Despite attempting to back out the proposed purchase almost immediately after submitting it, billionaire Elon Musk has now officially assumed control of social media platform Twitter.
Musk, who is currently the richest person in the world, began his tenure by reportedly firing multiple members of Twitter’s most executive brain-trust, including both CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal.
What has not currently been fleshed out fully though is what Musk’s ownership will mean for the user experience of Twitter, though he used the platform to casually share some ideas through tweets.
The most commonly mentioned idea Musk has put forth is that he believes Twitter should be a “free speech” platform, a talking point he also relayed to Twitter staff during a June employee meeting.
“I think it’s essential to have free speech and to be able to communicate freely,” Musk told his new employees, according to Vox, who obtained a recording of the meeting.
However, it’s unclear whether that means Musk plans to do away with content moderation completely, a step that even recent social media platform startups that tout their “freedom of speech” like Parler and Truth Social have deemed a bridge too far.
And Musk seems to understand that advertisers won’t stick around for a platform that becomes a toxic environment. In a public memo to advertisers, Musk wrote that under his stewardship, Twitter “cannot became a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”
Instead, Musk wishes for it to be a place “where you can choose your desired experience according to your preferences, just as you can choose, for example, to see movies or play video games ranging from all ages to mature.”
What Musk has said though is that he seems to believe he can implement algorithms that limit the spread of more toxic ideas or hateful commentary, even if those things are technically allowed to be tweeted.
“I think people should be allowed to say pretty outrageous things that are within the bounds of the law, but then that doesn’t get amplified, it doesn’t get, you know, a ton of reach,” Musk said at that June meeting.
One specific step Musk has said he would take though would be to reinstate the Twitter account of former President Donald Trump, who found himself banned from the platform after his tweets regarding the January 6, 2021, riots in Washington, D.C.
“I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice,” Musk told the Financial Times in May. “Banning Trump from Twitter didn’t end Trump’s voice. It will amplify it among the right, and that is why it’s morally wrong and flat-out stupid.”
Musk has also railed against what he believes is a prevalence of “bots” on the platform, accounts which don’t belong to real people and are mainly used to spread propaganda or serve as trolls. A dispute between Musk and Twitter over how many bots are actually populating the platform was one of his major arguments when he seemed to try and back out of the deal to buy the platform.
Twitter has said bots comprise about 5% of all accounts, while Musk believes the number to be closer to 20%.
“I mean, frankly a top priority I would have is eliminating the spam and scam bots and the bot armies that are on Twitter,” Musk said at a TED conference in April. “I think these influence … they make the product much worse. If I had a dogecoin for every crypto scam I saw, I would have a hundred billion dogecoin.”
Musk has yet to reveal though what his official plan will be to eliminate bots from the Twitter experience, though he has spoken about requiring some type of authentication process when creating an account. How invasive into someone’s privacy this process might be, and whether users will balk at having to provide sensitive personal information in order to tweet, is unknown.
The Tesla owner has also commented that he plans to cut 75% of Twitter’s employees, but so far only the company’s former top executives have been given the axe.
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