Elon Musk now leading Twitter, ushering in likely changes to online speech
NBCMAR 10 2023
The Facts
On Thursday, Elon Musk formally completed his $44B acquisition of Twitter, ahead of a deadline of 5 pm ET on Friday to complete the deal or be forced to go to trial in November.
While Twitter declined to comment, Musk acknowledged the takeover in a tweet, saying, "the bird is freed."
According to people familiar with the decision, he fired CEO Parag Agrawal and other executives, including CFO Ned Segal and top legal and policy executive Vijaya Gadde. Twitter chairman Bret Taylor also updated his LinkedIn profile to indicate he was no longer with the company. According to a shareholder, however, earlier reports of plans to fire 75% of staff are "inaccurate."
The Spin
Right narrative
Musk's acquisition is a real opportunity for Twitter to become free of biased censorship. With the billionaire entrepreneur at the helm, he can retain the general code of conduct to fight deceitful foreign influences while also allowing the marketplace of ideas to flourish, freeing it from nefarious "fact checkers."
Left narrative
While billionaires like Elon Musk may have the money to buy and influence social media platforms, they don't possess the character to manage them properly. Musk's Twitter history reveals an erratic personality with the potential to vastly alter the market with a single tweet simply to advance his own interest. With Twitter set to have no barriers to what can or cannot be said, the app is looking like a disaster waiting to happen.