Elon Musk reached a $ 44 billion deal to buy Twitter. This deal will give the richest man in the world control of the social network with more than 200 million users.
The CEO of Tesla will be placed at the head of a company which he has often criticized, claiming that it has not fulfilled its potential as a platform for "free speech". The deal was struck after weeks of speculation about the social network's future, fueled by the fact that Musk became the platform's largest shareholder on April 4th.
"Free speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital square of the city where vital issues for the future of humanity are debated," Musk said in a statement posted on Twitter. "Twitter has tremendous potential - I look forward to working with the company and the users to unlock it ", he added.
Twitter has 217 million active users every day. "Once the deal is closed, we do not know in which direction the platform will go," said Twitter executive director Parag Agrawal. Musk will join Twitter staff for a question-and-answer session at a later date, the company told employees.
Elon Musk has signaled that Twitter needs to transform as a private company in order to build trust with users and do better in the service of what he calls "free speech". "I hope that even my worst critics stay on Twitter, because that's what freedom of speech means," he wrote.
Musk has said he will ease some restrictions on Twitter content, block fake and automated accounts, and remove the advertising-based revenue model.
How Twitter will turn into the direction of Elon Musk remains to be seen. People seem to be divided into two parts: some are looking forward to it, while others see it with a lot of skepticism.
