Elon Musk's plans to takeover Twitter

Our real like Tony Stark has been coming up in the news once again, this time, because of his plans to purchase Twitter

Elon Musk is known to do a lot of things - making electric cars and sending people to Mars. Moreover, he is respected in the meme community as a unique corporate giant. Rather than following a very monotonous and rule-centric approach, Musk's special factor is his radical/different way of thinking.

Building on his wit, Musk recently set his eyes on Twitter. He has made a $40 Billion bid to purchase the entire platform. The Twitter board immediately retaliated to Musk's bid by discounting their share prices to existing holders. This is a process through which the supply of stocks drops. As a result, the existing shareholders receive discounted prices while increasing the overall price Musk would have to pay for the company (as a result of decreased supply).

However, Musk - being one of the richest people on the planet - has deep pockets.

Nonetheless, the issue with Musk taking over Twitter is not a power struggle between the existing Twitter board and this frantic tech genius. Instead, the issue is with the plans Musk has, and his lack of experience to carry those plans out.

Musk wishes to ease up many restrictions on the content that can be tweeted. Currently, there a lot of methods through which Twitter censors and deletes tweets that are "rude", "harassing", or "hateful". Musk wishes to rewrite the rules in order to allow "rightful" censorship - but - minimise control over free speech. However, this is easier said than done. Twitter is one of the largest platforms on the planet and changing its rules includes a lot of precise work.

A tweet could be considered "hateful" and "expressive" at the same time. Therefore, navigating these peculiar topics requires expertise beyond imagination. Reddit's former CEO, Yishan Wong, said (paraphrased) that Musk has no idea about the world of pain he is about to enter.

But, if Musk - who has more resources than anyone on this planet - would employee the right people this would not be an issue, right? Yes. The idea of successfully navigating through "hateful" and "expressive" tweets would not be an issue. However, there are some larger issues which need to be understood.

Musk's plans are of concern for many companies that work through Twitter. No company, that advertise on Twitter, would want their name flashing in the same thread as a tweet with "hate-speech". However, this would just be one of the many issues that can arise for companies. Adverts, being one of the largest revenue streams for the firm, cannot be toyed with either.

Therefore, Twitter is extremely defensive about whether or not they can allow an inexperienced person take over their large firm.

The ideal situation, for Musk, would involve finding a middle ground between "freedom" of speech and "hateful" speech. While, for Twitter, the ideal situation would be Musk stepping out of the picture.

Nonetheless, as we know about Musk's stubborn nature, he is not one to back down. So - I will just do my best to keep you updated on this stand-off between one of the largest social media networks and a funky genius.