Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the world’s richest man, with a stated net worth of around $212 billion, recently set aside some of his almost unimaginable fortune for his latest acquisition. The process reportedly commenced on 31 January 2022, when he began to buy up shares in Twitter, a microblogging and social networking platform that serves as a conduit for user-generated data, thereby providing a global voice for all kinds of people. From March onwards, by which time he had secured a 5 per cent stake in the company, Musk declared at various times his intentions to either join the Twitter board, replace the company with an alternative in the pursuit of “free speech”, or even buy up Twitter. By April, he had become Twitter’s largest shareholder, with 9 per cent of the company’s stock, and had settled a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, only to develop cold feet and consider reneging on his offer from a lack of confidence in the platform’s ability to identify and control bots, spam, and fake accounts. Twitter thereupon sued Musk for breach of contract and a trial was set for October 2022 in Delaware Chancery Court. For some reason, Musk had a change of heart and on 5 October declared he would proceed with his purchase as originally planned. His acquisition was completed by 27 October, and thereupon Twitter came under his total control.
Musk took Twitter private, meaning its shares were delisted on the New York Stock Exchange from 8 November onwards. Having confirmed that the “bird is freed”, he set about on a root-and-branch shakeup at the loss-making company, most certainly overvalued at the time of its purchase and a victim of falling advertising revenues. After dismissing the CEO (Parag Agrawal), CFO (Ned Segal), and legal, public policy, and trust & safety lead (Vijaya Gadde), and other executives, Musk installed himself as CEO. The new supremo changed his bio to “Chief Twit”, before recognising that the title of “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator” might be more appropriate. The cull extended to the entire board of nine directors and approximately half of the workforce (around 3,750 employees)- all notified by email and offered three months of severance pay, thereby clearing the way for Musk to stamp his authority and make the company financially viable at a time when the company was allegedly losing over $4 million a day. Around the world, all Twitter offices, including its San Francisco headquarters, were temporarily closed and employees denied badge access. In an attempt to remedy falling revenues, Musk proposed a plan to charge users $7.99 a month for the privilege of blue-tick verified status, normally the prerogative of high-profile or influential individuals, but without ID verification. It was subsequently reported that some dismissed employees were being wooed back for their much-needed expertise.
Musk’s takeover cheered up ex-President Donald Trump, a former prolific Twitterer and responsible for over 25,000 Presidential tweets, who was reassured that “Twitter is now in safe hands”. Some reports even suggested Trump might be reinstated on the platform, undoing his permanent suspension on 8 January 2021, following the Capitol invasion in the immediate aftermath of his 2020 election defeat.
Twitter currently has around 300 million monthly users. The company was co-founded in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Christopher “Biz” Stone, and Evan Williams as a spin-off from Odeo Corporation, a Californian internet software company, to provide a short-message, real-time, Web-based communication service. Twitter has generated its own vocabulary and code of practice, the latter now vulnerable to Musk’s intentions as new CEO. An account can be created by signing up on Twitter.com or by downloading the Twitter app on a smartphone or other device. One’s chosen user name is referred to as a handle. If this name is already taken, a number may be added by Twitter against it to create a valid handle, which forms the URL of a new Twitter address. A user’s identity is defined by a profile picture, a header image, and a brief bio (a 160-character personalised biography). Until November 2017, there was a limit of 140 characters on individual messages-since raised to 280- which can be used to share thoughts/delusions, information/misinformation, news/fake news, or jokes/diatribes with others willing to view what is on offer. Longer messages might require a series of tweets, linked together in a ‘thread’. Tweets can be coupled with photos, GIFs (graphics interchange format), memes, or videos, without affecting the character count, while sharing a link reduces the character count by 23. Tweets can be tagged with a relevant word or phrase using hashtags, prefixed with a # sign, so that they can participate in a wider linked conversation. Trending topics on Twitter are typically accompanied by a hashtag. A search facility enables search of relevant tweets. A feed is the stream of messages on a user’s home page. Retweeting enables the sharing of a tweet with one’s followers, enabling rapid propagation, likened to viral transmission, of the original message, which may travel much faster if the original source is an influential opinion leader. In addition, in-house research at Twitter has suggested that inbuilt algorithmic amplification within Twitter may give more credence to right-wing content over left-wing posts.
What started innocuously as a free and ‘open’ social network, allowing all registered users, irrespective of location and walk of life, to communicate and share messages in real time, has evolved into a site to market and sell products and services. Twitter’s reputation has suffered as it has also provided a channel for the propagation of misinformation and conspiracy theories, on such matters as COVID and climate change, and malicious propaganda, while facilitating the abuse and harassment of people harbouring inconvenient ideas. The network has laid open the unresolved tensions between unrestricted freedom of speech and what is acceptable in civilised society. Musk now has carte blanche to stamp his impression on the platform and his actions will as usual be subject to scrutiny by the media and the public, particularly with respect to content moderation. As Musk actively encourages voters to back Republican candidates in the American mid-term elections to restore balance in the political system, it becomes clear that he will use the platform as a pulpit from which to preach his views on politics and the economy. Who knows what may follow next? Meanwhile, we might choose to reflect on the 21st century values that have transformed an internet communications company, set up just sixteen years to provide an intangible and non-essential product with little added value, into such a disruptive influence on society.
Ashis Banerjee