Explained: What Elon Musk’s takeover means for Twitter

Musk's vision of creating a bastion of free speech could lead to more abusive content, critics fear.

Musk says he is not buying the company to make money, but to protect free speech.

The board of Twitter on April 25 agreed to the takeover bid by Elon Musk, marking a dramatic reversal of its earlier hesitation to accept the unsolicited offer. To fully own the social media platform, Musk will pay $54.20 (€50.8) per share in cash, or $44 billion, a 38 per cent premium on the company's closing price on April 1. He described the offered purchase price as "best and final" when he announced the bid on April 14.

Musk, the world's richest person with an estimated net worth of $250 billion, said he had already secured financing for the deal. The billionaire wants to take Twitter private upon completion of the transaction, which is expected to happen by the end of the year.

What's Musk's vision for Twitter?

Twitter, which has about 217 million daily active users worldwide, has been a popular one-to-many messaging platform with global reach. Its importance and impact have grown considerably in recent years, with many influential politicians, companies, activists and celebrities using it to communicate with their followers and consumers.

Musk says he views Twitter as the "de facto town square" and is not buying the company to make money, but instead to protect free speech. He wants to open-source the social network's algorithm and make changes to its content policies — by including an edit feature, less moderation and introducing a higher bar for removing offending tweets. Musk, a prolific Twitter user who describes himself as a "free-speech absolutist," also wants to rid the platform of fake accounts and bots as well as shift away from advertising as its main revenue source.

Unlike its peers like Facebook and TikTok, Twitter has struggled financially due to its inability to generate enough advertising revenue to make a profit. The company reported a loss of $221 million last year. Musk believes he can increase revenue through subscriptions that give paying customers a better experience — possibly even an ad-free version of Twitter. Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey praised Musk's decision to take the platform "back from Wall Street." He also said that he trusts Musk's mission "to extend the light of consciousness."

What does it mean for the platform?

But there are also those who have expressed concerns that relaxing content restrictions and a more hands-off approach to moderation could turn the platform into a haven for abusive and hate speech as well as disinformation. "It's a bit concerning when you think about what Musk's ideas mean in practice," said Eric Jensen, a sociologist from the University of Warwick. "If you try to pull the existing efforts to try to reduce the amount of abusive speech on Twitter, the amount of disinformation around COVID 19 [...] that doesn't mean there is better free speech," Jensen told DW . "If the people with the loudest voices can abuse others into not participating, that's not really free speech." Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal reportedly told employees on April 25 it's not clear how things will change once the deal closes and that "this is a period of uncertainty."

Compliance with local laws

Meanwhile, some governments have already started issuing warnings that a Musk-controlled Twitter will have to adhere to local laws. Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for the internal market, told AFP on April 26 that the company will have to "adapt" to E.U. regulations on issues like online harassment and child pornography, among other things. Lawmakers in the E.U. are finalizing the Digital Services Act, which will set limits on content, and the Digital Markets Act, which will regulate tech giants.

In the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman told reporters that all social media platforms must act in a responsible manner, and "that includes protecting their users from harm on their sites." "Obviously, it is too early to say what, if any changes, will be made to how Twitter operates," he added. "We will continue to work with them to make sure it continues to improve."

In a recent TED interview, Musk said Twitter would abide by national laws that restrict speech around the world. Beyond that, he said, he'd be "very reluctant" to delete posts or permanently banning users who violate the company's rules. It won't be perfect, Musk added, "but I think we want it to really have the perception and reality that speech is as free as reasonably possible."

Removing fake accounts and bots

Analysts say by taking Twitter private, Musk will have more room to maneuver and be free to make changes unencumbered by shareholders' pressure to turn a profit. Jensen said the move would allow the company to instigate some badly needed reforms, including removing the bot networks and fake accounts that have plagued the service. "Presumably one of the reasons Twitter has been slow to do that in the past, is that if we cleared out all the bots and fake accounts Twitter's number of actual users would probably be a lot lower," he noted. "By taking Twitter private, the company could more easily weather the shock of a major loss in daily users."