In the largest corporate privatization deal in U.S. history, Twitter has accepted Elon Musk’s offer to buy 100% of Twitter for 44 billion.
Musk plans to privatize the company and do away with ads, a nearly 5-billion-dollar revenue source for Twitter, which accounts for 90% of their total income. Musk’s plan to do away with ads was nothing short of strategic. Musk is a free speech absolutist – or someone who believes that free speech should be unrestricted at all costs.
Advertisers are the main reason speech is restricted on social media platforms. For social media giants like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter who rely on advertisers buying space on their platforms, as well as sponsored content, to make most of their profits eliminating this revenue stream is not a decision that should be taken lightly. Without these restrictions or community guidelines, advertisers would not advertise on social media, and the sites could not generate much of their revenue.
But, when your pockets run as deep as Musk’s, I suppose revenue doesn’t particularly matter.
Some changes Musk plans on making are as follows: He claims, that despite the lack of advertisements, he will quintuple Twitter revenue by 2028. He plans on doing this while cutting Twitter’s reliance on ads to less than 50% of the total revenue. He also plans on growing the platform’s user base. He claims by 2025 there will be 69 million users on Twitter (however, considering 69 is his favorite number I’m not sure if this is accurate or another one of his famous trolling stunts). He also plans on offering a paid service, Twitter Blue, which will allow users to customize their Twitter experience for only $3 a month.
However, advertising is not the only hurdle to free speech on a social media platform.
Now Musk will face a barrage of questions and restrictions from government watchdogs, regulators, and activists. Twitter could even end up being banned in other countries if Musk attempts to skirt regulations. Musk wants to strip back content moderation rules and stop the censorship of new organizations; he has also not answered questions about how he plans to go about this, only stating that he’d only allow free speech that “matches the law”.
However, several European countries are changing their laws. New laws in the United Kingdom and The European Union (which comprises 27 European countries). The EU, for example, has enacted the Digital Services Act and The Digital Markets Act which aims to create a safer digital space, while protecting the rights of users and leveling the playing field for businesses. These acts extend to social media. The acts, in part, heavily fine companies that refuse to curtail illegal content on their platforms. However, as of May 9th, 2022, EU Industry Chief, Thierry Brighton, met with Elon Musk in Texas and they have reached an agreement regarding free speech and The Digital Services Act. Yet, the pair has not gone into detail about what exactly their agreement entails. When asked, Musk simply stated that it “totally aligned with his thinking”.
Musk may have circumvented the largest spanning cyber laws, but that does not mean he’s out of the woods regarding governmental regulation of Twitter around the world.
Now, the decision for Musk to purchase Twitter, and go public was a polarizing one and was met with mixed reactions. People did not hold back, and many roasted Musk for his decisions.
Some of my favorite reaction tweets are:

Okay, but they make a good point. He’s been heralded as a “Real-life Tony Stark” and there’s nothing technically stopping him from being Iron Man.

Live your dreams I guess, Elon.


Sure some people are disgruntled by the whole ordeal, but there’s really not a way to boycott this. In fact, the user base is only projected to grow for Twitter, with Elon at the helm.

And, in true Musk fashion he trolled Twitter users, critics and fans by tweeting a series of Tweets detailing which companies he was going to buy next.

Musk then said would buy America’s most popular fast-food chain, and fix the most common complaint. I have to admit, I kind of want him to follow through on this one.
First, he threatened to buy Coca-Cola and put the cocaine back in, referring to the inception of the popular soft drink, when it first contained cocaine.

Lastly, the new Twitter CEO threatened to shut down the entire platform altogether, so that all the users go outside.

