The 5 Questions Posed by the Takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk, the World’s Richest Man.

A stated ambition, but no concrete measures announced yet to achieve it.

Just a month ago, we learned that Elon Musk wants to invest a little more than 3 billion dollars in Twitter to take control of 9.2% of the shares of the famous social network. After Elon Musk told the SEC that he intended to be a passive shareholder, almost like the others, we quickly understood that his intentions were quite different.

The CEO of Twitter had offered him to join the board to help improve this platform which he wanted to make the world champion of free speech. After accepting, Elon Musk refused. His plans then appeared a little more in the open.

The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX wanted more than a place on the board. Elon Musk simply wanted to buy Twitter so that he would not have to answer to anyone in his plan for the future of Twitter. The $44 billion offer he made to buy Twitter and take it out of the stock market has finally been accepted by the board.

For the moment, no one can say what Elon Musk's real plans are in the medium and long term. We can only know that nothing will change in the short term as Elon Musk will not take possession of Twitter until next fall.

We also know what Elon Musk has promised:

“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. 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 spambots, and authenticating all humans.”

The richest man in the world doesn't want any more fake accounts on the social network that pour fake news all day long, but at the same time, he wants to find a “total” free speech in line with the libertarian current which he is a supporter.

For the rest, so many questions, for which nobody has answers. It must be said that we are coming out of a crazy sequence where the boss of Tesla and Space X became the largest shareholder of Twitter, to his rejection of the Board of Directors to end up on a complete buyout, all in less than a month.

So here are the 5 big questions, and the answers I can imagine.

What is the future of Twitter?

This is a very expensive issue. It is worth $44 billion. Elon Musk says he wants to reinstate unrestricted freedom of speech in line with libertarianism. Libertarianism is based on the idea that every human being has fundamental rights and freedoms that no power has the right to violate. These freedoms are therefore based on each individual and are a kind of natural right that takes precedence over everything else. Libertarianism is opposed to statism as a system of coercion.

Very quickly, in the United States, the Twitter takeover took a political turn. “Republicans applaud the deal, Democrats see dangers,” wrote the Wall Street Journal.

Even Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who has been in place for only four months, is unsure where Twitter is headed. He told employees, “Once the deal is done, we'll know which direction the platform will go.”

An interesting thought, however, comes from Columbia professor Emily Bell:

“Taking a moment to think about how utterly crazy it is that in 2022 a company with a significant dataset of private and public communications, that has municipalities, companies and governments on the platform, can switch ownership with pretty much zero scrutiny.”

Will Elon Musk end Donald Trump's lifetime ban on Twitter?

This is the big political question currently running through the United States. Donald Trump took the trouble to answer it himself:

“I was disappointed in the way I was treated by Twitter. I'm not coming back.”

Twitter suspended Donald Trump's account in January 2021, as some of his supporters invaded the Capitol. An investigation is still underway into whether Donald Trump played a role in one of the biggest attacks on American democracy this century.

If Donald Trump says he does not want to return to Twitter, it is primarily to continue to highlight his social network Truth Social :

“I'll be on Truth Social within the week. It's on schedule. We have a lot of people signed up. I like Elon Musk. I like him a lot. He's a great person. We did a lot for Twitter when I was in the White House.”

What was the reaction of Twitter employees to the announcement of Elon Musk's total takeover?

Twitter employees are no different from the general public: they have a lot of questions about Elon Musk's intentions. Of course, their first concern is their place in the company. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has already reassured everyone by saying that “no layoffs are planned at this stage”.

But there are rumblings within the company. Several hostile testimonies have already been reported:

“We've been considered industry leaders in this field and have attracted some of the best and brightest minds in the business, but it seems the new owner's values are not aligned.”

Some reacted with “shock and dismay”. Others tweeted tear-filled emojis and memes of people in emotional breakdowns, while others told that they were too shocked to speak. Agrawal tried to calm things down in front of his employees:

“You all have different feelings and perspectives on this news, many of you are worried, some of you are excited, many people here are waiting to figure out how this is going to happen, and have an open mind... If we work with each other, we won't have to worry about losing the core of what makes Twitter so powerful, which is that we all work together for the benefit of our customers every day.”

Standard talk that shouldn't succeed in calming them down for more than a few days. At best.

What does Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, think?

The least we can say is that the man who stepped aside from Twitter several months ago is very enthusiastic about the buyout. Jack Dorsey has thus just declared this:

“Elon is the only solution I trust. "In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.”

If Jack Dorsey is publicly adoring Elon Musk in this way, it is probably also because the two now have common interests. They just announced a joint investment to build a Bitcoin mining farm powered by solar panels in Texas on Tesla's estate. Jack Dorsey's investment is through Block, of which he is the CEO and founder. Blockstream is also part of this ambitious project, which is intended to show the industry how Bitcoin mining can be a huge benefit in the development of low-carbon infrastructure.

What are the implications for Twitter's future results?

In the financial markets, Twitter's share price has not been upset. We will have to wait and see how Twitter will evolve on Wall Street in the coming days and weeks. Since a month and the first rumors, the price of Twitter shares is in an ascending phase without exploding.

While Twitter is going to publish its Q1 2022 results in a few hours, no conference is expected from Elon Musk. This makes sense since it's still very fresh.

On the Tesla shareholders' side, this buyout leaves a lot of doubts, since the market cap of Elon Musk's company has dropped by 120 billion dollars since the announcement of the Twitter buyout. We'll have to wait and see in the next few weeks when Elon Musk will say more about his concrete measures for Twitter.

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