Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, finally took control of Twitter after its six-month-long dramatic narrative. Following the takeover, Musk tweeted that "the bird is freed” and fired the social media company’s top executives.
Three months ago, Elon Musk pulled the plug on his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, setting the stage for a court battle over a billion-dollar breakup fee and more. Notably, the takeover came just hours before the court-appointed deadline for Musk to seal his on-again, off-again deal to purchase the social media network.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future civilization to have a common digital town square,” expressed Musk in one of his tweets. “That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”
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Catching the attention of authorities, the EU official overseeing internet regulation warned the new Twitter boss that, indeed, the social media giant must play by the bloc's rules in Europe. "In Europe, the bird will fly by our (EU) rules," EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton tweeted.
In May, Musk said that the EU's new Digital Services Act was "exactly aligned with my thinking" when he met with Breton.
All eyes are on Twitter now under the new regime following the deal's closure. During a recent Tesla earnings call, Musk was "excited" about the Twitter deal even though he felt that he and investors were "overpaying."
Ad sales accounted for more than 90% of Twitter’s revenue in the second quarter, which aligns with Musk’s acknowledgment to the platform’s advertisers: “Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.”
Among the leading Twitter advertisers are Nestle, Verizon, Disney, the Kraft Heinz Company and Unilever. Though Twitter relies on ad dollars, it only gets 1% of digital ad spending in the US, less than what other big tech players — namely Google, Meta and Amazon — expend in the digital-ad economy.
Even though advertisers expressed their concerns about the billionaire’s plans and halted their ads, Twitter’s Chief Customer Officer Sarah Personette assured them that, upon a discussion with Musk, their “continued commitment to brand safety for advertisers remains unchanged.”
Moreover, Musk has vowed to dial content moderation back to a bare minimum and is expected to continue promoting free speech, authenticating real humans, enhancing user interface and defeating spambots.