UPDATE:
As of Friday the 13th (spooky), Musk announced his Twitter bid of 44 billion dollars is currently on hold.
He claims he still plans on following through with the acquisition, and he will owe Twitter a one-billion-dollar breakup fee if he does not follow through. However, if he can afford to spend 44 billion on a social media website, I have to assume one billion dollars isn’t much of a deterrent for him. The bid could be on hold for multiple reasons.
He could be trying to negotiate a better price for Twitter, the deal could be falling apart or he could simply be walking away. One issue is that he was going to borrow against his smart car company, Tesla, but Tesla stock has been plummeting as of late. A part of me wonders if this is some kind of bizarre stunt in order to get media coverage and attention prior to unveiling a new concept at either Tesla or SpaceX. After the frenzy the news of Musk purchasing Twitter has caused, the deal may not even go through, and once again, the future of Twitter remains uncertain.
AK Stout
April 30, 2010 at 9:46 pm
If you’re like me, you have way too many things already on your calendar to be adding tweets. While I think the reasons for tracking tweets are valid, I would suggest using a feed reader like Google Reader to keep up with the tweets of those you choose instead of placing them on your calendar. When I find individuals on Twitter that provide info that I know I’ll want to read at my leisure on an on-going basis I subscribe to their Twitter RSS feed via my Google Reader so that I can read them all in one spot either from my PC or when I’m waiting in line at Starbucks on my phone.
Lani Rosales
April 30, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Thanks for stopping by, AK! 🙂
Per the above, “If you don’t want to junk up your calendar, you can actually hide all of the Twitter accounts you’re tracking and they’ll still be tracked in the background. I highly recommend this- I hide Twistory so I can still use my calendar as well, a calendar.” I’m with you- junking up a calendar isn’t helpful at all, so it’s smart to use a service like Gcal that lets you hide calendars. 🙂
I subscribe to several thousand people on Twitter, but there are people specifically that I document their tweets. Per the above, here are several reasons why:
“I track a variety of Twitter accounts on Twistory and am frustrated that I’m limited to public accounts (meaning I can’t track my own tweets). Here are some uses I can think of for Twistory off the top of my head:
1. If you have an assistant (or any third party) tweeting for you or about you, you should track that on Twistory.
2. If there is someone on Twitter who habitually is abusive toward you or your brand, you could use Twistory to keep a record of their abuses (which we do).
3. Similarly, if someone in your company habitually deletes tweets from the public record, Twistory will keep a record of them for your reference.
4. If you are accountability-conscious, you should track your own tweets simply for record keeping purposes.
5. If you are forgetful and need to reference things you’ve tweeted and need to search them, this is perfect since you can search the text of most calendars.
6. If you’re a team leader, you should track what all of your team members and admins are saying on Twitter, even if you never refer to it.
7. If there is a useful media outlet on Twitter that you’ll want to search later or simply have a timeline for, this is an easy way to track.”
Roberta Kedzierski
May 12, 2010 at 3:37 am
I love the idea of this, and have tried to subscribe but my tweets do not show up on on my Google Calendar. I have clicked to show all Calendars. I use Chrome for Mac. Is that a problem?
Lani Rosales
May 12, 2010 at 11:41 am
Hi Roberta, for me it took quite a while for them to begin showing up. If you don’t see it by tomorrow, let me know and maybe we can walk through it together? 🙂
Emma
May 18, 2010 at 10:52 am
I’d had twistory showing up in my google calendar in the past, then deleted it for a while.
When I tried to re-add it, it wasn’t working. I Googled for a bit & it seems that it’s got somewhat flakey – & Twistory’s own tweets said that it was a Google Calendar issue. twitter.com/twistory I’ve just downloaded & tested with Sunbird & that’s fine.
Just as a matter of interest, as you’ve said you can’t track your own tweets in twistory, is that because you’ve set them to private?
Missy Caulk
November 21, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Since we can have multiple calendars in Google, why not just set up a specific calendar for that?
Good idea! You Rock!
Lani Rosales
November 21, 2010 at 2:08 pm
I have it on my main calendar but just hide all activity and only refer to it when I need to. The best use I’ve gotten out of it so far is people saying “I never said that” after deleting a tweet… “oh yes you did,” my calendar says 😉