Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover May Come at a High Cost

By Faizan

Edited by Will Molesky

May 6, 2022

The man with all the money in the world has finally done it. A monumental investment by the one and only Elon Musk. What has he invested in you ask? A way to better the world and progress us towards a better future? No. He decided to buy out Twitter for $44 billion.

Elon Musk could fundamentally change the face of Twitter. Twitter has been long infested with spam bots and scams, which Musk pledges to purge off the site. This, along with his emphasis on free speech, are his main points for taking over Twitter and making it a private company. He feels Twitter cannot thrive as a place of free speech without going private.

At face value, this is a very admirable decision for Musk to make, giving everyone a chance to speak and see every side of a situation is a noble thing to give. However, how far will this freedom go, will hate speech be allowed to thrive on Twitter? The freedom of speech may be a first amendment right, but even that has limits; it doesn’t allow someone to be a hateful person without repercussion. It’s dangerous to allow racists and white supremacists a place to rally online; allowing them to find a community could easily lead to violent public demonstrations. Will this free speech really allow both sides of a story to be heard, or will it breed a new generation of racists alike to thrive?

With Elon Musk promising free speech, many are wondering if he will unban problematic people like Donald Trump. Trump was banned for his notoriously controversial statements that his followers praised, resulting in him being practically banned from the Internet. If Musk truly believes in his free speech agenda people like Trump shouldn’t be banned. However, again, how much could that backfire?

Twitter has become an essential source for ongoing news, when a breaking story is happening in real time, people check Twitter. So with Musk owning Twitter, he has the power to feed people any agenda he pleases on any news story. And what right does he have owning the narrative like this? What right does any billionaire have to be able to own news companies? Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, Bill Gates owns MSNBC, and now Musk owns Twitter. It’s sketchy to see such high profile individuals own such big networks that people rely on for unbiased news; and, now Musk joins the ranks of these billionaires by owning the entirety of Twitter, which is arguably more influential for ongoing events than any actual news site.

Ultimately, Twitter being bought this easily leaves the question as to why. Why is it that buying a social media platform is more of a priority than actual real world problems? Musk has enough money to make actual changes happen in the world like: providing aid to the helpless in Ukraine, or contributing towards ending world hunger, or providing housing for the homeless, or even investing it in more energy alternatives to push his green energy brand. It’s disappointing when someone who has the power to completely change the world with his wealth would rather spend it on a website than worthwhile change.

Twitter has always been a cesspit for misinformation and echo chambers, but they were seemingly natural ones conjured up by its stubbornly toxic people and not anyone in particular. Elon Musk owning the entirety of Twitter puts this distrust in any conflict that goes on Twitter. When he owns the narrative is it really the truth that we’re seeing, or is it the truth that he wants us to see?