Sense of unease as Elon Musk takes control of Twitter

The world’s richest man has a way of keeping the spotlight on himself and when he began shopping a fortnight ago with a $44 billion cash chest to buy the short-messaging major to promote free speech, it was intriguing. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the brand new owner of Twitter, blamed its degrowth on excessive content policing. More than the financial size, the takeover will have huge ramifications over communication and news considering Twitter is one of the world’s most frequented social networks by world leaders, celebrities and opinion makers. 

In his statement announcing the deal, Elon Musk said: “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.”

The definition of free speech as Musk sees it is, “Is someone you don’t like allowed to say something you don’t like? If that is the case, then we have free speech.” But that’s easier said than done. In the Indian context, both the proliferation of hate speech on social media and the executive’s pressure to de-platform unfavourable content are disturbing. According to an estimate, fake news travels six times faster on Twitter than factual content perhaps because it is 70% more likely to be retweeted than real news. 

As the implications of the Twitter takeover sinks in, there is a sense of growing unease. From a publicly listed company with multiple checks and balances, Twitter is passing on as a private company where Elon Musk individually will be the single largest owner and call the shots. Such closely held control, however well meaning, is fraught with danger. Musk, just this year, tried to snuff out a Twitter account that tracked his private jet, citing reasons of safety and personal privilege. Regulators will have to keep a sharp eye to ensure that free speech indeed remains at the core of the platform. 

Twitter has unique reach but as a business model, it hasn’t done too well. Last year, the company lost $493 million on revenue of $5.57 billion. Would it be just a new gizmo for him to play around with? If it does not fetch fat returns, how long would the maverick businessman want to stay invested is a multi-billion dollar question.