Can the tech guru manage to solve what is likely to be an epic conundrum?
Elon Musk’s $44 billion leveraged buyout of Twitter is continuing to elicit strong emotions across the board.
Those have ranged from media pundits attempting to understand what it means for users, and users trying to understand what it means for free speech.
Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, finally succeeded in his bid for the social media platform on April 25.
The acceptance of the deal was far from a fait accompli.
Twitter’s board had been loudly resisting his overtures for week’s, and the company even adopted a poison pill strategy to prevent any possibility of a hostile takeover.
But Musk succeeded on April 25 and quickly took pains to say he was not in the deal for “economic reasons” and would safeguard free speech on the platform.
That is exactly what many longtime Twitter users are worried about, a new poll said.
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Users May Exit Now That Musk is Involved
Conducted on April 26, gambling data site Time2Play surveyed 1,953 American Twitter users about what actions they may take now that Musk is at the helm.
It found that close to a quarter of Twitter’s users, 24.4%, said they would leave the platform entirely if Musk allows former president Donald Trump to be reinstated as a user.
That many users leaving would cost Twitter $1.24 billion, based on its fourth-quarter results for 2021.
Trump’s Twitter account was suspended after the company said he incited violence during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
It has been inactive ever since. But many users have looked to Musk’s past criticisms of Trump’s ban and his championing of a being a “free speech absolutist.”
“A lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech,” Musk tweeted promptly after Trump’s Twitter account was suspended.
Other users had different concerns.
The poll found that 16.3% said they would leave the platform entirely if the deal is finalized.
That slice of people leaving could ultimately cost Twitter $828 million, based on 2021 revenue reports found in the company’s 2021 fourth-quarter release.
The survey also broke down how the dislike of the deal fared along political lines, a stark divide that you can see in this graphic.
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That specificity was striking to Ben Treanor, a digital public relations strategist with Time2Play.
“It was intriguing to learn just how decided we are about this issue,” Treanor told TheStreet.
“There’s a clear correlation between the political leanings and sentiments towards Musk’s acquisition,” he said.
“It will be interesting to see the reactions of users once Elon is in control and new policies are implemented, which isn’t a certainty. For all we know Twitter may keep operating as usual.”
How Can You Keep Users And Protect Speech?
Treading the fine line between allowing for a free exchange of ideas based on the First Amendment and keeping people from being harassed or spreading false information will be difficult, experts said.
“With Musk, his posturing of free speech — just leave everything up — that would be bad in and of itself,” Paul Barrett, the deputy director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University, told the Associated Press.
“If you stop moderating with automated systems and human reviews, a site like Twitter, in the space of a short period of time, you would have a cesspool.”
For his part, Trump said April 25 that he would not return to Twitter even if it would have him. He has been involved in his own social media venture, Truth Social, but it has struggled to sign up users and saw an exodus of executives earlier this month.
Plus, the temptation to reactivate his millions of followers may prove to be too much for media-addicted Trump, some experts said.
“That’s just him being a spoilsport. Of course he wants to be back on Twitter,” Darren Linvill, lead researcher for the Clemson University Media Forensics Hub, told the Washington Post. “The thing that got him elected before has likely just been handed back to him.”
