Elon Musk latest: Twitter won’t become a ‘free-for-all hellscape’, billionaire vows ahead of $44bn buyout

LIVE – Updated at 19:38 Billionaire Elon Musk bizarrely arrived at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters carrying a kitchen sink ahead of closing his $44bn deal to purchase the micro-blogging site.’Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!’ the Tesla CEO tweeted. Mr Musk changed his Twitter profile to refer to himself as ‘Chief Twit’ and his location as Twitter headquarters.A court has given him until Friday to close his April agreement to acquire the company after he earlier tried to back out of the deal. Mr Musk, the world’s richest person, agreed to buy the company for $54.20 a share in April, but by July had indicated that he had changed his mind, citing bot and spam issues.He renewed his attempt to acquire the company earlier this month.Mr Musk reportedly told Twitter employees during his visit that he does not plan to cut 75 per cent of the staff after acquiring the company. According to The Washington Post report, the billionaire had told prospective investors that he intends to reduce the company’s staff from around 7,500 down to just over 2,000 after the takeover. Elon Musk walks into Twitter HQ with a sinkMusk tells Twitter employees he will not cut 75 per cent of jobs 19:32 , Graeme Massie Bloomberg has reported that after taking Twitter private with his $44bn deal for the social media platform, Mr Musk intends to take it public again within ‘three to five years.’ 19:18 , Graeme Massie Margarita Simonyan took to Twitter to plead with the billionaire to unban the pro-Kremlin propaganda networks.’Since you’re all for free speech, maybe unban RT and Sputnik accounts and take the shadow ban off mine as well?’ she tweeted.Elon @elonmusk, since you’re all for free speech, maybe unban RT and Sputnik accounts and take the shadow ban off mine as well?- Маргарита Симоньян (@M_Simonyan) October 27, 2022 18:00 , Adam Smith Elon Musk has overtaken Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person, having seen his wealth rise from $25 billion to nearly $200bn in less than a year.The billionaire polymath is best known as the boss of electric car company Tesla and private rocket firm SpaceX, however he also heads brain-tech startup Neuralink and The Boring Company, which aims to ‘solve traffic’ in cities by digging tunnel networks.Before any of these ventures, Musk gained notoriety in Silicon Valley as the co-founder of online payments platform X.com, which went on to become PayPal.Each new project has been financed, at least in part, by funds generated from previous business successes, with each new effort becoming ever more ambitious. © Provided by The Independent Visualising Elon Musk’s vast wealth in three charts 17:30 , Adam Smith Over Mr Musk’s decade-plus of public fame as the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, the South-African-born tycoon has attacked everyone and everything, from Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders through individual regulatory officials to Covid rules, trade unions, and ‘pronouns’.In May, he capped off months of criticism of US president Joe Biden by revealing that in the past he had ‘overwhelmingly’ voted for Democrats, but would now switch his support to Republicans in at least one future election.’In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division and hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican,’ he said. © Provided by The Independent What are Elon Musk’s political beliefs? 16:30 , Adam Smith Twitter could develop an integrated video feature that would compete with YouTube and generate additional revenue for the app, a singular tweet from Mr Musk has suggested.A Twitter user posted a thread stating: ‘Once @elonmusk takes over, I wonder if @TwitterSpaces platform can evolve towards video and compete with @YouTube for content creation…’It is insane that Twitter has not currently implemented a YouTube clone. Half my tweets are links to YouTube videos. Twitter does not capture any value here. If users could watch monetised videos on Twitter, Twitter would capture ad revs and massively increase [revenues].’Responding to a Twitter thread about how this might be implemented, Mr Musk posted a winking face emoji. © Provided by The Independent Elon Musk hints at major update to Twitter 16:00 , Adam Smith A recent internal report from Twitter demonstrated some of the issues the platform is facing: that Twitter’s highest-growing topics of interest are cryptocurrency and pornography.Interest in other topics – news, sports and entertainment – has been declining among English-speaking ‘heavy users’.A “heavy tweeter” is a user defined that logs in to Twitter six or seven days a week, and tweets about three to four times a week.These people account for under 10 per cent of all users, but generate 90 per cent of tweets and half of the company’s global revenue.They have been in ‘absolute decline’ since the start of the pandemic, the report says, although no specific conclusions were made about why that would be. © Provided by The Independent Twitter users are growing more interested in crypto and pornography 15:30 , Adam Smith Following the news that Mr Musk might gut the company after purchasing it, Twitter employees have written an open letter to the billionaire. ‘Elon Musk’s plan to lay off 75% of Twitter workers will hurt Twitter’s ability to serve the public conversation,’ the letter says, going on to say that ‘a threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users’ and customers’ trust in our platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation.’In a list of demands, the employees ask that Mr Musk not discriminate based on political belief and preserve Twitter’s existing employees. ‘We demand to be treated with dignity, and to not be treated as mere pawns in a game played by billionaires,’ it says.Twitter had already fired 30 per cent of its recruitment team, as well as two high-profile leads. © Provided by The Independent Twitter employees demand Elon Musk ‘treat them with dignity’ not like ‘pawns’ 15:00 , Adam Smith Elon Musk has criticised Donald Trump’s Truth Social in the past, calling it an echo chamber.In an interview with The Financial Times published on Friday, Mr Musk admitted that he knows more headaches are coming his way if his ongoing Twitter bid materialises. However, the Tesla founder said that is a sacrifice he is willing to make in order to protect free speech.Mr Musk said he is on a personal quest to keep discourse on the social network from becoming one-sided, as Truth Social’s content has become for the right.'