Elon Musk's Twitter takeover: Comedy special or suspenseful drama? -

Edited by BellaRose Okojie

The world’s richest person and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, has been on his Twitter quest for quite a while now. His interest in taking control of the social media application came as a result of a free speech dispute that seeming important people have been affected by. Examples are former President of the United States Donald J Trump, President of Nigeria Muhammad Buhari, and Elon Musk himself among others.

Questions as to what freedom of speech is hit the internet after some of the aforementioned shared their views on Twitter. The tweets were taken down owing to a breach of Twitter community guidelines.

Musk had promised to bring true freedom of speech to the blue app with his takeover and on April 25, the Twitter board accepted a $44 billion offer from the billionaire. Since then, a lot has transpired, with the most recent looking like it might be a dealbreaker! We peeked behind the curtains and made quite the revelation.

Musk’s relationships versus Twitter in a nutshell

While a lot of banter rent the air over the takeover, a statement by one-time world’s richest man Bill Gates stirred some curiosity. Speaking on Musk’s takeover of the app, the former richest person in the world said ‘I guess it’s possible Twitter could be worse, but it also could be better.’ This doesn’t make his exact stand on the takeover clear, but with the relatiosnhip between both billionaires being less than cordial, we are torn on whether Bill Gates’ comments are realistic or sarcastic.

There is no assurance that Elon Musk could effect any lasting improvements to Twitter, but, writing him off as incompetent is equally hasty. Coming from the automobile research and development world to take on social media ownership could be a challenge for Musk, yet his frequent outbursts on Twitter make him a bit of a joke.

Still, like something out of a movie, Musk’s expression to buy Twitter spun a wacky inspirational story. One with the possibility of, one day, buying a dream item (read, company) simply because you can afford it and the tables turning from bully/bullied to boss. None of which assures Musk of a smooth ownership of Twitter.

Time and again, governments around the world have had run-ins with big tech companies. Meta owned Facebook has had a lot to deal with in this regard. African countries are in fact not left out. While Nigerians recover from the Twitter ban of 2021, the app remains banned in these countries. As such, Musk may need to knuckle down and get ready to face governments and their future demands from (his) new Twitter administration.

An interesting relationship to explore is his EV business Tesla, and how it is faring in Asian regions. Tesla on one hand sells most of its EVs in China, but the Asians don’t have a cosy relationship with Twitter.

China has replaced certain applications and services in its region. Instead of Twitter, its people use Weibo, and in place of WhatsApp they use WeChat, and the list goes on. According to Reuters, Tesla sales in China could be affected if Musk’s ownership of Twitter, and his plans don’t line with the Chinese government. It is all speculation, but the rapid changes happening with this takeover have us holding our breaths.

More recently, newly appointed CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, made a few “adjustments” to the team by firing top officials in the company. Kayvon Beykpour and Bruce Falck lost their jobs with Twitter and got replacements to take up their roles. The firing was enough to shock the public, but, it didn’t end there. The app has also paused any form of hiring labour.

Earlier, Elon Musk had stated in a tweet that he’d be cutting the pay of the entire board on Twitter soon as he takes over. We posit that the reputable ladies and gentlemen at the top administrative offices on Twitter brace up for the coming months!

Much anticipated Twitter takeover slowing pace

So far, Elon Musk has crossed a lot of hurdles concerning his plans to buy Twitter. The company at first objected and set plans in motion to prevent the billionaire from acquiring the company. But, once Musk was able to raise $44 billion, the media company became ready to talk real business.

The brakes have however been applied to the Twitter takeover by Elon Musk as he claims the number of spam accounts or spambots on Twitter will decide his next steps. Elon previously affirmed that he will wipe out spam accounts during his takeover “campaign” via his Twitter account. Twitter’s estimate of spam accounts on Twitter is less than 5%, but Musk claims they are as high as 20%.

Twitter claims that >95% of daily active users are real, unique humans. Does anyone have that experience?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2022

Meanwhile, investigations are under way to ensure that Elon’s bid for the company is worth it. This is important, so the billionaire won’t run at a loss after deleting all spam accounts once he takes control of affairs at Twitter.

While Musk did not make it a deciding factor at the start of his bid, it has now become a bargaining chip of sorts, as it prevents him from closing his deal with the Twitter board and taking ownership of the company. How this whole event will turn out is going to be a marvel to watch.