Elon Musk buys Twitter

The world's richest person has made a deal to buy social media platform Twitter, taking the company private in a controversial $44-billion (U.S.) ...

He thinks Musk’s Twitter deal could actually accelerate and reinforce these processes, perhaps resulting in more oversight of companies like Twitter down the line. Taking the company private will likely mean less oversight and transparency for Twitter and its users, he said. Musk said last week he had lined up $46.5 billion in financing to buy the social media company. In quick succession, Musk accepted an offer to join the company’s board, before rejecting the same offer. According to documents filed with U.S. securities regulators, the financing will come from Morgan Stanley and other banks to the tune of more than $25 billion. The deal, which was unanimously approved by Twitter’s board of directors, is expected to close within the year. To have the world’s richest man in charge without being beholden to shareholders could result in “a huge concentration of power that could result in almost a tyrannical negative impact on society,” said Tsai. Musk’s big concern is that these companies are becoming the arbiter of speech, said Eltis, and to extent it’s a valid concern — she believes the necessary balance between regulating online speech and providing a platform for free speech has yet to be struck. One of the main issues is that instead of all the social media companies adhering to one set of principles when it comes to regulating speech on their platforms, each is setting its own rules, said Eltis. Once the deal is closed, Twitter will become a privately held company. In the early age of the internet, this new frontier was hailed as a bastion of free speech, but over time a reversal happened, said Eltis, where social media companies began regulating speech to address the hateful content being posted — but again using algorithms, with no recourse, and often missing the mark. There are concerns about Musk’s motives for taking over Twitter. Musk has said he wants to buy the platform because he doesn’t believe it’s living up to its role in enabling free speech, and has proposed relaxing content restrictions, potentially including the rules that forced former president Donald Trump off the social media platform.