In early July, Elon Musk filed a letter declaring his decision to back out of purchasing Twitter, reneging on a $44 billion deal that was months in the works, but a lot has changed between then and now.
After a visit to Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco on Wednesday, and an official bio change reflecting his newly self-given title of "Chief Twit," the keys to the platform are all but in Musk's pocket.
Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022
In a Notes App statement shared from his personal Twitter account profile on Thursday, Musk says "There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter, and what I think about advertising. Most of it 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. 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."
"I didn't do it to make more money," Musk says. "I did it try to help humanity, whom I love . . . That said, Twitter cannot become a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences!" Musk closes his statement saying that "Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world."
Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022
According to Bloomberg, Twitter's chief marketing officer Leslie Berland issued a letter to the company's current staff saying that Musk will address the sale on Friday, which is his official deadline for the closing.
Last week, The Washington Post reported on their findings that Musk had been telling prospective investors that he planned to lay-off "75 percent of Twitter's 7,500 workers" once he takes over, which he is now assuring them will not be the case, or at least not in those exact numbers.
Leading up to his purchase of Twitter, and his statements regarding his plans to loosen content moderation on the platform, Musk addressed what many are curious about. Will he let Trump back on?
As CNN points out, Musk spoke of Trump's booting from Twitter during a press conference in May saying "I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump; I think that was a mistake."
"I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on Truth," Trump told Fox News prior to Musk making that statement. "I hope Elon buys Twitter because he'll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth."
