Elon Musk wants to change Twitter : NPR

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Twitter is trying to thwart a takeover try by Elon Musk, the richest human being in the earth. Elon Musk enjoys to tweet, and he claims he has a lot of strategies that may possibly unlock the platform’s likely. But the modifications he’s contacting for at Twitter may possibly not be common with some people and advertisers. NPR’s tech correspondent Shannon Bond joins us. Shannon, many thanks so significantly for becoming with us.

SHANNON BOND, BYLINE: Thanks for obtaining me, Scott.

SIMON: So how is Twitter hoping to prevent the richest gentleman in the globe from shopping for what is, just after all, a public company?

BOND: Nicely, the company is getting ready to fight back. On Friday, the working day soon after Musk announced this $43 billion takeover offer you, Twitter’s board introduced what is actually recognised as a poison capsule to fend off Musk. Basically, this would allow present buyers obtain more shares at a low cost if Musk or anybody else tries to enhance their stake in Twitter to 15% or a lot more. And so that would make it a lot more highly-priced for Musk to obtain the corporation. So, you know, the board is not rolling over right here. This sets up a real fight about the upcoming of the organization. Now, Musk already owns 9% of Twitter, but he says he needs to buy the relaxation and get it private to, as he places it, unlock its possible.

SIMON: Do we know what he’d like to do with it?

BOND: Nicely, you know, Twitter, of study course, has its problems, appropriate? It can be misplaced funds in the last few decades. It’s not rising as rapidly as buyers would like. But compared with your typical company raider, Musk has been very upfront that this is not about creating income. At a meeting on Thursday, he mentioned what he cares about is free speech.

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ELON MUSK: Twitter has develop into kind of the de facto town sq., so it is just actually vital that folks have the – the two the fact and the notion that they are ready to speak freely in the bounds of the regulation.

BOND: And so that’s what Musk usually means when he talks about possible. He thinks Twitter is extremely restrictive about what folks are allowed to say, and he desires to modify that.

SIMON: And how would you alter it if he succeeds in a takeover?

BOND: Perfectly, Musk suggests he thinks Twitter should mainly make it possible for all authorized speech. And, you know, in the U.S., that is just about anything at all. So, you know, if Twitter have been to do this, it would mean allowing for disinformation, despise speech, harassment, spam. These are all things that Twitter and other net platforms have been cracking down on. And, you know, we know these platforms by now have a great deal of troubles with toxic information, in any case. Karen Kornbluh studies online disinformation at the German Marshall Fund, and she says you will find a explanation important platforms have these principles, specially Twitter, specified who employs it most.

KAREN KORNBLUH: Their asset is all the journalists and opinion-makers who come there. If they eliminate that asset by producing it fully inhospitable and a cesspool, I consider they are likely to go in the improper route.

BOND: And, of course, Scott, you know, Twitter will make its revenue from advertisements. And advertisers also really don’t want to be around this form of articles.

SIMON: What other ideas does Elon Musk have for Twitter?

BOND: Nicely, you know, he is aware of the system truly well, correct? He enjoys to tweet. He seriously gets how Twitter works. And so he is talked about banning bot accounts that tweet automatically, right? These have caused tons of head aches for Twitter about the several years. Russian trolls use them to unfold disinformation. There are also networks of bots that regularly tweet about cryptocurrency to check out to hype up selling prices. Musk also states he would like to make Twitter’s algorithm general public so customers could much better comprehend why they are remaining proven individual tweets. That’s anything, actually, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has also advocated for.

And it’s possible the most well known strategy Musk has endorsed is providing men and women the means to edit their tweets after they are posted. Now, that could possibly not look like a big deal, but it’s anything a great deal of Twitter consumers have desired for many years. And Twitter states it is essentially been operating on an edit button considering the fact that effectively before Musk commenced obtaining shares in the corporation. And it suggests it really is going to get started screening that out soon.

SIMON: NPR’s Shannon Bond, many thanks so considerably.

BOND: Thank you.

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