People are worried because Twitter’s board of directors overwhelmingly approved Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal to take the social media behemoth private.
Many are surprised by the news, considering Twitter’s board of directors enacted an anti-takeover clause known as a “poison pill” earlier this month, indicating that the board was preparing to reject Musk’s offer or seek a better bidder. The agreement is being viewed as a significant turning point in the continuing Musk-Twitter controversy.
Shareholders warmed up to the plan after Musk said he had set aside $46.5 billion for the acquisition, including $21 billion of his personal riches. Other investors, according to Musk, may be able to contribute to the funding.
Musk has pledged to make a number of changes to the microblogging site, including loosening content restrictions. On a smartphone, his Twitter account is shown in front of the Twitter logo.
Musk, a self-described “free-speech absolutist,” has committed to build additional capabilities such as “authenticating all humans,” as he put it in a remark published in a news release announcing the deal on Monday.
Although it’s unclear how Twitter will alter, Musk’s takeover of the microblogging network is likely to bring about a few changes.
Musk wrote, “Free speech is the backbone of a functional democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where things essential to humanity’s future are debated.”
The billionaire has asked for Twitter’s content limitations to be relaxed, and has envisioned a site that is free of content control.
Some detractors claim that one of the key reasons he bought the firm was to get over its content control procedures.
The algorithm, or piece of code that determines which tweets are served up to users in order of priority, will be made “open source,” or available for anybody to inspect and change. This, according to Musk, will prevent “behind the scenes manipulation.”
Several analysts have complained, claiming that Musk’s idea oversimplifies the process of making data public and creates severe privacy issues.
Elon Musk has also stated that he will destroy “the spam and fraud bots, as well as the bot armies on Twitter.”
