Musk to buy Twitter

The social media giant announced the purchase, worth roughly $44 billion dollars, on Monday. Billionaire Elon Musk revealed earlier this month that he’d bought a 9 percent stake in Twitter. After initially saying he would take a seat on the board, Musk announced his intention to buy the company outright and take it private. Twitter tried to block the attempt with a so-called “poison pill” measure, but the board unanimously decided to negotiate after Musk revealed he’d secured financing for the purchase.

Will Twitter change? The Tesla CEO has described himself as a “free-speech absolutist” and says Twitter should stop censoring content and banning people who say unpopular things. On Monday he tweeted, “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.” In a joint statement with Twitter, Musk said he plans to improve the platform by getting rid of automated “spambots” and opening algorithms to the public. Twitter’s share price rose by 5 percent Monday. The sale is expected to be final this year.

Dig deeper: Read Anna Timmis’ report in Muse about The Babylon Bee and Twitter censorship.