Elon Musk bought Twitter. What will change for marketers?
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2024 5:33 am
Ashley Rodriguez
Apr 29, 22 | 8 min read
Elon Musk bought Twitter
Reading time: 6 minutes
Love him or hate him, Elon Musk is one of the most eccentric billionaires of our time. His financial decisions and investments are the talk of the town. Even his own tweets can spark heated discussions on the Internet and among big companies. This is certainly not the first time Musk has done something that has impressed us.
Just three weeks after buying 9.2% of Twitter, the owner of Tesla and Space X took over the entire company . An unexpected plot twist, as the directors were concerned about Elon's purchase of the company.
After confirming the new transaction through a press release, the billionaire reinforced the importance of his vision of freedom of expression for our democracy (which he has been preaching since the beginning of this whole story).
“Freedom of expression is the foundation solomon islands email list of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital public square where issues vital to the future of humanity are debated.”
Elon Musk
We all agree that freedom of speech is important. The thing is, we cannot ignore its countless controversies, including its own unconventional view on freedom of speech, which is considered radical and may lead to Twitter having more hate speech and fake news, according to some analysts .
And we can't forget that we, the marketers and brand owners who are strategically on Twitter, can also feel the damage of the changes Musk intends to make - in fact, we're already feeling it: after just one day - following the acquisition, prominent users of the platform have seen sharp changes in their follower counts .
So what could actually change on Twitter from now on? Will Musk’s “free speech” increase hate speech and misinformation? And how does that affect brands that are on Twitter?
Let's dig into it.
First, let's remember Elon Musk's controversial behavior on Twitter and beyond
Twitter's new owner has a history of controversy on the platform. One of them is receiving a lot of criticism for sharing fake news about COVID-19 in 2020. In fact, his controversial tweet has brought him problems with his own companies and colleagues.
Musk has already complained about Twitter's moderation tools, though the platform did not remove even his anti-vaccine posts and bad "jokes" involving even Hitler. He once compared Twitter's late CEO Parag Agrawal to Joseph Stalin because of these very moderation tools.
For example, in 2018 he got into some trouble for making a joke about Tesla's private shares on the microblogging platform. Likewise, many of his shareholders have expressed displeasure at his behavior. And the list goes on .
In other settings, the South African is known for his attitudes in the workplace. Former colleagues describe him as a workaholic. In addition, his companies have been sued for harassment and inappropriate conduct towards his employers.
Elon Musk, as one of the world's largest billionaires, has a lot of power in the stock market as well as the international economy. Buying the largest microblogging social network on the market will have an impact on the way we communicate with our audience.
As brands, we will need to stay up to date with all the changes we will see in the algorithm and the new policies that are coming.
Freedom of expression?
As we've heard time and time again over the past few days, Musk's main focus is on improving free speech on Twitter. But what does that mean for the billionaire? It's important to note that he's a self-declared Free Speech absolutist ( despite being harsh on employees and critics ), so we could see a lot of that in the coming months.
The main problem is that the vision of freedom of speech shared by Musk and other “free speech absolutists” is controversial and can open space for the mass sharing of fake news and radical speeches against minorities, for example. Musk himself has already posted anti-vaccine messages on Twitter. As an “absolutist,” Musk’s discourse seems to show that it is more important to be able to transmit free information than to have safe and responsible information.
Of course, Musk is not a journalist. Many of us, as content marketers, do have backgrounds in journalism, and the number one rule of our profession is: always verify information before publishing it. Why? It is not just a question of techniques. When you have a large audience, you have great power to spread important news, but also to make the population panic if you are not responsible.
For example, mainstream media outlets don't publish stories about suicide. The reason is simple: there is research showing that publishing about suicides causes more people to commit suicide. Same as spreading fake news about vaccines. You can make people afraid to protect themselves. We're talking about deaths. Any of us has a huge responsibility before we hit any "publish" button on the internet.
But Musk seems to lack these criteria and may find legal barriers in his path. The US Congress is currently debating some federal regulations and laws to hold social media platforms and big tech companies accountable for the information shared within their digital domains. If they do not have a clearly defined way to prevent misinformation and hate speech within their platforms, they could find themselves in trouble with the law.
Frenzied employees, worried users. Everyone fearing the worst but hoping for the best
And how was the news received by Twitter employees and users of the social network? Like everything since this story began, controversially.
Twitter employees are divided. Some see Musk's ownership as a good thing for making some real changes to the social platform. Others worry about what could be undone, particularly when it comes to stopping hate speech or similar content.
Shortly after the billionaire bought the social platform, Twitter lawyer Vijaya Gadde called a virtual meeting and ended up crying over her concerns about how the company could turn around. Guess what happened next? She started facing abuse on her Twitter account after Musk publicly criticized her work, but the court said she is prohibited from making posts like that during the Twitter acquisition process.
