A landmark deal has just been struck that will see Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, take over Twitter, one of the most popular social media networking and microblogging services on the internet.
Musk, a South African entrepreneur, has agreed to purchase Twitter for $44 billion. As part of the deal, Twitter’s shareholders will be compensated with $54.20 per share of Twitter stock in their possession. The transaction will also turn Twitter into a private company.
Elon Musk Promises To Protect Free Speech
But perhaps the most noteworthy component of the transaction is the promise that Musk- a long-standing advocate of free speech- will see to it that all users have their First Amendment rights protected. Musk has long been critical of Twitter brass for what he deems to be their violation of citizens’ free speech by locking, or in some cases even suspending, the accounts of individuals who are simply saying what’s on their minds.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” he declared in a statement.
As the CEO of a digital marketing agency that helps clients expand their online footprint through social media, Stingray Branding founder Alan Thompson feels that the move is for the best. “I believe that most of the time when you have a new entity assumes ownership of something it can generate an excitement, a focus on improvements, and a general shift towards overall growth for the services, value, and overall company,” Thompson stated. “I enjoy the unique purpose that Twitter has and look forward to hopefully seeing that niche purpose remain intact while hopefully seeing some of the changes many users have been asking for that will improve the platform or at least hopefully getting explanations as to why Twitter won’t make the changes users ask for.”
How Might Elon Musk Change The Twitter Platform?
Although the major functions of Twitter- such as 280-character limits on tweets, the direct message feature, and Twitter’s new “Spaces” feature- are not expected to change, many Twitter users hope that Musk’s purchase of the company could also bring about some smaller changes that have been in high demand for years, such as an edit button and eliminating spam and automated bot accounts.
Twitter, for its part, claims its recent testing of an edit button was unrelated to a poll Musk conducted on his Twitter account on the subject, and Musk alluded to possibly bringing that to the platform- while not mincing words about his plans for the spam accounts. “I want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spambots, and authenticating all humans,” he stated. “Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
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