Elon Musk Takes over Twitter
Elon Musk officially bought twitter on October 27, 2022. What does this mean for the company?
By Akshara Bachu
The business magnate Elon Musk is the richest person on Earth, CEO of Tesla, co-founder of PayPal, CEO of SpaceX, and, among many other titles, he is now the owner of Twitter. Holding power in the space industry, the transportation industry, and now the most politically active media platform, Musk is successfully building his path toward world domination. Musk bought Twitter in hopes of transforming it into a neutral platform where people can have an equal chance to express their opinions in a safe manner. This was always Twitter’s goal, but Musk professes that he can do better. Musk bought Twitter in hopes of transforming it into a neutral platform where people can have an equal chance to express their opinions in a safe manner. This was always Twitter’s goal, but Musk professes that he can do better. Twitter has been notoriously slow in other countries, most notably India and Indonesia. In other countries, it takes almost 20 seconds to load, while in the U.S. it takes less than 2. This is an issue he plans to tackle, as one of his main goals is to make everyone’s voice heard. He says he bought Twitter because “it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.” Three weeks before buying Twitter, Musk was caught in a lawsuit with the company. He was accused of manipulating markets in a fraudulent manner to obtain better deals. Musk simply bought Twitter to avoid losing the lawsuit. So, calling himself the “free speech abolitionist” is fairly questionable regarding recent events. Musk says that he will offer a way out of Twitter’s spiraling descent. To accomplish his goal, Musk deems it necessary to fire half of his workforce, along with those who criticize him. While advocating for free speech, Musk successfully eliminates the concept of free speech in his own workplace.
Below is Eric Frohnhoefer, a Twitter developer, responding to Musk’s post.
Later, Musk tweeted that Frohnhoefer was fired and deleted his tweet. Though Frohnhoefer has not provided any reasoning for why Musk’s statement was wrong, his voice does not deserve to be completely silenced. Under Musk’s rule, the only voice that Twitter really has is Elon Musk’s. Along with the hubbub, Musk has created in his workplace, there has been unrest about Twitter’s check mark. The check mark was previously given for free to people who had verified their identities on Twitter. People with the check mark are usually politicians, celebrities, and journalists. Now Musk has monetized the system by creating a subscription service that charges the user $7.99 per month. Though this does encourage each voice to have the same amount of power, it also encourages fraud and misinformation, since anyone who can afford to pay $7.99 a month has the power to say whatever they wish. Musk’s words and actions contradict each other as he justifies buying Twitter by stating, “I didn’t do it to make money, I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love. And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility.” Not all of Musk’s changes were necessarily counterproductive. Musk announced that he would permanently delete the account of anyone who does impersonations and does not specifically state that it is a parody. Though it does seem harsh, it is an effective method to avoid fraud and confusion. New methods and ideas are often heavily criticized by the public. Hopefully, Musk’s changes to the company will pay off in the long run and transform it into a safe space for opinions to be expressed.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/technology/elon-musk-twitter-fired-criticism.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/07/technology/elon-musk-twitter-spree.html