Apr 29, 22 | 8 min read
Elon Musk bought Twitter
Reading time: 6 minutes
Love him or hate him, Elon Musk is one of the most eccentric billionaires of our time. His financial decisions and investments are the talk of the town. Even his own tweets can spark heated discussions on the Internet and among big companies. This is certainly not the first time Musk has done something that has impressed us.
Just three weeks after buying 9.2% of Twitter, the owner of Tesla and Space X took over the entire company . An unexpected plot twist, as the directors were concerned about Elon's purchase of the company.
After confirming the new transaction through a press release, the billionaire reinforced the importance of his vision of freedom of expression for our democracy (which he has been preaching since the beginning of this whole story).
“Freedom of expression is the foundation solomon islands email list of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital public square where issues vital to the future of humanity are debated.”
Elon Musk
We all agree that freedom of speech is important. The thing is, we cannot ignore its countless controversies, including its own unconventional view on freedom of speech, which is considered radical and may lead to Twitter having more hate speech and fake news, according to some analysts .
And we can't forget that we, the marketers and brand owners who are strategically on Twitter, can also feel the damage of the changes Musk intends to make - in fact, we're already feeling it: after just one day - following the acquisition, prominent users of the platform have seen sharp changes in their follower counts .
So what could actually change on Twitter from now on? Will Musk’s “free speech” increase hate speech and misinformation? And how does that affect brands that are on Twitter?
Let's dig into it.
First, let's remember Elon Musk's controversial behavior on Twitter and beyond
Twitter's new owner has a history of controversy on the platform. One of them is receiving a lot of criticism for sharing fake news about COVID-19 in 2020. In fact, his controversial tweet has brought him problems with his own companies and colleagues.
Musk has already complained about Twitter's moderation tools, though the platform did not remove even his anti-vaccine posts and bad "jokes" involving even Hitler. He once compared Twitter's late CEO Parag Agrawal to Joseph Stalin because of these very moderation tools.
For example, in 2018 he got into some trouble for making a joke about Tesla's private shares on the microblogging platform. Likewise, many of his shareholders have expressed displeasure at his behavior. And the list goes on .
In other settings, the South African is known for his attitudes in the workplace. Former colleagues describe him as a workaholic. In addition, his companies have been sued for harassment and inappropriate conduct towards his employers.
Elon Musk, as one of the world's largest billionaires, has a lot of power in the stock market as well as the international economy. Buying the largest microblogging social network on the market will have an impact on the way we communicate with our audience.
As brands, we will need to stay up to date with all the changes we will see in the algorithm and the new policies that are coming.
Freedom of expression?
As we've heard time and time again over the past few days, Musk's main focus is on improving free speech on Twitter. But what does that mean for the billionaire? It's important to note that he's a self-declared Free Speech absolutist ( despite being harsh on employees and critics ), so we could see a lot of that in the coming months.
The main problem is that the vision of freedom of speech shared by Musk and other “free speech absolutists” is controversial and can open space for the mass sharing of fake news and radical speeches against minorities, for example. Musk himself has already posted anti-vaccine messages on Twitter. As an “absolutist,” Musk’s discourse seems to show that it is more important to be able to transmit free information than to have safe and responsible information.
Of course, Musk is not a journalist. Many of us, as content marketers, do have backgrounds in journalism, and the number one rule of our profession is: always verify information before publishing it. Why? It is not just a question of techniques. When you have a large audience, you have great power to spread important news, but also to make the population panic if you are not responsible.
For example, mainstream media outlets don't publish stories about suicide. The reason is simple: there is research showing that publishing about suicides causes more people to commit suicide. Same as spreading fake news about vaccines. You can make people afraid to protect themselves. We're talking about deaths. Any of us has a huge responsibility before we hit any "publish" button on the internet.
But Musk seems to lack these criteria and may find legal barriers in his path. The US Congress is currently debating some federal regulations and laws to hold social media platforms and big tech companies accountable for the information shared within their digital domains. If they do not have a clearly defined way to prevent misinformation and hate speech within their platforms, they could find themselves in trouble with the law.
Frenzied employees, worried users. Everyone fearing the worst but hoping for the best
And how was the news received by Twitter employees and users of the social network? Like everything since this story began, controversially.
Twitter employees are divided. Some see Musk's ownership as a good thing for making some real changes to the social platform. Others worry about what could be undone, particularly when it comes to stopping hate speech or similar content.
Shortly after the billionaire bought the social platform, Twitter lawyer Vijaya Gadde called a virtual meeting and ended up crying over her concerns about how the company could turn around. Guess what happened next? She started facing abuse on her Twitter account after Musk publicly criticized her work, but the court said she is prohibited from making posts like that during the Twitter acquisition process.