Elon Musks New Twitter
On October 27, the 194-day process of Elon Musk purchasing Twitter was concluded. Musk, the world’s richest man, closed the deal with Twitter, buying it for 44 billion dollars. Turning the company completely private, Musk essentially bought out all shareholders of Twitter, giving himself 100% equity, and completely closing the company to investors.
Musk claims he purchased Twitter because he wants to promote free speech, stating he sees the service as a town square for the modern world. He claims he wants to reduce automated bots from Twitter, and promote the app as a place for all people to have an equal voice. In opposition to what Musk claims, though, he has been suggesting steps to provide more monetization of the app, and in the process taking away the accessibility he claims to have been fighting for. For example, Musk has been trying to implement paywalled videos, fees to message celebrities, fees to have a verification mark, and more.
Furthermore, Elon Musk has been firing Twitter employees en masse. On the week of October 31, Elon Musk laid off 7,500 Twitter employees. Even crueler, Musk fired employees not through his managers, but from an automated email deleting company Google accounts. Employees received no notice regarding their unemployment until they received an email telling them they no longer would be working with Twitter.
Currently, Musk’s public message is that Twitter will be moving to a more open app that empowers all users, but the direction he has been taking within the company seems to be the opposite of what he claims. As of now, the future for Twitter looks automated, expensive, and like everything but the town square for the modern world.