The world’s richest man Elon Musk now owns Twitter, one of the world’s most influential social media platforms.
Musk on Thursday reportedly finalised the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, and ousted a number of the company’s top executives including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and General Counsel Vijaya Gadde.
According to reports, part of Musk’s plan in running Twitter is to “defeat” spam bots, develop algorithms that can determine how content is presented to users, and prevent the platform from promoting hate and division, even as he limits censorship.
The Tesla chief also said that he did not buy Twitter to make more money but “to try to help humanity, whom I love.”
He said, “Twitter cannot become a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences!”
He also noted the platform must adhere to the laws of the land.
The road to closing the Twitter deal has been a rocky one. Earlier this year, Musk first floated the idea of owning Twitter, when he purchased 9.2 percent of the company for $3 billion. After a few days, he then declared his bid to buy Twitter for $44 billion, which the social networking firm accepted.
Musk then backed out of the deal landing both parties in court. Twitter then sued Musk to force him to follow through with the deal. Musk countersued the company in response, alleging that Twitter misled him about the number of automated accounts on the platform.
However, just a couple of weeks before the contentious legal battle was set to go to trial, Musk said he would follow through with the deal on its original terms.
Further into the acquisition, Musk also reportedly told prospective investors that he plans to get rid of nearly 75 percent of the company’s staff.
