Elon Musk buys Twitter

Speculation circulates about the political consequences

COLIN MULLANEY / ASST. NEWS EDITOR / THE USD VISTA

While many are familiar with Elon Musk for his position as co-founder of SpaceX and co-founder/CEO of Tesla, the billionaire and world’s richest man recently acquired a new proprietorship: Twitter. After several weeks of rumors and relative quiet from Twitter’s board of directors, the deal to sell Twitter to Elon Musk for $44 billion— or $54.20 a share— was publicly announced and unanimously approved by Twitter’s board this past week. Musk is paying for Twitter, “with $13 billion in bank loans, plus another $12.5 billion in loans against his stock in Tesla, and he has pledged another $21 billion in cash to buy the rest of Twitter’s equity,” effectively transforming Twitter into a private company, the New York Times reported. 

Musk’s decision to buy the company came as a shock to many, including Twitter’s own employees, who were largely in the dark about the deal. Twitter’s chief executives were bound to keep quiet and not share updates with employees until the negotiation was settled, creating frustrations, according to the New York Times. Twitter’s employees, like the general public, expressed a wide array of reactions and concerns about Twitter’s deal with Musk, who has said he would change much about the way Twitter operates, including the policies it uses to moderate Tweets. Many are concerned how a single man’s actions could potentially impact online speech globally, for millions.

Everyone from former President Barack Obama to Senator Elizabeth Warren and European Union lawmakers have proposed holding social media platforms to a tougher standard on content moderation, not a more laissez faire approach preferred by Musk. They argue that the centralization of online spaces in the hands of a select few billionaires could lead to abuses of power like special favors and score settling, CNN reported. 

Others like Republican Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis and Texas Senator Ted Cruz heralded Musk’s move as a step in the right direction toward more open political dialogue and less censorship of conservative thought by Big Tech companies. 

Musk himself has denied any political or financial motivations for purchasing Twitter, stating, “I don’t care about the economics at all.” Although the platform is used by more than 217 million users daily, this is only a tenth of the user base of its competitor, Meta, which billions of users daily. Furthermore, Twitter has failed to turn a profit for eight of the last ten years, to gain new users, or to keep people coming back to the service, according to the New York Times. 

Instead of seeing Twitter as a financial opportunity, Musk claims to be a proponent of free speech for all, motivated by what he believes were overly restrictive speech guidelines under Twitter’s former management. 

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk stated in a public announcement of his intent to purchase Twitter. He also stated his desire that his opponents remain users of the platform, because “that is what free speech means.” 

Part of Musk’s intended changes could include an open-source algorithm, visible to the public, for transparency in the ways that Twitter promotes certain Tweets and profiles over others, as well as a pivot away from account bans and content removal, CNN reported. 

Perhaps the most notable account ban under Twitter’s prior directors was the removal of former President Donald Trump, following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and insurrection in 2021. Twitter’s stated reason for the ban was that Trump posed “the risk of further incitement of violence,” due to a history of spreading misinformation and his inflammatory comments leading up to the insurrection. Trump, according to Fox News, said that he would not return to Twitter, even if he is allowed back on the platform, instead using his own “Truth Social” as the sole platform for his voice.

“I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on TRUTH,” Trump told Fox News. “I hope Elon buys Twitter, because he’ll make improvements to it, and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH.”

USD political science professor Casey Dominguez, PhD does not believe Trump’s decision— whether to return to Twitter or to use his own social media platform— will have a significant effect on his political reach and/or career trajectory.

“Presidents and presidential candidates benefit by being highly visible. The advantage to Trump being on Twitter wasn’t from Twitter per se but from the mainstream media’s coverage of his Tweets. If that is the case again in the future, he will certainly benefit from the same dynamic,” Dr. Dominguez stated. 

 Regardless of whether Trump returns to Twitter and regardless of the changes Elon Musk makes to the platform, Twitter will likely continue to serve as a platform for personal branding, communication and marketing. Even though Meta hosts far more users daily, Twitter has undoubtedly played an outsized role in shaping many narratives around the world and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.