Page 12 - aruba-today-20220426

A12 TECHNOLOGY
Tuesday 26 april 2022

Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44B and will

privatize company

him.
In recent weeks, he has
voiced a number of pro-
posed changes for the
company, from relaxing its
content restrictions — such
as the rules that suspended
former President Donald
Trump's account — to rid-
ding the platform of fake
and automated accounts,
and shifting away from its
advertising-based reve-
nue model. Musk believes
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for he can increase revenue
the Axel Springer media award in Berlin on Dec. 1, 2020. through subscriptions that
Associated Press give paying customers a
better experience, per-
TOM KRISHER and MATT A more hands-off ap- haps even an ad-free ver-
O'BRIEN proach to content mod- sion of Twitter.
Associated Press eration has many people Asked during a recent TED
Elon Musk reached an concerned the platform talk if there are any limits to
agreement to buy Twitter will become more of a ha- his notion of "free speech,"
for roughly $44 billion on ven for disinformation and Musk said Twitter or any
Monday, promising a more hate speech, something it forum is "obviously bound
lenient touch to policing has worked hard on in re- by the laws of the country
content on the platform cent years to mitigate. that it operates in. So obvi-
where he promotes his in- The deal was cemented ously there are some limita-
terests, attacks critics and roughly two weeks after the tions on free speech in the
opines on social and eco- billionaire first revealed a 9 US, and, of course, Twitter
nomic issues to more than percent stake in the plat- would have to abide by
83 million followers. form. Musk said last week those rules."
The outspoken Tesla CEO, that he had lined up $46.5 Beyond that, though, he
who is also the world's billion in financing to buy said he'd be "very reluc-
wealthiest person, has said Twitter, putting pressure on tant" to delete things and in
he wanted to own and the company's board to general be cautious about
privatize Twitter because negotiate a deal. permanent bans.
he thinks it's not living up to Twitter said the transac- It won't be perfect, Musk
its potential as a platform tion was unanimously ap- added, "but I think we
for free speech. proved by its board of di- want it to really have the
Musk said in a joint state- rectors and is expected to perception and reality that
ment with Twitter that he close in 2022. speech is as free as reason-
wants to make the service Shares of Twitter Inc. rose ably possible."
"better than ever" with new 6% Monday to $52 per After the deal was an-
features, such as getting rid share. On April 14, Musk an- nounced, the NAACP re-
of automated "spam bots" nounced an offer to buy leased a statement that
and making its algorithms the social media platform urged Musk not to allow
open to the public to in- for $54.20 per share. While former President Trump, the
crease trust. the stock is up sharply since 45th president, back onto
"Free speech is the bed- Musk made his offer, it is the platform.
rock of a functioning de- well below the high of $77 "Disinformation, misinfor-
mocracy, and Twitter is the per share it reached in Feb- mation and hate speech
digital town square where ruary 2021. have NO PLACE on Twitter,"
matters vital to the future Musk has described him- the civil rights organization
of humanity are debated," self as a "free-speech ab- said in a statement. "Do
Musk said, adding hearts, solutist" but is also known not allow 45 to return to the
stars and rocket emojis in a for blocking or disparag- platform. Do not allow Twit-
tweet that highlighted the ing other Twitter users who ter to become a petri dish
statement. question or disagree with for hate speech, or false-
hoods that subvert our de-
mocracy."
Efforts to "deregulate" Twit-
ter could thwart the com-
pany's current commitment
to making the platform as
safe as possible for all users,
said Brooke Erin Duffy, pro-
fessor of communication at
Cornell University and an
expert on social media. "q