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.
Mike Stewart, Downtown Vancouver Realtor
November 20, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I’ve been using a blackberry for years in my real estate business and I love it. The ability to use Google anytime anywhere is great, but I didn’t know I could get those other apps. Could you post a link for them?
Also could you tell me more about meebo and google talk and connecting my website and my blackberry for chat? I stopped using meebo as I wasn’t in front of my computer enough.
Thanks!
Missy Caulk
November 20, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Nick, thanks for the suggestions, I am going to check out sync in the AM, too tired tonight. As a outlook person that would be really cool. We already do the sync with the calendar.
Jim Duncan
November 21, 2008 at 5:29 am
Pretty much one of the best things about my BB is Google.
But – I could never get the gTalk to work with my site’s widget – it always tried to open a browser rather than talking within the app. Other than that – perfect.
Paula Henry
November 21, 2008 at 6:22 am
Nick –
You have given me a few more reasons to run to Verizon for my Storm!
Molly
November 21, 2008 at 7:23 am
there is an app for reader:
https://www.google.com/mobile/blackberry/reader.html
It is the only thing that keeps me sane when I wait (and wait) for appointments and at soccer practice!
Nick Bostic
November 21, 2008 at 9:11 am
@Mike – I included links in each product summary, but here there are again for easy reference, all downloadable from the built in browser in your BB:
GTalk: https://www.blackberry.com/googletalk
GMaps: https://m.google.com/maps
GMail: https://m.google.com/mail
GMobileApp: https://m.google.com
GSync: https://m.google.com/sync
Meebo allows you access to GTalk, but if you want a chat on your web site that integrates with you BB GTalk, either look into the GTalk widget (found here: https://www.google.com/talk/service/badge/New) or use Plugoo for direct integration.
@Missy – I was very excited to see the addition of contacts and it worked beautifully on mine.
@Jim – That’s definitely odd, although I’ve heard from a couple of other people they had the same issue. The people I know who it didn’t work for just went to Plugoo and it goes to their BB.
@Paula – let me know how you like it since I have to wait for the GSM version 🙁
@Molly – Unfortunately, that’s not a true app, that’s a mobile-compatible web site. It does come in handy in a pinch, but I’d like something that downloads a certain number of articles, allows for adding stars and notes, then will sync back up with the full-fledged web-based version when I connect again. But definitely better than nothing!
GeorgeMcCumiskey
November 21, 2008 at 11:28 am
Google is always my first choice for apps and why pay for text messaging when the email function on the BB is free. Watch out for AT & T to sabotage that. maybe.
Molly
November 21, 2008 at 2:43 pm
You are right, no notes-but I often star things to read when they are heavy on links or images when I get back to the desktop.
Clears out the “boring stuff”
Danilo Bogdanovic
November 21, 2008 at 4:59 pm
There is a Google Reader app for BB. I downloaded a bundled package of Picassa, Docs, Reaader, Sync, News, Gmail, Maps, Search and Mobile Updater all in one click.
It even updates all of the apps automatically and syncs my calendar with my Google Calendar automatically when I make a change to it on my BB.
Missy Caulk
November 22, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Nick, I met a guy from Google at NAR, he told someone in Ann Arbor-Google about me and I got an email from him to go have lunch at Google. He was amazed at how Realtors use Google.
I am pumped !
Sherry Baker
November 24, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Nick, what a useful article — I thought I was using Google on my BB fully, but looks like I have some apps to add. Cool!
Arlington real estate guy
November 24, 2008 at 8:52 pm
As a new blackberry Storm user that has spent since Sat. working on his new baby, here are some suggestions for managing your blackberries as some of the native apps suck–but this touch screen and push email do rock!
https://www.mycaption.com/home/index Do your email and calendar entries by voice….I’ve tried the email and it’s awesome! free trial see for yourself. Perhaps very useful while driving.
https://www.iambic.com/agendus/blackberry/ still in develop but will leave other calendar apps in the dust– the palm version was incredible and kept many of stuck with treo because we couldn’t bear to leave agendus
https://www.iambic.com/agendus/winoued/default.asp This incorporates an incredible planner/calendar/contact tool into your Outlook system–literally embedded in Outlook and much better in some ways for customizing tasks, color coding, interlinking, contact history, syncing with blackberry, icons, etc. Check out the page and see for yourself the screenshots.
Radio–just found out how to get all you want on your smartphone and I love AM talk radio and have been wanting to get accesss for years: https://www.moodio.fm/node/1 It’s free…actually works great!
I’ll be downloading the google calendar to see if it can act as a good sub for on the blackberry while some of the agendus bugs get worked out, but for the desktop or latptop the Outlook agendus kicks google’s calendar’s arse!
Good luck pimpin’ out your smartphones 🙂
Jared
December 3, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I have a quick question. I had a problem with my BB and had to wipe the device. I backed it up and lost no data, but when I did the reinstall I had to redownload my google icons. Why can’t I get my old reader icon back. I need to go through mobile app to get to the reader instead of just having the reader icon on my BB desktop. HELP!
Nick Bostic
December 4, 2008 at 12:18 am
@Jared – Sorry, Google updated their mobile app at the urging of many users to move the links off the home page and into the new Mobile App. Unfortunately, even if you found an old version, it would force itself to update to the new version in order to update the other apps. I liked having the links I wanted on the homepage too, but I’m out of luck with you.
Jared
December 4, 2008 at 7:39 am
Thanks. Lets just hope they come out with a reader program instead of a reader link soon