Elon Musk’s Twitter buy is ‘Mark Zuckerberg’s nightmare’

The blockbuster multi-billion dollar deal promises to drastically and permanently alter the social media landscape, and one tech titan stands to be the big loser.

Elon Musk. Picture: AFP

Elon Musk will transform social media platform Twitter into a bastion of free speech, while providing a nightmare scenario for Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, in a multi-billion-dollar deal that promises to drastically and permanently alter the social media landscape.

Mr Musk, the world’s richest person, shocked the tech world announcing an agreed deal to take over control of Twitter in an acquisition worth about $61bn, one of the largest deals in tech history. Twitter’s board was initially against the move but was quickly persuaded by the Tesla founder’s vision of a free speech utopia, and the sheer size of his offer, which came at a 38 per cent premium.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Mr Musk said announcing the deal.

“Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey instantly gave the move a big tick and called Mr Musk “the singular solution I trust.”

“In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company,” he wrote on Twitter. “Solving for the problem of it being a company, however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of ­consciousness.”

Mr Musk has promised Twitter will focus on human authentication and defeating spam bots, while adding new features and implementing more free speech on the platform. He will also take the company private, prying control from Wall Street and ending the platform’s decade-long run as a public company. The deal is expected to close later this year, pending shareholder approval.

The takeover will have serious ramifications for other social media networks, chiefly Meta, which owns social media apps Facebook and Instagram. Meta’s share price has fallen by 40 per cent in the past six months.

Mr Musk buying Twitter is “Mark Zuckerberg’s worst nightmare come to life”, according to Sabri Suby, the founder of digital agency King Kong.

Mark Zuckerberg.

Mr Musk had proved himself as the world’s most successful tech entrepreneur, he said, and engineers would likely jump ship for an opportunity to work with the enigmatic executive.

“It is very likely he will keep it private, turn it around, make it a huge business and then go public again. Which, if you are an engineer with stock options, could be very attractive given Tesla’s stock performance,” Mr Suby said.

“I believe Musk will run the platform much more commercially. Twitter has arguably one of the worst ad platforms, which has resulted in low adoption of ads on Twitter, compared to other social platforms. When anyone buys a business, it is about getting what you want for a good price and seeing beyond its current worth.

“He’ll bring in the best talent and engineering minds on the planet. They’ll want to improve the advertising side of Twitter, make it better to use to increase ad adoption and lift revenue.”

The shift to “free speech” would be very real, Mr Suby said, adding that Twitter under Mr Musk would ease back on censorship and likely make the rules much clearer about what users can and can’t say.

He said many of Twitter’s banned users, including former US President Donald Trump, may return to the platform.

“Twitter’s rules on censorship are not being governed in a way that tells the user what is or isn’t being censored, or why,” he said.

“Increased transparency all round is a very positive move.”

Twitter has overall lacked leadership passion for some time, according to the CEO of ASX-listed tech company Zoom2u Steven Orenstein who told The Australian that the social media company now has a true visionary at the helm.

“I don‘t think the move is at all about the money,” he said.

“I think it is more about creating a platform that stands out among other tech giants, a platform for free speech, which is great. There is always the risk that one individual owning the business could eventually skew sentiment towards their own opinions, but this is unlikely with Musk, and would be hard to do with Twitter.

“Essentially, having a business that is run by the person that owns it, which Twitter currently lacks, can only be a good thing. Musk will have the motivation to see Twitter become very successful in this way.”