By James Clayton, North America technology reporter
The speed this move has happened at had many heads in Silicon Valley spinning.
From nowhere, Elon Musk is the absolute monarch of Twitter. He himself has said it’s not about the “economics”, this is about power and influence.
By taking the company private he will exercise total control over Twitter. He has the power to do with the company as he pleases. In practice that will mean a much lighter moderation policy.
He also says that he will make its algorithm public – so that people can better understand how Twitter works.
The move leaves the door open to Donald Trump’s return to the platform, though he apparently says he would rather use his own social media platform Truth Social for now.
For years conservatives have argued that Twitter is biased against them – and the news has left Republicans in the US delighted.
Others have been left dismayed at what Twitter might look like without strong platform moderation.
You only need to look at how much criticism Facebook has received for not taking down groups linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory, or the Stop the Steal movement to imagine how much criticism Elon Musk is in store for.
The danger that Twitter now faces is that unfettered free speech on social media can become very ugly, very quickly.
Source: bbc.com
