As of April 25, 2022, Elon Musk merged Twitter into his business empire in a 44-billion-dollar deal. Twitter’s board unanimously approved Musk’s request, and many watch intently as a new era for the social media platform unravels.  

“I am so excited to see how Elon Musk will change Twitter into something better,” Kendall Lee, sophomore, said. 

This story line began when Musk tweeted that he was considering starting his own site and building the next Twitter. On April 4, 2022, Musk bought a 9.2 percent share of the app, which evened out to be around 3 billion dollars. The next day, he received a board seat at the company before announcing a few days later that he would no longer be filling that position. On April 14, Musk dove in and offered to buy the full company for an all-cash offer of 43.4 billion dollars. He broke down how he planned to fund the large bid, and soon after, there were reports of Twitter and Musk being close to a final deal. Just a few days later, Twitter publicly confirmed their acceptance of Musk’s offer to take the social networking company private.  

“I think Elon Musk buying Twitter is a huge difference in social media, and I think a new type of ownership could set an example for other social media platforms,” Chris LaGanke, junior, said. 

Musk is a controversial Twitter user himself but claims his goal is to strengthen the free speech aspect on the platform. He wants to bring Twitter to its ultimate potential through new features and hopefully overcome spam bots found on the site. But with this goal of total free speech, some are worried that it will unleash hate and misinformation. Despite this, Twitter had been unstable through the obstacles of many different CEOs and a struggle for growth, so many are waiting to see if Musk’s takeover will prove any different. 

“Separately, he [Musk] said in a tweet Monday that he hopes ‘even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,’” CNN said in an article. 

As Twitter falls into the hands of Elon Musk, many question what the social platform will look like in the future. For an organized timeline of this transaction, click here, and to get look at the situation, use this link.