As the world’s richest person buys Twitter, what will it mean for the platform?
Self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter in a $44bm (£38bn) deal, sacking senior staff in a sign he intends a decisive change of direction for the company.
Mr Musk sacked chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde and tweeted “the bird is freed”.
The billionaire says that his goal is to transform Twitter into a force for good in public life, resisting censorship and pushing back against the rolling culture wars that risk fracturing the internet into tribes of far left and far right commentators.
But he also recognises that some of his plans sound dangerously radical to advertisers, saying this week that he will not allow it to descend into a “free-for-all hellscape”.