forces, such as inciting people not to get vaccinated against the new crown.
As the incident fermented, the Santa Monica Observer website later added a paragraph at the beginning of the report: San Francisco police said that Paul Pelosi did not know David Depp before the attack, and that the latter launched the attack after breaking in.
As the new owner of Twitter and with millions of fans, Musk forwarded it when the truth was unclear, objectively promoting the spread of this false report, and was criticized by the Associated Press and other media.
Musk: We are very reluctant to remove content, and we should be very cautious about permanent bans, and short-term bans are more appropriate.
According to the Washington Post, just after Musk acquired Twitter, a number of anonymous accounts sprang up on the Twitter platform to test whether Twitter's content moderation policy had changed. Several nonprofits, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Network Contagion Research Institute, have noticed a surge in hate speech on Twitter.
In the 12 hours after Musk completed the acquisition, the use of a discriminatory term for African Americans beginning with the letter N skyrocketed by 500 percent, according to the Network Diffusion Institute.
Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of safety and integrity, also noted that one racist tweet was posted 50,000 times across 300 accounts.
For this phenomenon that occurred after the change of Twitter owner, American NBA star LeBron James angrily criticized.
I don't know Musk, and I don't care who owns Twitter. But I would say that if the data is true, I hope he and his guys take this very seriously because it's scary. There are so many damned, incompetent people who say that hate speech is freedom of speech.
US media watcher Gonzalez: We've seen that white supremacists and conspiracy theorists are willing to use this platform to spread lies and disinformation, suppress people of color, and spread hate.
At the same time, a hashtag claiming "#Trumpis dead#" also appeared on Twitter's hot search list, gaining more than 20,000 likes in less than 1 hour.
Some people even imitated the mainstream media PS and made screenshots of the report.
The label was created by American comedian Tim Heideck, who later tweeted: Comedy is back on Twitter.
The US "Newsweek" commented that Heideke was using such a "calculated" operation to satirize and provoke Musk's relaxation of Twitter content moderation.
Regarding possible changes to Twitter, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton reminded that birds need to be free and have borders.
Thierry Breton, EU Internal Market Commissioner: In Europe, the bird will fly according to our (EU) rules.
European Commission spokesperson Mamo: Thierry Breton is doing exactly right, he is just reminding all companies operating in Europe what the framework needs to adhere to.
On October 27, the night Twitter changed owners, the headquarters building was brightly lit, the atmosphere inside the company was sluggish, and four executives lost their jobs.
CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, Head of Legal Affairs and Security Vijaya Gadde, General Counsel Sean Edgett.
Musk claimed that the reason for firing them was precisely because of the "misdirection" of some Twitter executives, which caused his Twitter acquisition to go up and down, turning into a long tug-of-war that lasted 6 months.
In April this year, Musk, Twitter's largest shareholder, expressed his intention to buy Twitter.
Twitter's board initially rejected the offer and even created a "Poison Pill" to dilute Musk's stake and prevent it from being forced.
Just half a month later, the board changed its mind and accepted the offer. Musk tweeted yes!
But since then, the two sides have been deeply divided over how many real users Twitter has.
In July, Musk announced the termination of the acquisition of Twitter.
Twitter immediately sued Musk to force the acquisition to be completed, and Musk launched a counterclaim against Twitter.
As a result, before the legal process was completed, the acquisition drama was over.
What exactly made Musk change his mind, no one can say, in the BBC's view, whether he really wanted to launch the acquisition in the first place, or whether he wanted to get away with it to negotiate a better purchase price, it is difficult to say.
The only thing that is certain is that Twitter executives are unhappy.
As the new boss, Musk accused Twitter management of misleading himself and other investors about the number of fake accounts on the platform.
In the view of the Wall Street Journal, because some executives were fired "for cause", this means that Musk may not need to pay them a total of hundreds of millions of dollars in severance under the relevant provisions.
The British "Daily Mail" noted that the fired head of legal affairs and security, Gade, was behind the permanent ban on Trump's Twitter account last year.
According to the US Capitol Hill newspaper on October 31, Musk dismissed the board of directors of Twitter, became the only director of the company, and became the CEO.
He commented below the related report: This is only temporary.
But a series of thunderous tactics still made more than 7,500 Twitter employees uneasy: The boss has changed, can I continue to work here?
There was even a prank outside Twitter headquarters, and two men dressed as fired Twitter employees were interviewed by the media, deceiving many American media outlets.
Reporter: What is your position?
Prankster: Software engineer
Reporter: How long have you been working here?
Prankster: Three years, it was my first job after graduation, and I even bought a Tesla car.
According to the Wall Street Journal's Twitter employee directory, a number of new people have been added, including Tesla engineers, and Tesla employees have reviewed the coding work of Twitter engineers to see how much code they write.
