What Twitter looks like if Elon Musk buys it

Many unknowns remain if the sale of Twitter to Musk happens, but here's the latest on the situation from a variety of sources.

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With that being said, here’s today’s topic:

Is Elon Musk really going to buy Twitter after all? If he does, what’s Twitter going to look like afterwards?

Here are some takes on this topic you should take seriously.

Did Elon convince Kanye to get back on Twitter? Maybe. It would make sense to have Kanye tweeting again because right afterwards he had an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show. The MAGA folks made a big deal of that appearance. They wanted to build some hype around their people coming back to Elon’s Twitter 2.0. But it’s hard to see a master plan after Kanye went all in with the anti-Semitism days later. Maybe he just can’t stop himself from the full on crazy stuff.

Bloomberg Markets @markets

Kanye West posted on Twitter for the first time in nearly two years and was welcomed by Elon Musk, who’s poised to buy the social media network

trib.alKanye West Returns to Twitter, Welcomed by Elon MuskKanye West posted on Twitter Inc. for the first time in nearly two years. Among those who welcomed his return was Elon Musk, who’s poised to buy the social media network.

Kanye got his tweets removed and was temporarily banned from Twitter as a result. Elon’s solution was to talk to him. Herein lies the issue with the “free speech absolutist” philosophy Musk adheres to. Eventually people say things horrible enough that you have to do something about it and “talking to them” isn’t going to cut it.

Elon Musk @elonmusk

@kanyewest Talked to ye today & expressed my concerns about his recent tweet, which I think he took to heart

Perhaps the only plan is that there is no plan.

Washington Post Opinions @PostOpinions

Elon Musk will likely buy Twitter. Now he has to run a company he doesn’t want, @asymmetricinfo writes.

wapo.stOpinion | Musk will likely buy Twitter. Now he has to run a company he doesn’t want.There are risks to democracy and the company itself.

Who was Elon texting with that calls Trump “the boss himself”? It’s unclear, but it seems to be someone who does or did work for Trump recently.

Ben Collins @oneunderscore__

Wow. As part of this Twitter suit, here are some texts to Elon Musk from a redacted recipient and sender. One talks about letting back on "the boss himself" — likely Trump — and creates a strategy for making a "Blake Masters type" a "VP of enforcement."

The Chancery Daily @chancery_daily

this is weird — right after the 13-d disclosure, right during board negotiations, elon's fielding a bunch of people who want to invest/be involved, and then this set of messages has a redacted recipient/sender... https://t.co/cP6qfXfq4G

This about Darren Beattie is accurate.

Michael Edison Hayden @MichaelEHayden

To clarify this even more, Darren: Elon Musk outed as reading a blog edited by an isolated, extremist crank. The Trump White House fired this guy for attending a white nationalist event and it doesn’t exactly speak well of Musk that he reads his site.

Beattie is part of the Steve Bannon, Mike Cernovich, Jack Posobiec “Alt-Lite” MAGA troll crew. They had a lot of Twitter friends banned back in 2016, and they want them to all come back. They’re hoping Elon brings them (and Trump) back to make it more chaotic than ever.

Michael Edison Hayden @MichaelEHayden

If you think Elon Musk giving Trump, Project Veritas and Alex Jones a bigger social platform to manipulate will benefit the future of free speech, you’re totally delusional.

Is Elon talking to Steve Bannon? Probably. I’d be more surprised if he wasn’t at this point.

CaitlinSinclairTV @CSinclairtv

🚨BREAKING: Sources tell Bannon Twitter gave @elonmusk 2 conditions 1.Trump & Conservatives remain off Twitter 2.Twitter staff remains the same Musk said..... NO DEAL.

MAGA really, really wants Trump back on the platform.

Brigitte Gabriel @ACTBrigitte

The first thing Elon Musk should do once he takes over Twitter is bring back Trump!

Anti-Trump Resistance accounts like this guy want Trump back so they can quote tweet and reply to him all day. They’re more interested in appearing to oppose Trump than in actually opposing him. They know Trump is great for growing their brand and virtue signalling as one of the good guys.

BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ @mmpadellan

If Elon Musk brings trump back onto this platform, I'm not leaving, I'm not going anywhere. YOU?

Another Resistance anti-Trump Twitter account calls Elon Musk a "Russia-friendly Republican billionaire". This is pretty classic case of a inflammatory and misleading tweet that often goes viral. This isn’t true but it’s also not libelous. Expect more of this if Elon takes over.

Duty To Warn 🔉 @duty2warn

Elon Musk is a national security threat. A Russia-friendly Republican billionaire who has promised to flood Twitter with misinformation (aka “free speech”) and bring back Trump is threatening to buy Twitter, again. He must be stopped.

It does seem as though the establishment wing of the Republican Party really doesn’t want Trump back on Twitter. This is in line with them repeatedly asking him to wait until after the midterms to announce his 2024 Presidential run. McConnell and McCarthy know that Trump’s crazy tweets turn off voters and will cost them elections.

