After several months of doubts and unexpected developments, Tesla’s owner and billionaire Elon Musk has finally bought Twitter for 44 billion dollars. The 16-year-old social media platform has thus been purchased on the 27 of October by one of the richest men in the world. But, only a few days after the deal, many controversies have already emerged.
One of the first measures of the new boss was to dismiss Twitter’s key executives, including the CEO Parag Agrawal, and dissolve the board of directors. Elon Musk therefore became the only manager of the firm. Besides, one week after the purchase, the company has also fired 7500 employees, namely half of the workforce of Twitter.
At the same time, M. Musk has taken up the issue of freedom of speech on social media. He announced that he would restore accounts of banned personalities, such as the former US president Donald Trump. The moderation services are impacted by this change of directors too. The team of moderators has been sharply reduced and the process of deleting content may be restricted. In response to this new policy, a wave of racist, anti-Semitic messages broke out on Twitter the day after Elon Musk took possession of it. It was organised by a group of trolls defying the new leader. Even though the latter assured in an open letter that the media would not become a “free-for-all-hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences”, it is not surprising that this kind of phenomenon could well increase in the following months. Another more unexpected news is that public figures would have to pay a subscription in order to get the blue sticker certifying their accounts. This system is aimed as a guarantee against fraud and identity theft.
So, this new direction allows a lingering doubt regarding the reliability of the social media platform, previously already criticised for its lack of control of fake news and hatred tweets. The purchase and the seizing of control of Twitter by Elon Musk, a billionaire businessman, also questions the incredible impact that money has over freedom of speech. If all the wealthy people can take over social media networks and regulate them in their own desired way, is there not an inevitable risk of limiting the circulation of verified information and of seeing an increase in racist or inappropriate messages, and ultimately just great disorder?
Sources:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/27/tech/elon-musk-twitter/index.html
https://www.lemonde.fr/pixels/article/2022/11/04/twitter-prevoit-de-lancer-un-processus-de-licenciements-vendredi_6148418_4408996.html https://www.telerama.fr/debats-reportages/douze-heures-apres-le-rachat-de-twitter-par-elon-musk-le-premier-derapage-d-envergure-7012762.php
Written by: Alice Lardry
Edited by: Harsheni Maniarasan