Elon Musk is becoming the new owner of Twitter, and many on the platform are less than thrilled about the change.
On Monday, it was announced that Twitter Inc. will be acquired “by an entity wholly owned by Elon Musk,” for a reported bid of roughly $44 billion. And as a result, the company will go private.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said, per a release. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential—I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
While Musk seems eager for the company’s future, many who use the service aren’t looking forward to the billionaire manning the ship in the immediate future. Some are approving, and others are ready to mass exit the app for something else—potentially Tumblr.
Donald Trump, presuming an invitation to return to the platform would be extended his way, told Fox News, “I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on Truth. I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth. … The bottom line is, no, I am not going back to Twitter.”
Musk previously shared some changes he’d like to make if the opportunity arose for him to buy Twitter. As Axios reports, the Tesla CEO said he’d want to add an edit button, increase the 280-character limit, and add an open-source algorithm with an emphasis on “free speech.”
“A lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech,” Musk wrote in January.
See what Twitter users have to say about the purchase below.
