AFP

Twitter formally became the private property of Elon Musk on Friday, steering the social media giant down an uncertain path under the stewardship of one of its most vocal critics.

Scrutiny quickly turned to how the platform will operate under a self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist who some users fear will turn Twitter into a global stage for hate speech and disinformation.

In a nod to such concerns, Musk’s first policy act was to tweet that he will form a “content moderation council” embracing “widely diverse viewpoints.”

“No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” he said.

Musk’s sealing of the on-again, off-again $44 billion deal ended a months-long soap opera of corporate chicanery, involving insults, threats and lawsuits.

“The bird is free,” tweeted the billionaire Tesla founder and space pioneer in reference to the company’s logo. “Let the good times roll.”

The deal drew contrasting reactions, with former US president Donald Trump cheering the change of leadership on a platform that had banned him, while activists warned of a surge in harassment and misinformation.

European politicians were quick to signal to Musk that the continent had regulations for social media companies.

“In Europe, the bird will fly by our rules,” tweeted Thierry Breton, the EU internal market commissioner.

Musk had vowed to dial back content moderation and was expected to clear the way for Trump to return to the platform.

The then-president was blocked over concerns he would ignite more violence like the 2021 deadly attack on the US Capitol to overturn his election loss.

Taking to his own Truth Social platform, Trump said he was “very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands” — but gave no commitment to rejoin if allowed.

Far-right users were quick to rejoice at Musk’s ownership, posting comments such as “masks don’t work” and other taunts, under the belief that moderation rules would now be relaxed.

– ‘A huge responsibility’ –

Yale University philosophy professor Jason Stanley, who has characterized Trump’s rise as a sign of mounting fascism in the United States, said he would alter his approach to posting.

“For the moment I am staying on Twitter. But I am going to try to be much more careful about what I say now that Elon Musk is in charge. Cascading hate speech targeting can destroy your week,” he said.

Right-wing political commentator Ben Shapiro said he gained 40,000 Twitter followers Friday, while the actor Mark Hamill, a liberal, said he had lost almost 6,000 followers over the last three days.

Musk reportedly fired Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal and other senior officials — though the company did not reply to a request for comment and Agrawal still listed himself as CEO on his Twitter profile.

But Ned Segal, Twitter’s chief financial officer since 2017, announced his departure.

“At its best, (Twitter) democratizes communication and knowledge, ensuring accountability and equal distribution of info,” Segal said.

“It’s a huge responsibility for everyone that shares in the work. I wish them strength, wisdom and foresight.”

Musk, who is using a combination of his own money, funds from wealthy investors and bank loans to finance the deal, has conceded he is overpaying for a company that has regularly posted eye-watering losses.

– How to monetize? –

Twitter says it has 238 million daily users — dwarfed by the likes of Facebook’s nearly two billion — and has not been able to monetize in the same way as its rivals.

However, it holds an outsized influence on public debate because it is the favored platform for many companies, politicians, journalists and other public figures.

Though he has vowed that Twitter will not become a “free-for-all hellscape,” Musk reportedly plans deep staff cuts that would gut teams that oversee content.

Despite Musk posting a letter to advertisers saying he wants Twitter to be a forum where rival viewpoints can be debated in a “healthy manner”, US auto giant General Motors said Friday it has “temporarily paused” paid ads on the platform.

“We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership,” said a GM spokesman. 

Media watchdog Media Matters for America sounded the alarm over the future of a Musk-led Twitter, particularly the impact on imminent US midterm elections.

The platform “is now on a glide path to becoming a supercharged engine of radicalization” and a “fever swamp of dangerous conspiracy theories, partisan chicanery, and operationalized harassment,” the organization’s head Angelo Carusone said.

The closure of the deal marked the finale of a long back-and-forth between the billionaire and the social network that had culminated in a Twitter lawsuit seeking to hold Musk to the transaction agreement.

Tech shares were back on their front foot Friday following solid Apple results, boosting the Nasdaq nearly three percent and adding to weekly gains.

Apple, the biggest company in terms of market value, soared nearly eight percent after reporting higher profits despite lower-than-expected iPhone sales. 

Apple’s surge helped offset a comparable drop in Amazon shares on a disappointing holiday-quarter forecast and added to buying momentum on Wall Street following a mixed day in global bourses and a drop in oil prices.

“The stock market showed impressive resilience today,” observed Briefing.com after the Dow’s sixth straight positive session.

The gains by Apple helped prompt an advance by large tech companies like Microsoft and Google parent Alphabet that were punished earlier in the week in a pullback that investors feared could mark a major negative turning point for tech giants.

