Elon Musk completes Twitter takeover 

Virgin Radio

28 Oct 2022, 07:21

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has taken over Twitter in a $44billion deal.

Musk has become the social media platform’s new owner after a drawn-out saga. Twitter has yet to confirm the takeover, but the BBC reports that an investor in the company has said that the deal is completed.

In reference to the deal, the billionaire took to Twitter to write: "the bird is freed." Earlier this week, he tweeted a video of himself walking into the company’s headquarters in San Francisco holding a kitchen sink. He captioned the video: “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!”

It is reported that one of Musk’s first actions as the new Twitter owner was to fire a number of top executives, including the boss, Parag Agrawal.

Musk also wrote an open letter to Twitter’s advertisers, saying: “There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong.

“The reason I acquired twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.” 

He continued: “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”

Later in the letter he further explained why he bought Twitter. “I didn’t do it because it would be easy. I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love,” he wrote. “And I do so with humility, recognising that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility.”

Musk added: “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences,” and that the platform must be, “warm and welcoming to all”.

Musk has changed his Twitter profile to read "Chief Twit".