Elon Musk has finally added Twitter to the folds of his empire after months of legal disputes. Controversially, he celebrated by reportedly firing top executives, including CEO, chief financial officer and head of legal policy.
Musk has provided little clarity over how he will achieve the lofty ambitions he has outlined for the influential platform. He has said that he wants to defeat spam bots on the platform and make Twitter algorithms publicly available. Furthermore, in a reference to his desire to see the company have fewer limits on content that can be posted, he tweeted “The bird is freed” following his $44 billion acquisition.
What will a Musk owned Twitter look like? In his latest tweet, Musk set out some of his goals for the company, saying that Twitter must be “warm and welcoming for all.” He also wrote that he wanted “civilization to have a common digital town square.” However, he denies the platform will take an anything-goes approach.
Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022
Musk has given us some hints over the past six months about how he would transform the platform. On Tuesday, he indicated the direction it was going. He tweeted after the news of his fresh bid became public, “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to inventing X, the everything app.”
Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2022
The “everything app” Musk mentioned is undeniably based on WeChat. For millions of its users, WeChat, controlled by Chinese digital giant Tencent, is essential for daily life. WeChat is a chat app, an app store and a web browser all rolled into one service.
“There’s no WeChat equivalent outside of China,” Musk said during a Q&A with Twitter employees in June. “You basically live on WeChat in China. If we can recreate that with Twitter, we’ll be a great success.”
Musk has indicated he sees Twitter as a foundation for a superapp that offers services across money transfers and ride-hailing. He is now expected to share more about his plan for Twitter with employees on Friday.
