Elon Musk and Twitter Attain Deal for Sale

Twitter customers voiced a mixture of pleasure, fear and skepticism on Monday about Elon Musk’s takeover of the positioning. And maybe unsurprisingly, the response mirrored the divided political and cultural nature of the operating dialog on the platform.

The information generated a number of trending matters on Twitter, together with Mr. Musk’s identify and the hashtags #RIPTwitter and #twittersold.

Many raised questions on Mr. Musk’s plans for the corporate.

Jack Dorsey, a founding father of Twitter who twice served as its chief govt and is on the corporate’s board, tweeted a hyperlink to the Radiohead track “All the pieces in Its Proper Place” and thanked Mr. Musk “for getting the corporate out of an inconceivable state of affairs.”

“That is the proper path,” he added. “I consider it with all my coronary heart.”

John Scott-Railton, a researcher on the College of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, wrote: “Does Musk plan to let Trump again on the platform? Will he take a look at the DMs of perceived enemies?” he requested, referring to Twitter’s non-public, direct messaging characteristic.

Officers and policymakers, in the USA and past, shared their opinions, displaying how the positioning had develop into a kind of political battleground.

Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, posted a poll for Twitter followers, asking: “Is Elon Musk’s buy of Twitter a very good factor?” The 2 reply decisions — “Sure” and “No, I hate free speech” — appeared to counsel his help for the transfer.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican of Florida, wrote that Elon Musk’s supply to purchase Twitter was “a very good deal for shareholders and raises the prospect that the platform will likely be a spot where free speech can thrive, not a software for narrative enforcement.”

Nigel Farage, the British politician who pushed for a hard-line break with the European Union, wrote on Twitter: “Nice information. Many congrats, Elon Musk. Let’s hope this marks a turning level.”

On the opposite facet of the political spectrum, lawmakers have been involved about Mr. Musk’s motives and his wealth. “Tax the rich,” wrote Consultant Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington. “It’s absurd that one particular person can afford to purchase Twitter for greater than $40 billion whereas working households throughout this nation have to decide on each day between shopping for groceries or their pharmaceuticals.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, shared the same message: “This deal is harmful for our democracy. Billionaires like Elon Musk play by a unique algorithm than everybody else, accumulating energy for their very own achieve. We’d like a wealth tax and robust guidelines to carry Massive Tech accountable.”

Robert Reich, a labor secretary underneath former President Invoice Clinton, touched on many progressives’ fears when he wrote on the positioning: “When billionaires like Elon Musk justify their motives through the use of ‘freedom,’ beware. What they really search is freedom from accountability.”

Within the enterprise world, allies of Mr. Musk have been optimistic. Keith Rabois, a enterprise capitalist who labored at PayPal with Mr. Musk, earlier on Monday posted, “Okay, now I can lastly begin to Tweet.”

The leisure world additionally took discover. Ice Dice, the rapper and actor, wrote on Twitter: “Free finally!” He tagged Mr. Musk and wrote, “Take off my shadow ban homie,” referring to a delicate type of limiting a consumer’s posts with out letting them know.

Others voiced fears about harassment on the platform, after Mr. Musk stated he would change content material moderation. Customers of social media websites like Twitter, Instagram and TikTok have lengthy complained that harassment is rampant, even with present content material moderation efforts.

Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine researcher who has steadily spoken publicly about receiving threats on-line after talking about pandemic security measures, has stated he’s forced to block two to four people or teams most days “as a result of their menacing tweets or threats.” He stated on Twitter that he would search a substitute for the positioning if the hateful responses to him considerably elevated.

And a few voiced issues that individuals would depart the platform. “This is sort of a season finale of Twitter,” wrote Jane Manchun Wong, a know-how blogger and researcher.

However others referred to as quitting Twitter a dramatic response. “I doubt anybody’s actually leaving Twitter,” learn a put up from the Twitter account for Spawn Wave, a YouTube platform largely for tech critiques and online game content material. “There’s simply an excessive amount of stuff for us to complain about these days.”