It’s done, Elon Musk buys Twitter for 44 billion dollars

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It was imminent, it’s now official: Twitter’s Board of Directors unanimously accepted Elon Musk’s offer. The richest man in the world now owns one of the most popular social networks, which has around 217 million users worldwide.

Everything changed in less than a month

The billionaire began to spill ink at the start of the year by amassing shares of the social network, until becoming its main shareholder at the beginning of April. In response, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal invited Musk to join the platform’s board of directors, an offer he declined, just before showing his ambition to completely buy it out and take it private. As a reminder, Twitter has been a public company since 2013.

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Donald Trump at a rally.

The political consequences of Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter

While initially many people viewed Musk’s claims as mere fantasy, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla quickly did everything possible to fund his offer through personal investments, Morgan Stanley and other financial institutions. . The shareholders of the company tried to dissuade him, but this Monday, April 25, Elon Musk reached an agreement with the Board of Directors of the social network, which he finally bought for 44 billion dollars.

Musk’s urge to acquire Twitter is not new; already in 2017, he declared in a series of tweets “ love twitter and asked the price for his redemption.

Twitter will change

Normally, the takeover will be completed by the end of the year, and Musk shouldn’t have too many problems with the authorities since his other companies operate in entirely different fields. If he puts in place his vision of the platform, then the latter should change in depth.

” Freedom of expression is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital public square where issues vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by improving the product with new features, making algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating spambots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has enormous potential. I look forward to working with the company and users to release it “said Musk in a press release published, precisely, on Twitter.

Since 2020 and the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, Twitter has put in place many tools to fight misinformation and hateful content, tools often criticized by conservatives who judge them against freedom of expression. For his part, Elon Musk claims to defend freedom of expression ” absolute “, his arrival at the head of the social network could therefore have very important implications, such as the return of people blocked on the platform.

The first person mentioned is of course Donald Trump, permanently banned from the social network following the seizure of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. If Trump has already said that he will not return to Twitter to focus on his own network, Truth Social, we can already suspect that he would like to recover his account in the event of a candidacy for the presidential election of 2024, for which he assures that he will represent himself. The former president also hailed Elon Musk for his acquisition, and called him ” good man “.

Very mixed reactions

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey said he was happy that the platform ” continue to serve the public conversation “, even if he does not believe that ” someone should own or run twitter “. As a reminder, he left his position as CEO of the company last November. ” To solve the problem of being a business though, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust in his mission to expand the light of consciousness “, he added.

Several human rights associations have, for their part, expressed their concerns about this acquisition. In a Twitter thread, Amnesty International said: “ We are concerned about any action Twitter may take to weaken enforcement of policies and mechanisms designed to protect users. The last thing we need is a Twitter that deliberately turns a blind eye to violent and abusive speech directed at users, especially those who are disproportionately affected the most, including women, non-binary people and others “.

Same story with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an American civil rights organization that fights racial discrimination: “ Misinformation, fake news and hate speech have NO PLACE on Twitter. Do not allow 45 (Editor’s note: Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States) to return to the platform. Don’t allow Twitter to become a petri dish for hate speech, or falsehoods that subvert our democracy “said the association.

Among politicians, unsurprisingly, Republicans welcomed the news with great enthusiasm; Senator Marsha Blackburn hailing the deal, calling it “a encouraging for freedom of expression “. On the Democratic side, the trend is more reserved. The Biden administration is indeed trying to regulate social networks much more, in particular because their impact on society is immense.

This Monday, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that Joe Biden “ has long worried about the power of major social media platforms “. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, says the buyout is “ dangerous for our democracy », and argues in favor of a wealth tax and « strict rules to hold Big Tech accountable “.

On Twitterthe Secretary of State for the Digital Transition and Electronic Communications, Cédric O, assured that Musk’s ambitions with Twitter were “interesting”, but he recalled that the Digital Services Act, “ and therefore the obligation to fight misinformation, online hate, etc. – will apply regardless of its owner’s ideology “.

Should we be worried?

It is certain that this takeover raises many questions, as social networks have a considerable influence on society. Because if Musk claims to want to absolutely defend freedom of expression, he has not hesitated in the past to block Twitter users criticizing him. He has also used the platform to intimidate journalists who have spoken critically of him about one of his companies.

As specified Bloomberg, Musk’s offer looks like more than just an economic takeover of Twitter. It would seem that he aims to acquire a different kind of power: control of one of the biggest mouthpieces in the world and the ability to impose his libertarian ideology on questions of moderation and misinformation. In addition, the media notes that Elon Musk could use the social network to help his other businesses, for example if ” Tesla seeks to restore federal tax credits for its electric vehicles and that Trump is re-elected, it is in his best interest to restore his account on the platform.

A journalist from New York Times reports that many Twitter employees don’t ” don’t want to work for a company run by Elon Musk “. According to him, the time is panic in the ranks of the firm, with employees who are not at all in agreement with the ideology of the billionaire. The latter should participate in a large meeting with the employees during the week, during which he will indulge in a question and answer session.

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