It’s not entirely clear what Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter means for users, experts say

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter is big news in the social media world.

But as money editor Jon Delano explains, it’s not clear exactly what it means for Twitter users.

Twitter has 206 million daily active users around the world, and perhaps double that who hop on at least once a month.  Musk is banking he can grow Twitter by changing some of its rules.

“On the plus side for the average user of Twitter, it might mean they actually find new uses for it. That’s one of the things that is motivating Musk to do this,” says professor Andrew Conte at Point Park University. “He believes Twitter is kind of dying, falling out of fad, so if he finds ways to make it essential again, that would be great.”

Musk is a First Amendment absolutist, meaning he won’t ban people from Twitter for saying outrageous, untruthful, defamatory, hateful or politically incorrect things.

On Monday, Musk noted in a statement, “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.”  

“The concern that most people are going to have is, on the one hand, Musk talks a lot about freedom of speech, say what you want, free country, all of that, almost a libertarian kind of approach,” says professor Anthony Moretti at Robert Morris University. “But he’s been known to be very critical, including blocking people who have been critical of him or his company in the past.”

Some doubt whether Musk will create an “everything goes” posting policy, but social media owners are protected by a federal law from being sued for things posted on their sites, although the person posting can clearly be sued for defamation or face other legal or even employment-related consequences.  

Dozens have been banned from old Twitter for their comments, including Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, Marjorie Taylor Greene and David Duke.  Will Musk allow them back?

“I do think if Musk takes over Twitter, Trump will be back on probably within hours or days. I do suspect that that’s one of the reasons that Musk has an interest in it,” says Conte.

“His politics are sort of amorphous. We don’t really know where he comes down politically, but we do know that he believes in free speech and letting people have a say.”

It’s not clear that Trump wants to get back on Twitter.  After all, he has created his own social media platform.  

Musk also says he wants to make some changes to Twitter.

“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans,” Musk said in a statement. “Twitter has tremendous potential.  I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”   

Some say Musk will grow Twitter beyond its current echo chamber, first by allowing anyone to say whatever they want on Twitter and then, “I think one of the things Musk wants to do is make Twitter more relevant for average users,” says Conte. “The NBA playoffs are going off right now. How do you put Twitter at the center of that?”

“Does he allow something like Facebook or other social media accounts where, for example, you can edit a post in some way?” Moretti suggests as a possible change. “He’s talked about seeing Twitter go mostly ad-free.”

Elon Musk is anything if unpredictable, but Twitter will be something different in the months ahead. Whether that’s enough to attract more users, especially the younger generation that seems to prefer Snapchat, Instagram and Tik Tok is still uncertain.

Jon Delano

Jon Delano is a familiar face on KDKA, having been the station’s political analyst since 1994. In September 2001, Jon joined KDKA full time as the Money & Politics Editor and this region’s only political analyst who covers national and local issues that affect hometown residents.