What Musk’s Twitter takeover means for us

"The bird is freed," tweeted Elon Musk, in an apparent reference to Twitter's bird logo after he completed the $44 billion takeover of the microblogging site, after a memorable saga, with enough twists and turns fit for a Netflix original.

What does this 'freedom' entail for the popular social media platform? What is the future of free speech on the platform? Are Trump and similar controversial figures coming back to the fold?

Rocking the boat

Musk's rocky relationship with Twitter and harsh criticism of its content moderation procedures, accusing its workers in the past of having a "strong left-wing bias," is well-documented.

Yet on 26 October, the Tesla CEO walked into Twitter HQ with a sink, captioned with the joke: "Let that sink in." Musk also updated his Twitter bio to say "chief twit" alongside publishing the short clip.

He reportedly told staff the news that he would cut 75% of jobs was not true. Last week, documents and interviews obtained by the Washington Post showed that Musk had plans to fire about 75% of Twitter employees when he takes charge.

Things seem to have again taken a turn as Musk kicked CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and general counsel Sean Edgett out as soon as he took over.

What is Musk up to? 

The outspoken billionaire himself has said he is overpaying for Twitter. Then again, he said, "The long-term potential for Twitter, in my view, is an order of magnitude greater than its current value." 

So why is he buying Twitter, and what is this long-term potential he refers to? 

Well, the answer lies in one of his tweets, obviously. Earlier this month, he tweeted, "Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app." 

What is an everything app, you say? Like gunpowder and paper, this idea, too, came out of China. An everything app, also referred to as a super app, the best example of which is WeChat, lets users not only send messages but also make payments, shop online or even hail a taxi.

According to Reuters, Musk has told investors he plans to build an everything app that will sell premium subscriptions to reduce reliance on ads, allow content creators to make money and enable payments.

It remains to be seen how viable Chief Twit's plans are as superapps have so far only thrived in places where there are no Google, Facebook and consequently, consumers lack options. Insiders say there are no US-based superapps due to the high barrier to entry and abundance of app options.

Apple Inc and Google, who control the app stores on iPhones and Android phones, respectively, view themselves as super apps and are unlikely to permit the development of other super apps. One example of the barrier to entry is Apple's recent rejection of Spotify's plan to sell audiobooks.

Free speech or free "hate" speech?

Elon Musk wants to "free" Twitter by undoing its content moderation policies. 

In May, Musk said he intends to reinstate former President Donald Trump's Twitter account, which was suspended in January 2021 "due to the risk of further incitement of violence" following the deadly Capitol riot. However, Trump has asserted that he would not rejoin Twitter and would instead remain on his new Social site, Truth. 

Musk has also supported controversial rapper Kanye West in the past, referring to him as his "friend" before Twitter banned him earlier this month for threatening violence against Jews.

In its early years as a small start-up, Twitter was guided by a single guiding principle: the tweets must flow. That meant Twitter did little to moderate its platform's conversations. However, over a decade of dealing with violence, harassment, and election tampering altered their perspective. Many executives at Twitter and other social media platforms now view their content moderation policies as essential speech-protection measures.

According to current and former Twitter employees who spoke with Reuters, Musk's plans to lower the guard rails common to all social media platforms would result in a deluge of hateful, harmful, and potentially illegal content on Twitter. 

On a site that has had difficulty identifying and removing child pornography, this could potentially mean many voices being bullied into silence. Twitter's effectiveness as a tool for harassment became evident in 2014 when it became the epicentre of Gamergate. This massive harassment campaign saw women in the video game industry swamped with death and rape threats.

The Tesla boss has also hinted at charging small fees from users. "Adding payments, which generally require identity verification, could complicate a service which has allowed anonymity to flourish, making Twitter a powerful tool for political activism in hostile environments", Jason Goldman, a former Twitter board member, told Reuters.

Spread of misinformation

Twitter is notorious for the spread of misinformation. In a recent study, the Integrity Institute, an advocacy group, found that a "well-crafted lie" will get more engagement than typical, truthful content and that some features of social media sites and their algorithms contribute to the spread of misinformation.

Twitter, the analysis showed, has what the institute called the great misinformation amplification factor, in large part because of its feature allowing people to share or "retweet" posts easily.

Twitter became a cesspool of misinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic. Musk was also guilty of this. He first called Covid-19 "dumb" and falsely claimed that children are "essentially immune" to the virus. He also used Twitter to pitch the malaria drug chloroquine as a possible Covid-19 treatment.

Stopping advertisers from taking flight

On 29 October 2019, Elon Musk tweeted, "I hate advertising." Almost three years to the date, the new Twitter owner took to Twitter to say, "Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!... Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise."

But is that enough to convince advertisers who contribute 90% of Twitter's revenue? 

Mark DiMassimo, founder of ad agency DiMassimo Goldstein, told Reuters he does not believe it to be so. He believes welcoming back Trump could alienate moderate and liberal-leaning users and, as a result, push away major household brands who aim to promote their products to Individuals all across the political spectrum.

Twitter boasts a 238 million strong user base, but its in-house research shows that its most active accounts are either being less chirpy or flying for pastors new altogether. These"heavy tweeters" are people who log in to Twitter six or seven days a week and tweet about three to four times a week. These "heavy tweeters" account for less than 10% of overall monthly users but generate 90% of all tweets and half of global revenue. 

Twitter is losing a "devastating" portion of heavy users interested in fashion or celebrities. These users are likely hopping to rival platforms like Instagram and TikTok.The research also found a shift in interests over the past two years among Twitter's most active English-speaking users that could make the platform less attractive to advertisers.

Data privacy 

Musk now owns what he once referred to as a "de facto town square." Apparently, he also owns all of its user data. This may not be good news for data privacy as Twitter has been plagued by privacy and security issues and has been slow to implement potential solutions over the years. 

Musk's stated intention is to make Twitter "the most respected advertising platform in the world" by providing "advertising that is as relevant to [users'] needs as feasible." You require data for this.

Consequently, it is possible that everything you've ever done or said on Twitter, whether public or private, including direct messages, could soon belong to one of the world's wealthiest individuals.

This July, Twitter published its 20th transparency report. During the reporting period of July 2021 through December 2021, 47,572 legal demands for information on 198,931 accounts. Experts fear this pressure will mount under the volatile Musk.