FX.co ★ Elon Musk takes Twitter under his wing: what to expect from new CEO

Reshuffling of staff

The newly appointed CEO almost immediately dismissed Twitter's nine board of directors, cementing control over the platform. Musk fired several executives including CEO Chief Financial Officer Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde, and general counsel Sean Edgett. As a result, Musk became the sole director of Twitter.

He also informed investors that he plans to cut 75% of the staff, which totals 7,500 people. Some departments are likely to undergo mass layoffs. Besides, the dismissed employees will have to leave the company before November 1, a date when some employees are scheduled to receive stock grants.

It appears Musk wants to completely get rid of former employees in order to reform the company and set up a new social network that could compete with other social media giants.

Trump's account to be reinstated

Despite the widespread discussion of the possible return of Donald Trump on Twitter, Elon Musk is in no hurry to unblock the ex-president's account. “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted. Undoubtedly, this decision will affect the upcoming midterm elections in the United States, as well as the presidential campaign of 2024. Trump has more than once used Twitter as a powerful political tool.

Trump is not the only one whose account was blocked. Analysts believe that American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and far-right British commentator Katie Hopkins have also been permanently banned on Twitter.

Musk, who wants to make the social network a beacon of free speech, promised to create a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.”

Super app modeled after China’s WeChat

After the acquisition, Elon Musk's influence on various areas, including the development of cars, rockets, robots, and satellite Internet, expanded even more. Having gained control of the platform, he plans to increase Twitter's user base by 5 times to 1 billion people.

Musk also wants to transform Twitter into a super app that unites many internet functions into one app. “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app,” Musk tweeted. The world’s most well-known super app is WeChat, which has no analog outside China. WeChat users can send messages, make video calls, share photos and documents, and even pay utility bills on the app. Unlike many Silicon Valley tycoons, WeChat does not depend on advertising revenue.

Freedom of speech

Musk expressed concern about “having tweets mysteriously be promoted and demoted with no insight into what’s going on”. An open-source algorithm could address this, he pointed out. He also believes that it is crucial for the “future of civilisation to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner”. He pledged to make sure that the platform will not become a “free-for-all hellscape”. “In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all,” he wrote.

The possibility that people banned from the platform could get their accounts back worries those who are in favor of censoring tweets as well as European officials. Some of them have the angst that Twitter could become a platform for hate speech. Therefore, they are calling for tougher regulation of social networks.