We've long become used to gaming industry buyouts; between Microsoft and Sony's recent acquisitions, and future rumors, it's of little surprise to see a smaller studio scooped up by an infinitely larger one. But over in the tech world, there's been a buyout a little weirder than usual; on Monday, Twitter was bought by the ever-eccentric world's richest man, Elon Musk. The cost of the deal totals a staggering $44 billion--$54.20 per share of stock. Following this, Musk plans to make Twitter a privately-owned company, and the full acquisition is set to take place later in 2022.

In regards to the buyout, Elon Musk stressed that he wants to improve Twitter by adding new features, making the site's algorithms open source, and focusing on "free speech", claiming that the company has a lot of potential. Employees of Twitter expressed frustration at the lack of transparency from the higher-ups within the company about the buyout, and nervousness as they were unsure what would happen to their jobs, as Musk plans to make drastic changes in the future.

"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," said Mr. Musk. "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 spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."

Source

 

[smileyhead]

Oh boy, I wonder where this'll go.

 

[Jayro]

So Truth Social v2.0? Hard pass...

 

[Veho]

"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 spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."

And if you believe him on any of that, I have a bridge to sell you.

 

[banjojohn]

He values free speech, but first order of business will likely be to shut down that Twitter account that publishes the whereabouts of his private jet

 

[Wavy]

With that money he could surely add a gallery feature to help us artists right?

...right?

 

[RedoLane]

He will unblock all the accounts from Hideki Kamiya's block list.

 

[yraverageamongoose]

i love toxicity

 

[smf]

I wonder how long it will take amazon to set up their own clone if he open sources it...

 

[assassinz]

So no more fact-checking bots?

 

[sley]

Not a big fan of Elon personally but let's see where this goes first.
The biggest change users will notice is probably an edit button but thats it.

 

[ChiefReginod]

making the site's algorithms open source

Does this mean we'll get to see how they were censoring whatever opinions the site's operators disagreed with? Because that would be hilarious.

 

[duwen]

As someone that has no interest in any social media whatsoever, I hope that these claims of true free speech and anti-censorship will shine a light on actual opinion as opposed to perceived opinion skewed by algorithms.

Personally, I'll remain out of the entire social media circus as long as it's steering users to verify their identities... the internet was a beautiful place when pseudonimity was king.

 

[hippy dave]

 

[Aristeia]

Time to get the popcorn ready!

 

[Spider_Man]

Maybe we will see the tweet word count limit lifted.

 

[Xzi]

Imagine having an ego so large you feel you have to spend $44 billion just to stop people from criticizing you.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Blue ticks are gonna go berserk. If they haven't already.

 

[Marc_LFD]

Imagine having an ego so large you feel you have to spend $44 billion just to stop people from criticizing you.

Twitter is a cesspool with MAPs (aka Pedos), racists, double standard assholes, etc. If he can make a difference, more power to him.

 

[Flame]

Imagine having an ego so large you feel you have to spend $44 billion just to stop people from criticizing you.

my ego is big too.... send help. send $44 billion

in fact forget the help and $44 billion. send some hookers.