"The bird has been set free," Elon Musk wrote on Twitter, just after media reported that he had officially bought the social networking platform for $44 billion. Musk has described himself as an "absolutist of free speech". But is the desire to provide people with the opportunity to speak freely the reason why Elon, the richest man in the world, becomes the owner of one of the most influential social networks in the world?!
Freedom of speech is a good idea in principle, but on social media, it doesn't work the same way. Twitter and other social media companies have over the past few years failed to prevent the spread of misinformation and calls for violence.
Diego Naranjo, policy director at the European Digital Rights Association, told Euronews that "The concentration of wealth and power in a few hands is always the enemy of democracy and the fact that one of the richest people on the planet is taking over Twitter should 'puts people on alert and accelerates alternatives to businesses.'
Aside from his vision of free speech, of course, Musk can use Twitter for his own personal interests. Social media users are at the mercy of algorithms, which mine users' personal data and then use the information to keep them on the site and sell this data to advertising companies.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink, can use data from Twitter's algorithms for his companies.
"Musk is entering a market that has great power in terms of the algorithms that he can use on the data," said Petros Iosifidis, professor of media and communication policy at City University London. He told Euronews Next that the platform will be a "great marketing tool" for his companies.
