Elon Musk, Founder of SpaceX and the richest human being on the planet completed the formalities to finalise the $44 billion deal to formally take over Twitter. In one of his first actions as the ‘chief’ of Twitter, Musk fired several top executives from their positions, including Parag Agrawal, the Indian origin Chief Executive Officer at Twitter.
Elon Musk, as ‘Chief Twit,’ has his work cut out for him at Twitter : NPR
Top Executives Fired
According to Reuters, Agrawal along with other two top executives were escorted out of the Twitter Headquarters in San Francisco. The decision regarding the future course of Twitter was left hanging in the last few months. Before Musk agreed to join the company’s board, he had reportedly texted the then-CEO of the platform Parag Agrawal stating that he had got a ton of ideas.
Notorious for his tweets and statements on the platform, Musk upheld the importance of Free Speech in a functioning democracy. Although it’s hard to pinpoint the plausible changes Musk might bring about on Twitter, his stress on the value of free and equal speech might hint at lesser accounts being deactivated by the platform.
Parag Agrawal ‘escorted out’ of Twitter headquarters after Musk takeover: Report – Hindustan Times
Revoking The Bans
Musk taking over Twitter could lead to the suspension of the permanent ban on former US President Donald Trump’s account. Trump’s account was suspended after the insurrection which took place at the US Capitol in 2021. Besides, the banned platforms of several other right-wing conspiracy theorists from all across the world could also be re-platformed. In a reported conversation between Musk and Agrawal, an excerpt of which has been mentioned before, Musk also talked about reversing all permanent Twitter bans except for those which explicitly advocate for violence
Twitter Permanently Suspends Trump, Citing ‘Risk Of Further Incitement Of Violence’ : NPR
Leniency In Content Moderation
Musk has time and again spoken about lenient moderation of content under his leadership. He also stated that if the context or the intention is in doubt, the tweet must exist. This also talks about the probability of Musk revisiting the policies of the application which make it safer for vulnerable communities, including women, people of colour, etc.
Edit Button
Under Musk’s leadership, Twitter might get the much-awaited edit button. He ran a poll in March regarding the same and found that 74% of his followers supported this prospect. Musk reportedly began testing the edit button earlier this month.
Musk viewed the spam accounts to be one of the main reasons for backing out of the original Twitter deal. Thus, the number of fake accounts might decrease on this platform if affirmative action is taken in this regard.
