Twitter has literally been taken by storm with Elon Musk’s latest buy off and maverick turns, it has been an interesting year with the liaison of the tech billionaire with the social media giant coupled with his controversial policies amidst an insecurity in the tech market, burgeoning layoffs are things worth noting. It’s been a rollercoaster ride for Twitter and after an almost drawn out court tussle and social media clash with its CEO Elon Musk finally bought it on his bid of $44 billion that he had earlier put on it. Moreover the problems that are brewing as a result of Musk’s policies especially the $8 blue tick buying option and the massive layoffs plus new ‘working rules’ heralded by hum infact, have been getting all the media attention and why not. What future beholds for the whole online digital space, its nuances, its pitfalls and the complexity involved in all this along with a timeline of the events have been provided in great detail ahead.
Twitter’s Boxing Match with Musk- Twitter’ faceoff with the tech- billionaire in fact started from the beginning of this year when on a regular basis he commented upon and a tossed about a lot of opinions on how to ‘improve’ Twitter with his fans bragging about his passion for Free Speech and that being his sole concern. Things got revealed and we came to know that Mr. Musk had a 9.2% stake in the social media giant’s shares. This was in April. It would also be the time when he displayed his intent to make Twitter private or in simple words to buy it off. There was a general sense of excitement and good mood in the Twitter camp with its founder Jack Dorsey being in high spirits for the deal which he hoped would completely revolutionise the digital space and profound changes could be met with a ‘visionary’ at helm. The Friction, the criticism and every other kind of animosity there be, prevailed still with numerous harsh statements made by Elon against Twitter on the same platform itself. On 25th of April there was a merger agreement. Musk seemed to be hesitant to make progress at this point of time and started in a way to drag or even terminate the deal, his excuses being the bots and his cliched Free Speech concerns. He said that Twitter in a manner that is abrasive and unethical tries to thwart information rights and on top of it has some vulnerabilities related to consumer rights among other things. This was on May 16th. This also set the stage for a battle. After warnings against making it public the reservations he had against the company while the deal was ongoing and going to the extent of offering a seat on Twitter’s Board of Directors, Twitter formally sued him when he called off the deal. On 29th of July Musk filed a countersuit venting out his anger on the incomplete knowledge of the bot problem provided by the company all the while basing his allegations on a whistleblower’s case regarding unethical safety practices that had come out on 6th of July. Performance of the company was also made an issue of. He was not intent on going ahead with the deal and that became more apparent when his differences with the then Twitter CEO Parag Aggarwal gained fraction. He continued to make comments about Twitter all the while. Then it was seen that just before two days of the court hearings he changed his course completely and decided to move forward with the acquisition, possibly on account of the advice provided by his lawyers. On 27th of October the deal finally came to a close. As soon as he got hold of the company he fired top executives including the previous CEO Parag Aggarwal. Now we have been led into a very new, strange and possibly dangerous terrain with the possibility of the entire company going bankrupt or being marred with user dissatisfaction being a very lively possibility. The next part of the blog covers just that.
Musk’s New Policies and their Implications, Digital or otherwise
Fuelled by Adventuria and free speech delight Musk has decided to tread in a very contentious territory cutting Twitter’s workforce and firing its top executives he is all set to play with the digital giant even more freely albeit precariously. His latest whim and the most talked about has that been of a policy where those blue ticks provided to the important and famous can be bought all for a meagre $8 per month. Experts see this as a way of extracting funds from a company in which the deal for him was a little lopsided and nothing else. With this he has become a hero for many people where the elite status has been snatched from the rich and the famous. But little did he know that the ramifications of it all would hit him first. Within hours fake accounts with his name and the infamous blue ticks started to appear on Twitter making absurd statements in his name. Various authenticated profiles of various companies and important ones now began falling out because of the severity and extent of this gimmick and how it plays out to their very own financial credentials. Status symbols form and are assumed by the elite structure since time immemorial and they have a role to play and too make it separate the identity of the so called higher from the lower, delineate the class distinctions in a much more open manner. Blue ticks bore semblance to that, but with millions of fake accounts operating widely on the digital space this policy on the whole can be referred to as stupid or rather ineffective. Characterization as such are not forthcoming for the person at the helm. Did Elon not know this, probably he did so changes in the future would not be wholly unexpected. Golden ticks or some other colours could possibly be coming who knows.
In addition to all of this free speech concerns have also been raised. Anonymity and deliverance of sensitive issues often go hand in hand and a breach in this system through unnecessary systems could possibly ward off any attempts for activists and concern citizen to make public certain explosive truths, it becomes altogether more precarious in these increasingly authoritarian times when privacy and consumer safety are issues the governments play with.
Resignations and a Company in turmoil
Massive layoffs have not been so uncommon these days with Zuckerberg’s Meta laying off approximately 11,000 employees the tech sector is bracing for a harsh winter worldwide. With the advent of Musk Twitter sacked half of its workforce, a slew of resignations followed with tantalising statements made by him as about “employees must brace for long hours and hardcore work”, all of these things have made the situation quite chaotic and unpredictable. His invitation to Trump and every other banned person on the platform (although he refused) was not seen in good light by the liberals who say hate speech and misinformation will increase rapidly as a result of blunt policies. Employment has decreased sharply on the platform and with an expanding business such as this this trimming could have negative effects on the company and its role as a Free Speech platform could face increasing pressure amid labour shortage. Future Concerns- As we have earlier pointed out that the situation is very unpredictable with possibilities of Twitter going bankrupt or turning Elon into a superhero wide open. Free speech issues, a digital environment crisis, consumer’s privacies and all of the complex permutations and combinations will very surely play a part in a world where technocratic demagogues and megalomaniacs lapping greedily to make their impacts felt wide and great.