Elon Musk is the richest man on Earth today and now he is the owner of Twitter.
YES! Elon Musk bought out Twitter for $44 billion.
Let me tell you what happened in simple language. Twitter, a publicly listed social media company will now become a privately owned company and the basis on which Twitter functions will undergo some very important changes.
Elon Musk has two main objectives:
- To make Twitter a platform for free speech, and
- To clean Twitter of all of the spam accounts, that troll and harass the users.
But there is one more reason and a Third reason that Elon Musk is hiding from others. What is that reason, You will understand at the end of this blog?
But, Why buy Twitter?
Twitter is not the top-earning social media platform, nor does it have the highest number of users among others. In FY2021-22, Twitter made just $5 Billion in revenue with daily active users of just 217 million. These numbers are huge no doubt but look at the figure of other social media platforms. YouTube made $28 Billion, Amazon made $30 Billion and Facebook made a mind-blowing $117 Billion in the last year alone.
Talking about economics, Twitter is not special. But even then, Twitter is still quite special.
- Twitter is the only platform that did not become a video platform. It serves the same purpose that it was supposed to serve even now.
- Twitter was, is, and will be a microblogging platform.
- Twitter is one of the few spaces out there, where written content is still the king, where every user, big or small is a creator.
- From politicians to finance gurus, Everyone is active on Twitter.
- Every Government has official Twitter handles.
- Ordinary people can get attention from high performers. Celebrities can 'listen' to the real-time conversations happening in their fan worlds.
Elon Musk himself is very active on Twitter. He has more than 80 million followers, and he is one of the most followed accounts on the platform.
A few days ago, he purchased a 9.2% stake in Twitter and became the largest shareholder in Twitter. But he did not join Twitter's board. He said "However, since making my investment I now realize that the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company."
Twitter had a big problem! which Elon Musk wants to solve and that was Freedom of Speech.
Twitter says with confidence that it wants to promote safe, inclusive, authentic conversations. But many times we can see a distinct bias on Twitter. Many times, hate-filled narratives become popular. Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter has also admitted to this bias.
For Example, Twitter permanently banned Donald Trump. On the other hand, the Taliban's Twitter handle is still active. Look, it doesn't matter if you agree with Trump's views or not, But banning an acting President of the United States is a gutsy move. It goes against the concept of Free Speech.
Elon Musk calls himself a Free Speech Absolutist. He believes there should be limits on free speech, But only countries can put limits on free speech, and that too only if Twitter is operating in their country. Twitter as a platform doesn't have the authority to squash free speech in any way that they feel, and to decide what opinions should be on the platform and which one should not be on the platform. Elon Musk believes the algorithms that decide what content will work should be made public, and that is what Elon Musk thinks.
But what is the hidden reason?
Elon Musk can cause wide fluctuation in crypto prices and can generate or destroy crores of wealth with just a single tweet.
With one tweet, Elon Musk announced that Tesla can be purchased with the help of Bitcoin.
This causes Bitcoin prices to climb to an all-time high. And then by saying that Bitcoin is not good for the planet, he takes back his decision to accept Bitcoin, which causes Bitcoin prices to sharply crash for days.
In short, Elon Musk is the world's biggest financial influencer. Elon Musk is such an influential person that before he makes any financial tweet, he needs Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) permission Because people can take decisions under his influence which can cause a lot of ups and downs in the stock market.
Elon Musk does not want this power to go out of his hands. I don't know about Freedom of Speech for you and me, but Elon Musk worries about his own Freedom of Speech. There is a saying that "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Only time will tell what Elon Musk's true intentions are, but I think there is hope, because after Finalising Twitter's megadeal, he tweeted: "I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means" and I completely agree. The people who agree with your thoughts and views, you obviously will support their freedom of speech. But a true supporter of freedom of speech, who allows those thoughts to exist as well which he/she is completely against.
Now what's going to happen is that Twitter will become a privately held company. Twitter's shares that are listed on the stock exchanges will be delisted and all control will be with Elon Musk. One thing is guaranteed that in the upcoming days, Twitter is going to be quite an interesting platform.
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