10 hilarious memes that perfectly sum up Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover
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Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter made global headlines with the deal starting as a joke that seemed likely to fizzle out at first before finally happening. The storm surrounding the Twitter acquisition continues to sweep the Internet, as the privatization of one of the world’s largest social platforms continues to provoke mixed reactions.
Twitter has joined Tesla, SpaceX and the other companies under Elon Musk’s control that never seem to shy away from controversy. With more drama than expected following sweeping changes to the platform and the future of free speech seemingly in the hands of one man, netizens couldn’t help but express their feelings. Being the dramatic head that he is, Elon Musk himself joined the meme exchange.
Elon Musk’s stealth approach
Despite being one of the most active billionaires on Twitter, Elon Musk was considered by many to be a troll for how he used the platform to make controversial comments with his chaotic tweets. He even used his Twitter account to fire Facebook after it disabled his account on the platform calling it lame.
Despite being active on Twitter, he never made public his interest in buying the platform, as he does with most of his other big projects. When his interest in the platform became public, he already owned almost 10% and was entitled to a seat on the board. He declined to be a board member and chose to buy everything.
The round trip
Elon Musk didn’t seem interested in buying Twitter before it was confirmed he owned 9.2 percent of the company. The only thing he seemed interested in were a lot of political changes to the platform, some of which seemed impractical. At the time, the $44 billion deal appeared to have collapsed shortly after it became known.
Elon Musk seemed to have made an expensive joke on Twitter, especially after the company took him to court. The back-and-forth that followed had many people wondering if he would be forced to pay a fine for refusing to go ahead with the purchase, but it was later confirmed that he would indeed complete the deal.
The uncertainty surrounding the future of Twitter
All of the companies that Elon Musk owns, including SpaceX with its spaceship and Tesla with its successful new electric vehicles, are huge successes, but none of them are social media platforms that millions of people use every day. There were therefore mixed reactions to the takeover, with many fearing that Elon Musk could herald the end of Twitter as people know it.
Elon Musk’s fans, on the other hand, believed his promises to make the platform better and more inclusive. The worst possible outcome would be Elon Musk destroying it and then walking away, which would be sad, but still possible.
Elon Musk’s Sour Grapes
Before taking over Twitter, Elon Musk had positive tweets about the platform, saying it was the key to unlocking free speech. He later complained about the alleged fake accounts before buying the company, saying executives didn’t want to admit it.
After buying the company, one of his first moves was to fire most of the company’s employees, claiming that the company was losing $4 million a day. The change from purposeful savior to whining owner was unexpected, as many people expected his takeover to be a smooth transition.
What he promised vs. what he delivered
Elon Musk promised a lot of good things in his letter to Twitter’s board as he offered to buy the platform, including “unlocking the company’s full potential” for global freedom of expression. The idea of a Twitter free-for-all with the freed bird symbol was one of the most famous reactions to the news.
However, after the acquisition, Musk proved to be interested in the company’s financial success first, just like any other investor. Instead of the exciting new features that would lead to the famous X app that he promised, Elon Musk introduced the company by firing most of the executives and other employees and introducing user charges.
The paid Twitter saga
Elon Musk said that Twitter was losing millions every day and that he was willing to do anything to make sure the platform turned a profit. The first change he proposed was to replace the free verified account service with a new version with an $8 charge.
The idea of charging for a blue tick didn’t sit well with many people, as many saw it as unnecessarily greedy. Most of the people with verified accounts are celebrities who have a lot of followers and are responsible for the company’s most active tweets, so it seemed like it was shooting itself in the foot.
The Twitter Bot saga
Before buying Twitter for $44 billion, Elon Musk publicly argued with Twitter’s then-CEO about the number of fake accounts on the platform. Musk suggested that fake accounts made up as much as 20 percent, compared to the company’s public information that put accounts at just five percent.
The disagreement was the main reason the deal almost fell through, as Elon Musk demanded access to the technology that generates what Twitter calls monetizable daily active users (mDAU). Twitter took Elon Musk to court when it almost backed out of the deal, but Elon Musk went ahead to sum up the whole ordeal in a meme.
who is next
Elon Musk was one of the most active celebrities on Twitter even before he bought the platform. The platform didn’t seem to bear any resemblance to the billionaire tech innovator’s other companies like SpaceX and Tesla, which is why his suggestions about buying the platform seemed like a joke at first.
He later clarified that he saw Twitter as a public property that was being mismanaged, which is why he chose to buy it. This got many people thinking, what public good will he buy next? He went on to suggest other companies he might buy, including Manchester United.
The departure of celebrities
Within a week of Elon Musk taking over Twitter, more than a million accounts were disabled or suspended in what appeared to be a mass exodus from the platform. It was obvious that not everyone loved the new boss, as some disabled accounts belonged to celebrities.
Gigi Hadid was one of the most prominent departures from Twitter after the inauguration. He described the new platform as a cesspool of hate and bigotry after Elon Musk apparently fired the entire Human Rights team. Toni Braxton, Shonda Rhimes and Tea Leoni are other names on the list of celebrities who have deactivated their Twitter accounts. While the meme is clearly the perspective of one of Musk’s fans, the upvote count of 0 seems to reflect the frustrations of many people.
Short-lived excitement
Elon Musk never refrained from criticizing some policies on Twitter before he took over the company. Restrictions on comedy artists and variety of content are some of the policies he promised to change when he owned the company, which sounded like good news for comics.
However, after taking over, he not only imposed an $8 fee for account verification, but also banned impersonation. This is just one of the many disappointments that some of the people who were excited about the acquisition had, as Elon Musk showed that he would not make the platform free for everyone as he had promised.