Art Hogan, analyst at B. Riley Financial, said tech shares benefited Friday from an “oversold rebound,” adding that semiconductor shares were lifted by Facebook parent Meta’s plan to boost investment in the metaverse.

Stocks have also been boosted in recent sessions by hopes the Federal Reserve will soon moderate its policies to counter inflation.

Markets largely shrugged off a mixed US economic data that showed inflation lingering but also a jump in household spending. 

In Europe, Germany’s economy unexpectedly grew in the third quarter, but slowing growth in France and Spain added to fears that high inflation and an energy crisis will tip the region into recession.

“Today’s positive growth data is a welcome surprise. However, it does not mean that the German economy will be able to prevent a recession,” said ING economist Carsten Brzeski.

Elsewhere, the yen was down against the dollar after Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the country would spend $260 billion on a stimulus package to cushion the weak economy.

The yen has plunged to 32-year lows versus the dollar in recent weeks as Japan’s central bank refuses to hike interest rates despite sky-high inflation, fueled by soaring energy prices.

“The Japanese yen is once again the worst performer today after the Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy unchanged,” said market analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets.

– Key figures around 2040 GMT –

New York – Dow: UP 2.6 percent at 32,861.80 (close)

New York – S&P 500: UP 2.5 percent at 3,901.06 (close)

New York – Nasdaq: UP 2.9 percent at 11,102.45 (close)

London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 7,047.67 (close) 

Frankfurt – DAX: UP 0.2 percent at 13,243.33 (close)

Paris – CAC 40: UP 0.5 percent at 6,273.05 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.2 percent at 3,613.02 (close)

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 27,105.20 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: DOWN 3.7 percent at 14,863.06 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 2.3 percent at 2,915.93 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $0.9967 from $0.9965 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.1618 from $1.1567 

Dollar/yen: UP at 147.46 yen from 146.27 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 85.77 pence from 86.11 pence

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.3 percent at $87.90 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 1.2 percent at $95.77 per barrel

burs-jmv/md

After months of controversy, Elon Musk is now at the head of one of the most influential social networks on the planet, whose “tremendous potential” he has promised to unleash.

What changes can we expect for the platform from the multi-billionaire chief executive of Tesla and founder of SpaceX?

– New boss –

One of Musk’s first decisions was to sack Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and head of legal affairs Vijaya Gadde, according to several US media outlets.

The billionaire entrepreneur will have to find replacements for them.

“Musk is in the unenviable position of convincing seasoned executives to work for him at a platform that he has publicly disparaged,” said Jasmine Enberg, an analyst for Insider Intelligence.

According to Bloomberg, Musk will assume the role of CEO of Twitter, at least initially.

He’ll have to deal with concerned employees. Musk wants to cut the workforce by 75 percent (or about 5,500 employees), according to the Washington Post.

“The mood at Twitter is tense, with employees worried about layoffs,” said Enberg. “Product and even engineering teams could face a shakeup.”

– Freedom of speech –

A self-described “free speech absolutist,” Musk said on Thursday that he wants to turn Twitter into a platform that is “warm and welcoming to all” and not a “free-for-all hellscape.”

He has criticized what he sees as aggressive content moderation, which he contends results in the censorship of right and far-right voices.

“Experts we’ve spoken with have suggested around 600 people at Twitter itself and thousands more with third-party affiliations have worked on platform content moderation,” said Scott Kessler of Third Bridge.

“Musk has publicly advocated for these actions to be driven by algorithms instead of people,” he added.

The Tesla boss further hinted that former US president Donald Trump, who was suspended from the platform after the attack on Capitol Hill in early 2021, might be allowed to return.

Trump wrote on Friday on his own social network Truth Social that Twitter is “in good hands.”

One of Musk’s other pet peeves is the issue of fake accounts. He threatened to walk away from the deal over the inauthentic or “bot” accounts but has not revealed what he will do to fight them.

– ‘Unpalatable to advertisers’ –

Another challenge for Elon Musk is to improve the financial health of Twitter, which faces slow growth, even recording a net loss in the second quarter.

In April, Musk mentioned options to generate more revenue: boosting paid subscriptions, monetizing the dissemination of popular tweets or paying content creators.

In a letter published Thursday, the entrepreneur called on Twitter advertisers to work together to “build something extraordinary,” stressing the importance of welcoming a wide diversity of opinions on the platform.

“Mr. Musk has indicated in his latest publicity stunt that he wants to throw the kitchen sink at Twitter to attract new users,” noted Susannah Streeter, senior investment and market analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“But he is going to face a huge challenge of maintaining and building revenue, given that the controversial opinions he appears to want to give more of a free rein to in this ‘global town hall’ are often unpalatable to advertisers,” she said.

