Elon Musk's love of Twitter has been a lot like the billionaire himself: Brusque is troubling, engulfed with plot twists, and ultimately was taken seriously by a larger technical body that initially considered his offer as a pipe dream.
Musk is almost as savage as Twitter's sale, and the news cycle rumours that the deal might come up has taken most of the oxygen out of the room over the past few weeks.
The first hint that Tesla's CEO might be interested in the long-defying social media platform came on April 4, when reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed that Musk had taken a 9.2% share in Twitter.
This leads to a slew of activity during which Musk taped from being an active investor to becoming an active investor and then returning to being an active investor again.
Musk has long been a critic of Twitter's free speech policies. He is a major contributor to the American Civil Liberties Union and has held the forefront of debates for years.
President Obama expressed his support for social media, which was harmed immediately by concerns about privacy, and alerted Republicans, who demanded that all of Twitter's communications with Musk be preserved.
During the week, he asked his 83 billion Twitter followers what changes they'd like to see done at the company, while simultaneously trolling its board of directors by proposing that the platform's headquarters be a homeless shelter and drop the "T" from their name.
Musk has declined a seat on the board of directors. The board then adopted a "poison tablet" strategy to prevent a takeover.
Finally, on April 14, he offered what he called the company's "best and final" offer of $52.20 a share, which is around $43 billion.
Several weeks later, he offered a strategy for structuring the proposal, and created three holding firms through which he'd finance the offer and merge a subsidiary with Twitter.
According to Musk, Twitter is a bit overpowered.
What Does Donald Trump Mean?
Donald Trump, the most historically important user of Twitter, is Donald Trump.
His use of the platform without a warning, and seemingly without a compromise from any of his advisors or government agencies, leads to a fresh age in political discourse.
In this way, a politician may directly speak to the masses without a filter, context, the press parsing his statements, or even a media handler.
Trump was banned from Twitter for inciting violence during the riot on January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol. The company said its statements on the platform resulted in direct violent actions by his supporters, and he was suspended entirely.
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That blew both Trump's most valuable outreach to his supporters and followers, but also put the company on the outs with millions of new users, many of whom had joined the platform specifically to follow the former president or retweet their support.
For a while, the program looked like it might solve the propaganda dilemma, but the effort, dubbed Truth Social, threw itself away on the stock market and failed to sign up even a fraction of its users.
Having Elon Musk operating on Twitter, the billionaire's previous statements about limited freedom of speech have many market observers wondering: Is Donald Trump on the verge of making a comeback on Twitter?
The Trump Twitter Conundrum
Both sides of the aisle have welcomed Musk's vigorous defense of free speech in some ways.
Many First Amendment rights professors have agreed that a language that is legal in the United States should be used on the platform without limitations.
Then there's the point at which the agreement between parties comes to an end.
When Musk polled them in March, about 1.4 million of Musk's followers said they did not believe that Twitter protected the freedom of speech.
Musk followed that up with a tweet asking, "Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public city square, and failing to adhere to free speech principles is fundamentally causing havoc on democracy." What should be done?
The suggestion that Musk may be in charge of Twitter and its rules to govern speech on its platform have sparked a stir among many conservative users, pundits, and lawmakers.
A group of 18 Republicans mailed a letter on April 22 asking for Twitter's entire communication with Musk over the deal, many of whom said the site's prohibition of Trump was unfair and partisan.
As the midterm elections approaches, Twitter begin to begin signaling their priorities when they return to the House of Representatives in November, this move was seen as a warning bullet.
Musk has also stated that Twitter should be "very cautious with permanent restrictions," and has criticised the left in various tweets, including saying, "The wake virus is making Netflix unwatchable."
The possibility that Musk will modify Trump's account may be based on three things: one, is he willing to go to court if Trump returns to Twitter? Three, how close does he want to sew on the First Amendment's free speech exceptions?
The answer should be published in the near future, according to Thomson. On April 25, Musk was accepted.
