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Why is Elon Musk Buying Twitter?
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been questioning the deal since May, accusing Twitter of withholding information. Twitter, however, has insisted that it is acting in good faith and providing everything it needed to make the deal work. A person familiar with the discussions said Twitter has been uncooperative. If Musk is trying to pull out of the deal, that might explain his reasoning. If he’s right, Twitter’s stock price will go down.
Elon Musk wants to make Twitter’s algorithm and code open source
Earlier this week, Elon Musk announced that he is planning to make Twitter’s algorithm and code available for the public to use. This would allow anyone to access the code and iterate on it as they see fit. Musk’s goals are admirable and noble, but his vision is far more complicated than that. Here are some of his more interesting views…. ‘Make Twitter’s algorithm and code open source’ –
The first step is addressing the concerns about political censorship. Since Twitter is a free speech platform, opening up the algorithm would not only make it easier to find and edit tweets, it would also prevent political censorship. Musk also wants Twitter to be more transparent about its actions. He has said that he won’t personally edit tweets, but would like to make it clear if they’re changed. While he does not personally moderate tweets, his idea would be to make the code and algorithm available to the public.
He criticized Twitter’s accounting of how many users aren’t real people
Musk bought Twitter after he criticized the company’s accounting of how many users arens’t real people. He wants to “authenticate” Twitter users. He is concerned that spam accounts are taking up valuable Twitter space and that there are some who impersonate people, like Elon Musk. He has also called for a change in Twitter’s policy, saying that people will be unhappy if “West Coast high tech” becomes the arbiter of free speech.
While Twitter’s overall valuation is lower than Facebook, the company has historically enjoyed a high level of influence among users. Musk has publicly mocked Bill Gates’ belly and has used crude language. His past tweets reveal his playful, aggressive, and even juvenile personality. He is also known to post pictures and videos. Musk’s tweets give insight into how he will govern the platform.
He’s trying to back out of the deal because of bots
A recent tweet by Elon Musk reveals that the billionaire has backed out of the Twitter deal over concerns about the use of bots. The social media giant estimates that less than 5% of its users are spam, but cautions that the figure could be even higher. Musk believes that as many as 20% of all Twitter accounts are fake, despite granting him access to a firehose of publicly available data. While Twitter does not publish its spam estimates publicly, it does disclose that it bases them on information such as IP addresses, phone numbers, locations, and other data that can be verified by human users.
Musk is trying to make his case that Twitter is misleading its users and investors with its current bot strategy. While Twitter estimates that the number of bots is less than 5%, Musk believes that this figure is too low and is trying to sabotage the deal by obfuscating the problem. However, it is unclear if the company’s decision to back out of the Twitter deal is a result of the issue or is part of Musk’s larger effort to improve the social network.
He wants to make Twitter’s stock price go down
Unless the lawsuit proves to be successful, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where a judge could order Elon Musk to buy Twitter for less than its original value. Judges have more frequently ordered damages in similar situations than requiring a company to buy itself, and the current deal would likely be far too complex to be overseen by a court in New York. Besides, a judge could make an even bigger mistake if he forced Twitter to buy its stock – he may not want to risk collateral damage, which would essentially be like forcing a buyer to buy itself.
A tweet from Elon Musk claiming that Twitter underestimated bot activity caused investors to doubt his bid. But the tweet was so successful that Twitter stock fell over 30% in one day. Since Musk’s announcement, shares of Twitter have fallen by more than 40%, making the $44 billion price tag look too high to investors. So, how did Elon Musk pull the trigger on this deal? In the end, he may have found an excuse: Twitter bots.