Kurt Bardella @kurtbardella

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Elon Musk inviting Trump back to Twitter is the October surprise Kevin McCarthy & Mitch McConnell don’t want to see happen …

Similar commentary here from Matt Yglesias. I think he’s right in the short term. Trump’s tweets might help Dems win an election or two, but bringing Trump back along with more “Nazis and bigots” on the platform isn’t going to make another insurrection less likely.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

IMO the relationship between Twitter content moderation policies and electoral outcomes is a little ambiguous — letting Trump back on here almost certainly good for Dems, letting more Nazis and bigots back on also probably good for Dems.

Ben Collins @oneunderscore__

For those of you asking: Yes, I do think this site can and will change pretty dramatically if Musk gets full control over it. No, there is no immediate replacement. If it gets done early enough, based on the people he's aligned with, yes, it could actually affect midterms.

This is a big maybe, but this possibility has been bounced around for years now with the Section 230 discussion.

Citizens for Ethics @CREWcrew

If Elon Musk buys Twitter, takes it private and lets Donald Trump back on, and the Supreme Court spikes Section 230, would Musk and Twitter be liable for violent threats against the government posted by Trump?

Sequoia Capital and Binance are still planning on financing Elon’s purchase of Twitter. All of the funding isn’t secured yet, but they’ll probably find the money when they need to.

The Information @theinformation

Sequoia Capital and Binance, two of the biggest equity backers of Elon Musk’s planned $44 billion takeover of Twitter, are committed to funding the deal.

thein.foSequoia Capital, Binance Stand By Equity Funding for Musk’s Twitter TakeoverAt least two major equity investors backing Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter plan to go ahead with theirfunding, as the billionaire moves toward closing the deal after dramatically reversing his position on it. Sequoia Capital, which has committed $800 million to the deal, plans to keep its ...

 The market thinks there’s a 60% chance the deal closes by the Oct 28 deadline.

Bloomberg @business

The market is pricing in just a bit more than the odds of a coin toss that Elon Musk’s Twitter deal will close by Oct. 28, a court-issued deadline. That’s the calculation from Cowen's Aaron Glick

trib.alMarket Sees 60% Chance Musk’s Twitter Deal Makes Oct. 28 Deadline, Cowen SaysThe market is pricing in just a bit more than the odds of a coin toss that Elon Musk’s deal with Twitter Inc. will close by Oct. 28, a court-issued deadline. That’s the calculation from Aaron Glick, a merger arbitrage strategist at Cowen Inc.

One theory from an ex-employee is that Elon wants to “buy the Twitter name, the completely gut and change it”. Nobody at the company really knows what that looks like in practice.

The Independent @Independent

Elon Musk wants to ‘buy the Twitter name, then gut it’, ex-employee claims

independent.co.ukElon Musk wants to ‘buy the Twitter name, then gut it’, ex-employee claims‘It feels like the perfect time to try and get out — or prepare yourself for what’s going to happen’, they said

This is an interesting interview talking about the damage unmoderated or poorly moderated social media platforms can have on the world. The interviewee is Roger McNamee, a former adviser to Mark Zuckerberg who fell out with him over his handling of Facebook's security problems.

Yahoo Finance @YahooFinance

The “situation with Kanye West, with Elon Musk attempting to buy Twitter, really highlights the extraordinary inaction… by Congress, by the president, to do something about what is clearly a threat… to safety in the country,” @Moonalice says.

This is probably true. Elon doesn’t want Twitter and Twitter doesn’t want him, but it’s probably going to happen anyway.

Jonathan V. Last @JVLast

Elon doesn't want Twitter. Twitter doesn't want Elon. The finance gimps were hoping the deal would fall apart. Users are going to hate Troll Twitter 2.0. Everybody loses. Except for one guy . . .

thetriad.thebulwark.comElon Musk: Chaos MonkeyStart the Trump-Twitter Countdown Clock.

So why would Elon go through with buying it after pulling out once? Because the Musk v. Twitter lawsuit led a Delaware court to release hundreds of Elon's text messages, and if the sale goes through before October 28th, the lawsuit goes away and the damaging personal leaks stop.

Charlie Warzel @cwarzel

Wrote about the Musk texts. What I found illuminating about the messages is just how unimpressive, unimaginative, and sycophantic the powerful men in Musk’s contacts appear to be. Just overconfident dudes winging it

theatlantic.comElon Musk’s Texts Shatter the Myth of the Tech GeniusThe world’s richest man has some embarrassing friends.

Some personal thoughts to leave you with.

Elon doesn’t really want to buy Twitter.

Elon is probably going to end up buying Twitter anyway.

It’s not clear what will happen to Twitter if/when he buys it, but it could be very bad if Elon keeps listening to the people who listen to Steve Bannon.

Elon’s “free speech absolutist” ideology has been tried on social media before. Jack Dorsey even tried it with Twitter! No one else has made this work, so what makes Elon any different?

One thing that is likely to happen is Trump returning to Twitter.

Trump coming back is bad, but the people who tell you it’s bad THE LOUDEST are often anti-Trump Resistance accounts you should ignore. Quote tweeting or replying to Trump with mean words does not hurt him. In fact, he wants you to.

Good luck everyone. We’re going to need it.