Twitter's future: How might the platform change
under Elon Musk's ownership?
Topics like Donald Trump's banishment to a
long-discussed edit function could be in play if the company is taken over by
the Tesla and SpaceX founder.
00:33
/02:27
April 27,
2022, 1:57 AM CEST
By Rob Wile
and David K. Li
Elon Musk
is months away from completing his purchase of Twitter, and he is most likely
even further away possibly changing one of the world's most powerful social
media platforms.
When it
comes, Musk's ownership, reached in a $44 billion deal that will take the
internet's public square private, is likely to have far-reaching consequences
for communications on the platform and beyond.
What legal
and regulatory hoops are ahead of Musk before he can take control of Twitter?
Few hurdles
stand in the way of Musk’s taking the reins besides the mercurial billionaire’s
himself changing his mind, Columbia University law professor Zohar Goshen said.
For one
thing, Musk insisted that Twitter waive what is known as a go-shop clause,
which would have guaranteed the company the right to seek another bidder at a
higher price — although, in fact, Twitter could still accept a higher bid as
long as it paid a $1 billion breakup fee to Musk, who would also be on the hook
for that fee if he changes his mind.
Musk,
meanwhile, waived his right to review Twitter's financial performance — which
he signaled when he said in an interview at the time of his bid, “I don’t care
about the economics at all.”
The
transaction is now contingent on a majority of Twitter investors.
While one
prominent shareholder, the Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has already voiced
his disapproval over the company's valuation, Twitter's board unanimously
approved the deal and recommended that other shareholders do the same. A
shareholder said Monday that Musk's track record at Tesla and transparency
about his plans for changes at Twitter made him a suitable owner.
As for
regulators, Goshen said, U.S. authorities wouldn't have much of a case from an
anti-competition standpoint given that Musk owns no other media platforms and
therefore the deal doesn’t represent consolidation within Twitter's existing
industry.
Other
analysts have said it would represent an extraordinary shift in longtime
practice to present an objection to a private transaction. Goshen said European
regulators could force Musk and Twitter to add data-sharing protections but
wouldn't be able to scuttle the deal itself.
How could
an edit function on tweets work, and what are the implications?
Reports
suggest Twitter has been actively working on an edit button for at least a year
and that it is in the final stages of rolling one out — most likely as a
feature for users of Twitter Blue, its premium service.
Musk has
hinted he'd welcome an edit feature:
Tech
blogger Jane Manchun Wong, a respected industry observer based in Hong Kong,
said it appears the edit function is being developed narrowly to allow users to
correct typos or other grammatical errors.
To that
end, it appears Twitter will give users only a limited time window within which
to edit tweets. The idea is to prevent someone from editing a tweet to change
its fundamental content after it has already gone viral for hours or even days.
Users would
also be able to see and track the edit history of a tweet, Wong said, which
would further prevent misuse.
"It
will help a lot of people to fix headaches and regrets when they make typos or
autocorrect errors," Wong said.
Given her
reporting and observations, Wong said, she expects the feature to be rolled out
in as soon as 30 days.
Could former
President Donald Trump and other banned figures make Twitter comebacks?
Days after
the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Twitter “permanently suspended” Trump
for violating its "Glorification of Violence policy."
Trump has
said he won't go back to Twitter even if his ban is rescinded.
But the
role Twitter played in Trump's rise can't be denied, and his possible return to
the platform, if he's granted a reprieve, would be too valuable to pass up,
said Baldwin Wallace University sociology professor Brian Monahan, who wrote
“The Art of the Spiel: Analyzing Donald Trump’s Tweets as Gonzo Storytelling.”
"It
was immeasurably helpful to his early branding and his eventual political
success," Monahan said, referring to Twitter.
"I'm
skeptical" about Trump's denial of a Twitter return, he said. "It's
such a valuable form of communicating the particular kind of story he wants to
tell and the way he wants to tell it."
Other
notable banned Twitter figures include conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his
Infowars platform, former White House strategist Steve Bannon, former
major-league baseball player Aubrey Huff, My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell and Rep.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
What does
it take to get suspended or banned from Twitter?
Twitter now
has sweeping policies to limit harm from the internet's worst offenders.
Anyone
deemed to be encouraging abuse, violence, child sexual exploitation and any
number of other banned Twitter activities are subject to suspension or
banishment.
Musk has
long called Twitter the digital world's "town square" of discourse,
hinting that he could want fewer rules governing users and content.
Musk's
critics, such as the noted computer programmer and game developer Brianna Wu,
read his "town square" rhetoric as a threat to safety standards that
could lead more online hate to be directed toward women and minorities.
"I
don't trust Elon Musk to make Twitter better for women at all," Wu told
"NBC Nightly News." "I just absolutely don't. If you're asking
yourself if this is someone who is going to bat for people that are
underrepresented, I just don't think that's going to be the case,
unfortunately."
Anthony
Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, called
Musk "an ACLU card-carrying member and one of our most significant
supporters" but worried about his potential takeover.
"In
today’s world, a small handful of private tech companies — including Twitter —
play a profound and unique role in enabling our right to express ourselves
online," Romero said in a statement.
"We
should be worried about any powerful central actor, whether it’s a government
or any wealthy individual — even if it’s an ACLU member — having so much
control over the boundaries of our political speech online.”
Rob Wile
Rob Wile is
a breaking business news reporter for NBC News Digital.
David K. Li
David K. Li
is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.
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