Twitter welcomes Musk, free speech absolutist who panders to extremists
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Twitter has garnered 30 million new users on the cusp of its takeover by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and free speech absolutist who critics fear will unleash the platform for unfiltered hate, bigotry as well as dirty and vile language.
Musk on 26 April struck a deal to buy the microblogging platform – that is popular with politicians, celebrities, and journalists – for $44 billion, after previously acquiring 9.1 per cent of its stock for $2.64 billion, becoming its largest shareholder.
Two days later, Twitter announced that its user numbers grew faster than expected over the past year.
Advertising revenue has also been rising, but by less than was forecast.
According to the BBC, some observers have questioned Musk’s commercial judgement in buying Twitter, a platform that despite its high profile has not consistently made high returns.
In the latest quarter it made a profit of $513 million (£412 million) on revenues of $1.2 billion.
Daily active users of the platform rose to 229 million, up from 199 million a year earlier, the company said, publishing its latest financial results.
New users grew faster outside the US, by 18.1 per cent, than in its home market where numbers were up 6.4 per cent over the 12 months to the end of March.
In publishing its results, the firm said it was withdrawing all previously provided guidance over its immediate commercial outlook.
However, it did say revenues had been affected by “headwinds associated with the war in Ukraine”.
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Musk’s aggressive bid for Twitter
Musk’s purchase is likely to take several months to complete, after which the company will be owned privately.
While Musk has not made clear his precise plans for the platform, he has spoken about reducing advertising, and cracking down on “bot” or automated accounts.
He has also prompted controversy by suggesting there may be a new approach to how Twitter moderates free speech.
This has been an aggressive bid from an aggressive businessman – no negotiation, no compromise, says the BBC.
It’s a private sale, of a private company, and it’s not a merger between two giants so there is unlikely to be much in the way of regulatory obstacles.
Musk’s Twitter would be a very different landscape for the 300 million people who continue to use it, if indeed they do.
More feisty, perhaps, and less liberal-leaning. He could reinstate Donald Trump, who currently has a permanent ban – and given that Trump’s own attempt at a social network, Truth Social, appears to be floundering, he would probably be delighted to return.
Musk’s definition of free speech
CNN adds that with the man thought to be the world’s richest buying Twitter, the platform is likely in for some big shifts.
Among them: changes to the terms of service that would allow currently banned users to return. That could include Trump.
Trump was permanently suspended after the January 6 riots; the company said it worried his tweets increased “the risk of further incitement of violence.”
But Musk is a self-styled free speech absolutist, who has criticized many of Twitter’s efforts to reign in trolling and abuse on the platform.
“If in doubt, let the speech exist,” Musk told the audience at a recent TED conference. “If it’s a gray area, I would say, let the tweet exist.”
Already, there is wide speculation that a Musk-owned social media platform will welcome Trump back.
For his part, Trump says he wouldn’t return, but it’s hard to imagine that a man with such itchy Twitter fingers would be able to stay away for long.