Elon Musk bought Twitter

The world’s richest man Elon Musk has just purchased his favourite thing, Twitter. CEO Parag Agrawal and board weren’t that interested in the beginning. Musk succeeded eventually. Who could stop Musk, especially, when he was willing to pay $44 billion?

Most billionaires have ownership in media houses – Network18 of Mukesh Ambani, South China Morning Post of Jack Ma, Washington Post of Jeff Bezos, Time Magazine of Marc Benioff, and now Twitter of Elon Musk.

To the unversed, Musk is responsible for making electric cars look and feel cool. Tesla and SpaceX, two of Musk’s companies are unimaginably popular.

Musk has other science projects in his bag, like solar city and The Boring Company.

But, Twitter takeover might be Musk’s most difficult venture so far. Will running Twitter distract Musk? You might wonder, how can a social media platform disturb a genius billionaire businessman in his work! Or, is it possible that Twitter changes Musk?

“Will Elon Musk choose Twitter over Mars and Electric Car?”

Elon Musk will make Twitter private, and Twitter with 400 million active users will be Musk’s toy. After the sale, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal wrote about the relevance in Twitter. Jack Dorsey, Twitter founder said, he wouldn’t want to see Twitter becoming one-man show, but he trusts Musk. He said that Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness.

Twitter is quite small compared to the other social media platforms, even smaller than Pinterest and Snapchat. But it is true that news breaks first and fastest on Twitter. Privatisation of Twitter could lead to regulatory problems. Any wrongdoing may be blamed upon Musk. Will Elon Musk choose Twitter over Mars and Electric Car?

Musk’s Mega Plans

Because Twitter lacks some features, other social media platforms have left it behind.

Musk wants to

Make Twitter’s algorithm open source to increase transparency and trust.
Delete the spam bots. Musk wants spam accounts disabled. Twitter has known about these bots, but still not acted. Research shows that nearly half of the accounts tweeting about coronavirus were bots. So, how many real users does Twitter have?
Introduce edit button! Twitter does not have an edit button, and if made available, people can change their tweets. This will increase the wrongdoings in Twitter.
Provide verified badge to all humans. Musk will provide verified badge to all the real users. So, everyone will have blue tick against their name.

Free Speech – Musk Style

Elon said that he is a free speech absolutist. He said, “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.” He believes that Twitter has tremendous potential that he will unlock. But the question that arises here is, what is absolute free speech that Musk supports and to what extent? Is there hate speech, targeted harassment, spreading of deliberate fake news included in this idea of Musk’s “free speech”? Was suspension of Trump’s account act against free speech or to discourage hate speech? Will already suspended accounts return including Kangana Ranaut’s?

If free speech is absolute, then the conversation can turn ugly, involving personal attacks, or even misogyny, racism and homophobia. Will these too come under ‘free speech’? Where will you draw the line, Elon Musk? Some say that if Elon doesn’t want to clear the line, filth will increase even more on Twitter. Community guidelines are a norm on other social media platforms. There must be a sense of moderation in each community.

Next, meet Mark Zuckerberg, who also advocated free speech absolutism a few years ago! Then, Facebook started to allow holocaust deniers (the one who denies that holocaust existed, Hitler killed 6 million Jews), and Zuckerberg justified by saying it’s their freedom of speech. Is it a duty of Facebook to provide space to such beliefs? Later on, when sponsors pulled money, Facebook reversed their stance. Amnesty international is trying to explain Musk that free speech does not mean violation of personal space.

“Elon Musk will make Twitter private, and Twitter with 400 million active users will be Musk’s toy.”

Not an Engineering Problem

Musk believes that Twitter is a big problem that needs to be solved. He thinks that he will findits solution with science, maths and engineering. Just ashow he did with electric car manufacturing and rocket reuse. But removing bots and free speech absolutism may not solve the underlying problems on Twitter.

Twitter is a human problem, and machine learning cannot identify misinforming accounts. How can 500 million daily tweets be scanned in multiple languages with innuendos? These are related with the topics like child pornography, incitement to violence, misleading information, harassment etc. in which works have been done or in progress to curb these evil practices. These are such problems which, coding and engineering might not solve. Human intervention is needed.

A board to deal with sensitive issues was set up by Facebook. Twitter could do the same, change the governance model. Now, Elon Musk will decide what’s going to happen. There is no system, just one man show, it seems.

Musk’s Selective Free Speech

Musk may not be a free speech absolutist as he claims to be. Musk spoke against mask mandate in USA, but made it optional in his company, SpaceX. In China, i.e. Tesla’s second biggest market after USA, where he recently inaugurated a Tesla car Gigafactory, Musk is quite soft. He absolutely speaks nothing over there. Whatever the Chinese government demands, Musk follows. Musk, like China, will have to deal with other countries’ governments too. Twitter has to obey different rules in different nations. Like in India, new IT rules. Will absolute free speech be possible then?

Only Elon Musk knows how he will handle free speech and Twitter, because there is no mathematical answer to it.

“Musk has secured $25 billion debt for buying Twitter, so this could cost him $1 billion in interest a year. This is more than what Twitter earns. So, there’s a lot on his plate – regulations, rules and financial struggle. Then, will Elon have any time left for Mars mission?”

Revenue

What is the revenue model of Twitter? As Twitter is not a money making machine yet. Other social media platforms have become profitable, on the other hand. How long will loss making company last?

Musk has secured $25 billion debt for buying Twitter, so this could cost him $1 billion in interest a year. This is more than what Twitter earns. So, there’s a lot on his plate – regulations, rules and financial struggle. Then, will Elon have any time left for Mars mission?

spaceX — SpaceX image: businessinsider.com

Has the Money Spent Well?

The right wing say that Twitter is dominated by the left. Left say that right spreads lie on Twitter. But, amidst this chaos, can Elon Musk solve this problem? Can he manage Twitter and his other companies at the same time? Or, will he realize Twitter problems can’t be solved by coding alone? He could instead solve problems like climate change, world hunger, etc. with $44 billion. Twitter may stay the same, even after purchase. And Musk may come to realize that this was an impulsive purchase. Twitter is a reflection of human nature. Chaos is another name for Twitter and it may continue to define it.

28-04-2022

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