Elon Musk is now the owner of Twitter after completing his $44 billion takeover deal of the platform.
The billionaire, who is said to be the richest person in the world, confirmed the news early on Friday morning as he tweeted: “The bird is freed.” The Tesla and SpaceX chief has already ousted several of the company’s senior executives since the deal was completed, PA reports.
While the social media platform is yet to confirm the deal in a statement, several of the platform’s top figures, including chairman Brett Taylor, have updated their Twitter profiles to indicate that they no longer work at the company. Musk is expected to speak to Twitter employees later today.
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A US court gave Musk until today, Friday 28 October, to complete the deal after he tried to back out - leading to a lawsuit from Twitter to push the mogul to go through with the acquisition. Earlier this week, he tweeted a statement aimed at advertisers on the platform explaining his motivations behind buying Twitter, saying that most of the speculation surrounding his reasons for the deal “has been wrong”.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” he wrote. “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”
Musk insisted that he had bought Twitter “to try to help humanity”. He added that the platform “obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences.”
Musk has previously stated his belief in what he has dubbed “absolute free speech” - but his stance has raised concerns among many Twitter users and safety experts. Seyi Akiwowo, chief executive of online safety organisation Glitch, warned: “The progress Twitter has finally made on safety over the last six years will unravel in the next few weeks.”
There has been much speculation about what Twitter could look like under Musk's ownership, with the billionaire previously mentioning that he plans to make several controversial changes to the platform. Musk confirmed that he would allow banned accounts, such as that of former US President Donald Trump, to return to Twitter, as well as vowing to eradicate spam bots.
Musk has also spoken about turning Twitter into “the everything app”, creating a platform where users can access a range of online services. A similar service exists called WeChat exists in China, where users can do everything from share social media posts to make payments, book restaurants and order taxis.
Many Twitter users have been critical of the takeover, with celebrities including actress Jameela Jamil and US activist Shaun King vowing to delete their accounts once Musk took over. Reports say that many Twitter employees are also planning to leave the company following the acquisition.
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