“The bird is freed.” With these cryptic words, Elon Musk announced the acquisition of Twitter on the platform itself. Shortly afterward, he is said to have fired all the company’s executives and then immediately presented the new, fitting, and best CEO for Twitter: himself. But Mr. Musk only has to justify Elon Musk’s decisions to himself, anyway. There is no need for further comment on the $44 billion price that he paid. The reasons behind the decision are, however, worth considering.
Elon Musk wants to “save” Twitter and freedom of expression along with it. He says that the absence of former U.S. President Donald Trump is a huge loss for Twitter. Musk is a prominent defender of the attention economy. Constant attention, constant PR, constant profit. What is in store for Twitter now?
We had just gotten used to more rational discussions, with less screaming and fewer insults — is that all coming back now? Will users leave en masse for alternative platforms like Mastodon? There are alternatives, but few people know about them.
Major shifts in social networks have been the exception so far. Even users’ departures from WhatsApp to Signal or Telegram were not major rejections.
Thus remains the big question: Is the bird really freed, or are the reasonable people on the platform now on the run?
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