Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover and what it means for you

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tesla and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has finally closed the $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter.

The “Chief Twit” allegedly fired Twitter’s senior executives, including its CEO Parag Agrawal and its head of legal policy Vijaya Gadde, on Thursday after closing the $44 billion deal.

The takeover may bring significant changes to Twitter. The indicators have gotten stronger since the senior management was fired on the first day. Musk has previously made various allusions to the possibility of changing the online platform.

This might not be good news if you use Twitter and value your online privacy. The platform has struggled with privacy and security issues for years, and it has been slow to put any potential fixes into action. As a result, it’s possible that everything you’ve ever done or said on Twitter, whether it was in public or private, including your direct messages, belongs to one of the wealthiest individuals in the world, a man notorious for being unpredictable, childish, and even vengeful.

Additionally, it is now owned by a man who wanted to fire 75 per cent of the company’s employees, which might further jeopardise Twitter’s security.

Noman Javed, an electrical engineer from Lahore, Pakistan, who has been using Twitter since 2010, said that given how immature and erratic Musk has always been, “anything is possible” on the social networking site. Musk has previously stated numerous times that he wants to support free expression and allow people to write anything; although this may sound positive, it can also be risky. As if everyone can tweet anything they want without worrying about being blocked or experiencing any negative effects.

Javed anticipates that there may be increased disputes and debates on the platform, particularly between Indian and Pakistani users who regularly argue over a variety of topics, including sports and religion.

According to TIME, when Musk commenced the takeover in April, he wrote CEO Agrawal, “I have a tonne of ideas.”

Musk lists the preservation of “free expression” on Twitter as one of his key concerns. One of the primary advocates for removing Trump from the platform, Vijaya Gadde’s dismissal is regarded as the first step in that direction.

After the attacks on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, Trump was taken from the podium. A few other right-wing speakers were banned from the stage for promoting false information and divisive ideas.

In a survey Musk conducted in March, he found that 74 per cent of users wanted an “edit” feature. The edit button has already begun to undergo testing on Twitter, but it has not yet been made available everywhere.

Musk has spoken out against the pervasive use of bots on Twitter. Musk said in September that 90% of the replies on his tweets are automated. Even Agrawal was targeted with the assertion that eight out of ten Twitter accounts are bogus.

He might take action in the coming days based on bots and phoney accounts. However, a Scottish digital university called CodeClan claims that if Musk bans bots, he might lose as many as 13.5 million followers.

According to Bloomberg, in April, Musk reportedly disclosed to the banks his plans to create features to increase business revenue, including novel ways to monetize tweets that contain significant information or go viral.

He suggested ideas including charging a fee when a third-party website wants to reference or incorporate a tweet from a verified person or organisation.

A UCLA adjunct professor named Robert McCann claims that Musk’s public criticism of Twitter and its leadership has caused a “significant erosion of trust” on the website.

Employee morale can suffer, and it might “spook” potential customers. Additionally, due to the restructuring at the very top, more employees may voluntarily quit the company after the purchase.

In an open letter to advertisers published on Thursday, billionaire Elon Musk said he wouldn’t allow Twitter to devolve into a “free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences.” His apparent goal was to allay users’ and advertisers’ concerns the day before his $44 billion acquisition.