Rallying more than 200 million daily users, Twitter remains an essential social network, the scene of countless debates, a platform of choice for journalists and the political class. Elon Musk understood this well. That’s why he finally bought the company on Thursday for US$44 billion. More than ever, the future of the social network worries experts, perplexed by the troubled relationship that the boss of Tesla maintains with freedom of expression.
“Elon Musk has made disturbing speeches in the past, particularly about women and marginalized communities. We could see a rise in far-right discourse on Twitter,” warns Jean-Hugues Roy, professor at the School of Media at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).
Often described as a libertarian, Mr. Musk prides himself on being a great defender of freedom of expression. In particular, he said he was ready to lift Donald Trump’s permanent suspension from the social network. “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it’s important for the future of civilization to have a digital commonplace, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy way, without resort to violence,” he said on Twitter on Thursday.
“This transaction is reminiscent of transactions from the XXe century, when the big barons of industry bought themselves a newspaper to influence public opinion. Now everyone is asking the question: how much will he interfere? I don’t think Elon Musk is a micromanager, but he could certainly have an influence on the content circulating on Twitter,” says Louis Hébert, expert in business acquisitions and professor at HEC Montréal.
Elon Musk, the richest man in the world according to the magazine Forbes, therefore becomes all the more influential. According to Mr. Roy, Twitter remains an essential platform for the circulation of information: “Twitter acts as a news wire, as a way of finding out about what is happening around us. If Mr. Musk tolerates misinformation, I’m not sure how long that social role will last. »
Expansion ambitions
If doubt still hangs over the influence that the businessman of South African origin will have on the content circulating on Twitter, Elon Musk has clearly indicated that the services offered by the social network could change under his governs.
“The purchase of Twitter is an accelerator for the creation of X, ‘the everything app'”, tweeted Elon Musk on October 4th. In French, this would translate into the creation of an “application that can do everything”. According to Mr. Roy, Elon Musk would thus refer to practices such as those of the Chinese application WeChat, which brings together both a messaging system, a platform for purchasing consumer goods, and multimedia content, for example.
“WeChat works very well in China, Elon Musk could perhaps draw inspiration from it”, he says, since according to him the boss of Tesla will have to find other ways to grow Twitter, at a time when the increase in its users and advertising revenue slows.
Expected layoffs
Mr. Hébert also recalls that the last few weeks have been “particularly difficult” for the advertising revenues of GAFA. “Twitter’s revenue model is going to have to change, especially as he takes over at the helm of the company at a time when interest rates are high and the situation is against him. […] He is going to have to cut costs and make layoffs,” he said.
As of Thursday evening, Elon Musk began a transformation of the company. He thanked the platform’s boss, Parag Agrawal, and two other executives, chief financial officer Ned Segal and head of legal affairs Vijaya Gadde, according to unnamed sources from CNBC and the washington post. the Post Incidentally, reported last week that Mr. Musk planned to lay off 75% of the company’s staff.
Moreover, if Mr. Roy maintains that Elon Musk has “generally found winning combinations, since Tesla and SpaceX have proved to be great successes”, Mr. Hébert remains more nuanced: “His famous Boring Company – a controversial company of tunnel constructions — is original, but didn’t really work. I’m also not sure about Twitter’s growth potential. »
A fantastic story
Founded by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass in 2006, Twitter has experienced a rapid rise in the oversized world of Silicon Valley. The microblogging company – until September 2016, tweets were limited to 140 characters – has seen many twists and turns, including its IPO in 2013, and a multiplication of its audiovisual content in 2016.
A page of history was therefore turned on Thursday evening. The company now becomes completely private, Elon Musk having bought all the shares of the company. He had until Friday to complete the acquisition of the social network, failing which a trial would have taken place in November. Mr Musk was under pressure from Twitter as the case dragged on after he initially promised to buy the company for US$44 billion last April.
Remember that with more than 111 million subscribers, Elon Musk is one of the most followed personalities worldwide on Twitter. A large part of Elon Musk’s success lies in “his independence”, as well as his ability to “generate media attention”, recalls Mr. Hébert, who says that it remains to be seen whether this attention will succeed.
For now, Elon Musk wants to be reassuring. In a tweet posted on Thursday evening, he claimed that Twitter “cannot become a hell where you can say anything without consequences”.