[Truth Social] is essentially a rightwing echo chamber,’ Mr Musk told the Times. ‘It might as well be called Trumpet.’But in May, Mr Musk also said that he doesn’t think it was appropriate to ban Trump from Twitter, adding that ‘it was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.’ © Provided by The Independent Musk calls Truth Social ‘rightwing echo chamber’ that should be named after Trump 14:44 , Adam Smith Elon Musk has tweeted his plans for Twitter and how it might moderate content, ahead of his purchase of the social media site.The post has reneged on his ‘free speech absolutism’, as he says Twitter ‘cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences.’ Previously, Mr Musk said that he was ‘against censorship that goes beyond the law’ – a rule that, in the United States, would have caused trouble for Twitter’s moderators by potentially allowing Holocaust denial.’I also very much believe that advertising, when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you; it can show you a service or product or medical treatment that you never knew existed, but is right for you. For this to be true, it is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs. Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content!’Mr Musk also claimed that there was a ‘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.’Mr Musk has previously claimed that Twitter ‘obv has a strong left wing bias’, despite the company’s own studies that its algorithm amplifies right-wing news outlets more than others. © Provided by The Independent Elon Musk says what he wants to do with Twitter 14:30 , Adam Smith Mr Musk messaged one or more unknown individuals about ‘letting right wingers back on Twitter’ including, it seems, former president Donald Trump who was banned from the platform in January 2021 because of the ‘risk of further incitement of violence’ after the Capitol Hill riots.Several messages between Elon Musk and key figures at Twitter – including founder Jack Dorsey, board chair Bret Taylor and current head Parag Agrawal – were released as a part of the ongoing documentation ahead of Elon Musk’s trial against Twitter.’It will be a delicate game of letting right wingers back on Twitter and how to navigate that (especially the boss himself, if you’re up for that)’, the message reads,’I would also lay out the standards early but have someone who has a savvy cultural/political view to be the VP of actual enforcement. A Blake Masters type.’ © Provided by The Independent Joe Rogan told Elon Musk to ‘liberate Twitter’, private texts show 14:00 , Adam Smith Mr Musk’s approach to Twitter could also be influenced by podcast host Joe Rogan, whose messages to the billionaire were revealed by legal deposition ahead of the trial that now, it seems, will not take place.Mr Rogan told Mr Musk that he should ‘liberate Twitter from the censorship happy mob’ when he owns Twitter, new texts reveal.’I will provide advice, which they may or may not choose to follow,’ Mr Musk told Mr Rogan in response. © Provided by The Independent Joe Rogan told Elon Musk to ‘liberate Twitter’, private texts show 13:30 , Adam Smith Mr Musk has said he seeking to roll back provisions limiting hate-speech and other violent comments on Twitter, as well as reinstating Donald Trump’s access to the platform.But Mr Musk has also been linked to Kanye West’s recent antisemitism scandal.Mr West’s latest controversy began during Paris Fashion Week, during which he and right-wing commentator Candace Owens wore ‘White Lives Matter’ t-shirts. After a backlash, Mr West shared conspiracy theories on social media, including suggesting that rapper Diddy was being controlled by Jewish people.When his account was suspended, West tweeted that he was going to go ‘death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE’.Since then, Mr West has announced he is buying the right-wing social media app Parler, which has a history of being banned by Apple and Google and was used to coordinate the January 6th riots.Mr Musk tweeted shortly after an image playing on the Dragon Ball anime series, where two characters can fuse together into a more powerful being by touching fingers. In his version, the Tesla founder is edited onto one character, along with a Twitter logo, while West’s face is superimposed onto another, with the logo of Parler, the right-wing social network West recently purchased.’Fun times ahead!’ Mr Musk wrote below the image. Hours later, that same tweet was deleted without comment from the Tesla chief executive. © Provided by The Independent Elon Musk deletes tweet that hinted at collaboration with Kanye West 13:00 , Adam Smith Mr Musk’s intentions with Twitter are nebulous. The billionaire has tweeted that buying the site was ‘an accelerant’ to creating an app called X. Mr Musk has had access to the X.com domain since 2000, during which time he was working on PayPal.The Tesla boss has spoken broadly in the past about his support for the idea of an ‘everything app’ – a single place where users can access most, if not all, of their favourite online services and utilities.In China, a version of the everything app idea already exists in WeChat, which began life as a messaging platform similar to WhatsApp, but has since become a mini-internet within a single app – allowing users to do everything from share social media-style posts with friends to getting news, making mobile payments, booking restaurants and ordering taxis. Nothing similar exists in the West.However, other employees have suggested Mr Musk will ‘buy the Twitter name, then completely gut and change it’, adding that, ‘speaking to people there, nobody feels safe in their job. I just don’t understand how it’s going to work as a company. There’s a mad attempt to restructure in some places to save face. It feels like the perfect time to try and get out – or prepare yourself for what’s going to happen.’ © Provided by The Independent Elon Musk wants to ‘buy the Twitter name, then gut it’, ex-employee claims 12:30 , Adam Smith Mr Musk has also rasied concerns about Twitter’s financials, reportedly attempting to negotiate a 30 per cent discount on his $44bn deal.With a two-day deposition pending ahead of a trial in Delaware starting on 17 October, the billionaire sent a letter to the Twitter board announcing he intended to complete the deal.But in the weeks before that Mr Musk attempted to get Twitter to agree to a proposal that would have valued the company at around $31bn, three people with knowledge of events told The New York Times.Mr Musk agreed to buy the company for $54.20 a share in April. 12:00 , Adam Smith Mr Musk might have entered Twitter as a meme – let that sink in – but the real consequences of his takeover might be yet to