How Elon Musk could change Twitter

By Clare Duffy, CNN Business

Published 8:02 AM EDT, Thu October 6, 2022

New York CNN Business — Nearly three months after Elon Musk told Twitter he wanted out of his $44 billion agreement to buy the social media company, the Tesla CEO now once again wants to move forward with the deal.

The reversal, if finalized, not only has the potential to create upheaval for Twitter employees but also for the hundreds of millions of people around the world who use the platform daily.

In the first weeks after agreeing to buy the company in April, and before his move to bail on the deal, Musk repeatedly stressed that his goal was to bolster “free speech” on the platform and work to “unlock” Twitter’s “extraordinary potential.” He suggested he would rethink Twitter’s approach to content moderation and permanent bans on the platform, with potential impacts on civil discourse and the political landscape. He also talked about his desire to rid the platform of bots, even as he later made the number of bots central to his argument to abandon the deal.

In private and public statements over the past six months, Musk has tossed out a wide range of other possible changes for the platform, from enabling end-to-end encryption for Twitter’s direct messaging feature to suggesting this week that Twitter become part of an “everything” app called x, possibly in the style of popular Chinese app WeChat.

There have been more far-fetched suggestions, too. In one text exchange with his brother Kimbal Musk, revealed last week in court documents, the two appeared to discuss the possibility of asking users to pay for each tweet they post with small amounts of the cryptocurrency DogeCoin.

Perhaps the biggest immediate impact if the deal goes through: Musk has indicated that he would restore former President Donald Trump’s account on the platform, which could be a huge advantage if Trump decides to make another bid for the White House in 2024.

(Source: CNN)