NBC Business has noticed that some Twitter employees are scrambling to show their worth in hopes of keeping their jobs, and some managers are asking employees to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
However, for the rumors reported by a number of American media that Twitter will fire 75% of its old employees, Musk said that there is no such thing.
Securities analyst Ivis: Twitter has started a broader layoff, probably 30 to 50 percent.
Also worried are advertisers, who fear that Musk's claim of free speech will lead to a surge in unfriendly content that offends some users.
According to the Wall Street Journal, several major advertising agencies, including Interpublic Group of Cos., have advised their clients to suspend paid ads on Twitter.
Companies such as Mondelēz International, maker of Oreo biscuits, pharmaceutical company Pfizer, and Volkswagen's Audi have also suspended advertising on Twitter.
Market Research Analyst: Less content review is probably one of the biggest concerns for advertisers right now. Recent research shows that the most active Twitter users already gravitate towards unpleasant content that can affect a brand's reputation. Reducing content moderation could exacerbate the problem, making advertisers more reluctant to spend money on Twitter.
According to the British "Guardian", 90% of Twitter's revenue comes from advertising, and more than half of advertising revenue comes from the United States.
According to financial data firm FactSet, Twitter has lost money in 8 of the past 10 fiscal years, although Musk publicly said in 2019 that he "hates advertising" and now has to courtship "donors."
Dear Twitter advertiser, Twitter looks forward to becoming the most respected advertising platform in the world.
The Wall Street Journal said that Musk has begun meetings with the top management of the advertising agency, and he promised not to make Twitter a hell of indulgence, and will form a content moderation committee with a wide range of different views, which will not make major content decisions or reinstate banned accounts until it is established.
Butcher, special editor of tech media "TechCrunch": Musk doesn't have many options because he bought it at a high price, and he spent $44 billion. At the moment the platform is losing money, and if he doesn't want to waste all the money he just spent, he must introduce new features and business models.
On November 1, Musk announced the first new measure since joining Twitter, increasing the special permissions for users with blue authentication marks on the Twitter platform, the so-called "blue check". Certified "blue tick" users will be given priority in replies, mentions and searches, be able to post long videos and audio, and have ads cut in half for up to $8 per month. If you do not pay the money, you will lose the qualification of "blue check".
According to official Twitter data, the platform currently has about 423,700 "blue tick" users, and if about 10% of them pay $8 a month, then Twitter will receive nearly $4.1 million in additional revenue per year.
Musk also sent a comparison cartoon, $8 a glass of Starbucks can drink for 30 minutes, $8 blue label certification can last 30 days.
But Twitter users complained about this, and some people commented on the post: Starbucks was not free before.
According to a recent Twitter user survey, more than 80% of users said they would not pay for the "blue check" and 10% said they would only be willing to pay $5 a month.
Due to too many complaints recently, Musk self-deprecatingly changed his Twitter self-introduction from "Twitter boss" to "Twitter complaint hotline operator", and his profile picture also became a child who answered the phone.
In recent years, the influence of social media in American society has continued to rise, which in turn is closely related to American election politics.
On October 25, Biden invited eight TikTok bloggers with more than 67 million followers to the White House.
The Washington Post said that Biden is hoping that bloggers' recent content on the TikTok platform will bring votes to the Democratic Party in the midterm elections on November 8.
Kat Wellington, 24, one of the bloggers involved in the event, was hesitant to make a political statement on TikTok and said after visiting the White House.
Twitter is more relevant to American politics than TikTok, which young people love.
CNN Technology Reporter Brian: Many of Twitter's users are government officials or government departments, politicians or business leaders.
In May, Musk publicly stated that he no longer supported the Democratic Party, and in October last year, he moved Tesla's headquarters from California, a traditional Democratic powerhouse, to Texas, which is dominated by Republicans, on the grounds that Texas does not charge "state income tax."
With him at the helm of Twitter, it has attracted the attention of some Democratic politicians.
Democratic Senator WARREN: I don't think any billionaire should have that kind of power to decide how Americans, people around the world, talk to each other, so I think he's problematic.
Host: Are you a "blue tick" user?
Democratic Senator Warren: I don't care.
The New York Times remembered 19th-century American newspaper tycoons such as William Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, and in the newspaper's view, Musk may appear on the political scene as a new element of chaos.
Butcher, special editor of tech media "TechCrunch": Musk has controversially said that Twitter is too left-wing, and he even stands out politically in support of the Republican Party, so there is a question mark about whether Twitter can effectively maintain relative independence and neutrality.
Next week, the United States will hold midterm elections, and analysts generally believe that as one of the key information battlefields, Twitter's change of ownership will inevitably have an impact on the public opinion ecology of the United States.
The Washington Post bluntly said that during a critical period when the Democratic and Republican parties are vying for control of Congress, social media platforms such as Twitter must make difficult decisions about what content to keep or delete, because misinformation will ultimately erode the confidence of the American people in the election.