In the sixteen years of its existence, Twitter has always struggled with the question of how it can be and remain profitable. Against this background, it is remarkable that Elon Musk, helped by a number of large investors, has paid the enormous sum of 44 billion dollars (43.84 billion euros) to be able to take over the social media platform.
Although he is said to be the richest man in the world, he apparently thought the takeover price was also very high, because shortly after he had made his offer, his feet were cold and he tried to get out of it. But he also came back to that and he continued the case, so that he can now call himself Chief Twit in his Twitter profile.
Musk has left no doubt that he is planning a major overhaul of Twitter. The fact that he fired the top of the company immediately after the sale was finalized is only the beginning.
Also read: Quarrel, lawsuits and a sink: how Musk bought Twitter after all
With his boundless energy, daring and entrepreneurial spirit, Musk has proven to be capable of a lot – and Twitter can take advantage of that. With Tesla, Musk has forced a breakthrough for electric driving, with his space company SpaceX he has even won admiration from NASA and the ambitious Starlink satellite system is bringing much-needed internet into the trenches of the Ukrainian army.
Musk also has a lot of experience with social media, but mainly as a user – one of the impulsive and sometimes aggressive kind. Whether he can also deal with the complex political and moral issues that media companies such as Twitter, Meta and Google are constantly dealing with remains to be seen.
A social medium is not a car that, once designed, produced and sold, only needs the occasional garage visit, a former Twitter employee said Friday in response to the takeover. A company like Twitter is a living organism that needs permanent attention and maintenance – from technicians and from people who can make difficult substantive considerations. And it requires a sense of responsibility from the boss.
Social media must constantly defend itself against attacks on their system, and against people and organizations who want to abuse it. On Twitter, the 240 million users exchange all kinds of interesting, exciting and cheerful messages. But if the company did not moderate the steady stream of messages with human and technical means, hate speech, intimidation and dissemination of disinformation would have free reign.
Musk and much of the Republicans in the United States view the sieve that social networks use to keep their platforms liveable as censorship. Right-wing tweets and twitterers in particular would suffer. This spring, when Musk had just expressed his interest in Twitter, he already emphasized that he wanted to ensure that everything that does not violate the law can be said on the platform. And that Twitter should be much more cautious about removing messages and banning users who, like former US President Trump, incite violence or violate other house rules.
With the tweet ‘the bird is freed’, the bird is free, Musk announced Friday that the takeover was complete. But that stopping moderation leads to freedom, and moderation equals censorship, is a painful misunderstanding. It is about creating an environment on social media where people have the freedom to express themselves and to discuss, without harming the safety of others and society.
Also read: How will Musk use his political power?
How free Musk himself actually is as the owner of Twitter, is still the question. It is quite conceivable that his own business interests could collide with Twitter’s interests. In China, for example. That country likes to impose strict restrictions on social media, restrictions that go many times beyond what Musk considers censorship in the United States. Major Tesla factories are located in China, the country is an important market for that company. If the Chinese leaders are disturbed by certain information that is being spread about China on Twitter, they can put Musk in a vulnerable position with, for example, threats of nationalization. For the blue bird, and anyone who wants to use Twitter as an open and free platform, that is a frightening prospect.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of October 29, 2022