New York: It’s official. Elon Musk has acquired Twitter for $44 billion.
Before the deal was clinched, Musk met “several shareholders of the company privately to extol the virtues of his proposal” and made video calls to them to push his case.
“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, who calls himself a free speech absolutist, said in a statement.
🚀💫♥️ Yesss!!! ♥️💫🚀 pic.twitter.com/0T9HzUHuh6
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022
Political activists expect that a Musk regime will mean less moderation and reinstatement of banned individuals including former US President Donald Trump, Reuters reported.
Some human rights activists voiced fears of a rise in hate speech.
Musk bought a nine per cent stake in Twitter in April before offering to buy the company.
Following the deal, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos asked whether the Chinese government will gain some leverage now. Bezos shared a tweet by New York Times reporter Mike Forsythe pointing to Tesla’s massive market in China and its reliance on Chinese suppliers for its EVs.
Interesting question. Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square? https://t.co/jTiEnabP6T
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 25, 2022
As usual, Twitterati greeted the news of Musk as the new owner of the microblogging platform with, well, memes.
https://twitter.com/btbasit02/status/1518695144509554688
Elon already changed the Like Button! #TwitterTakeover #Twitter #twittersold pic.twitter.com/LCaYXBDxJb
— FriendlyMachine (@FriendlyMachine) April 25, 2022
https://twitter.com/TheNameIsRitess/status/1518766705220399104
WHO DID THIS pic.twitter.com/M7mIOr1hLm
— Marc Andreessen 🇺🇸 (@pmarca) April 25, 2022
Can someone just tell me if I’m rich or fired please
— Ned Miles (@nedmiles) April 25, 2022
If anyone @Twitter wants a new role… we’re hiring.
— emily freeman (@editingemily) April 25, 2022
.@elonmusk let me tweet from space pls
— Wendy’s (@Wendys) April 25, 2022