Some civic groups are also calling on major brands to use their influence to prevent Musk from providing a platform for the most radical speech.

“Considering that ads reportedly account for 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue, it is clear that the power to hold Musk accountable, if he rolls back the platform’s protections against harassment, abuse and disinformation, lies in the hands of Twitter’s top advertisers,” Media Matters for America, a nonprofit watchdog group, argued.

Purchased by Elon Musk for $44 billion, Twitter is popular with politicians, journalists and celebrities, but the social media giant draws a smaller user base than some competitors, including Facebook. 

– Less than Facebook –

At the end of the second quarter, Twitter counted nearly 238 million daily active users on the platform — a figure overshadowed by the some 1.98 billion claimed by Facebook. 

Adding Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, Facebook-parent Meta nears some three billion daily users. 

Twitter is also surpassed by platforms like Pinterest, with 445 billion monthly users, and Snapchat, with 363 million daily users.

TikTok, owned by the unlisted Chinese group ByteDance, does not disclose its user numbers. 

In September 2021, however, the short video app said it had passed the one billion user mark worldwide.

– Obama, Bieber… and Musk –

Former US president Barack Obama has the most popular account on Twitter, with 133.5 million followers.

He is ahead of Canadian singer Justin Bieber, who has 113.8 million followers. 

Musk, boss of Tesla and founder of SpaceX, and now the owner of Twitter, completes the podium with 110.6 million followers. 

US singer Katy Perry is the most followed woman on the network, with 108.9 followers. 

Donald Trump had some 89 million followers before he was banned from the platform shortly after the January 6, 2021, assault on the US capital led by his supporters.

He faced accusations he had used social media to incite his followers to use force in a bid to overturn the result of the 2020 US presidential election.

Musk has hinted that his account could be reactivated.

– Limited growth –

Financially speaking, Twitter is not in the same league as its big rivals either.

The California-based group had revenues of $1.2 billion from April to June, down one percent year-over-year and nearly 25 times lower than Meta.

It also fell into the red with a net loss of $270 million.

According to the Washington Post, Musk plans to eventually lay off almost 75 percent of Twitter’s 7,500 employees.

Twitter’s second quarter results could be the last to be made public.

Musk has said he wants to delist the company from the New York Stock Exchange, which would put an end to its obligation to disclose information about its financial health to the public.

Twitter users wasted no time Friday testing the limits of free speech on the platform under new owner Elon Musk, with posts questioning transgender identity and masks.

Hours after Musk took total ownership of the platform, conservative voices celebrated what they said was their newly-reclaimed right to free speech.

Podcaster Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) jumped straight in, tweeting: “BTW turns out men *CANT* get pregnant, Bring it, libs.”

The tweet sparked both support and derision, with those apparently in agreement replying with tweets like “Truth,” and “This is gonna be a great day.” 

Others opted to mock the familiar attempt to “own” liberal opponents.

“Turns out you CAN’T get laid,” tweeted @sawthrewit.

The masks that were widely adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic, and which proved divisive in the United States despite scientists recommending their use, were also a popular topic.

“Now that we can tell the truth here after Elon Musk officially took over, I’m just going to come out and say it: Masks don’t work,” tweeted @ianmSC.

Almost like it was 2020 all over again, the tweet sparked a number of supportive comments and videos showing steamy breath escaping from the side of masks.

It also provoked the expected replies from the other side of the debate.

“So if you need surgery you’d be okay with the medical staff not wearing masks? I mean since they don’t work, right?” tweeted @marynol51.

The world’s richest man, a self-declared “free speech absolutist,” finalised his will-he-won’t-he takeover of Twitter late Thursday.

The mercurial Tesla chief tweeted, “let the good times roll,” his latest lighthearted gesture signaling his tumultuous, $44 billion bid to take Twitter private was finally done.

Musk has vowed to dial back content moderation, which conservatives say unfairly targets their views.

But detractors warn that without standards, the world’s “digital town square” is at risk of becoming a free-for-all of misinformation, with possibly perilous consequences for democracy and public health.

In true Twitter fashion, the conservative-led effort to test boundaries on Friday generated a few tongue-in-cheek efforts.

“Since this platform is allowing free-speech again I would just like to say that cool ranch Doritos are better than nacho cheese,” tweeted @KFILE.

While @Alyssafarah looked to set the cat amongst the pigeons with an old saw that never fails to prove incendiary: “The Rolling Stones > the Beatles”