One of the top social media platforms in the world is going through a massive shift. 

Two weeks ago, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, per Forbes, made a public offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion. Now, multiple news outlets are reporting that Twitter’s board agreed to the takeover. 

Twitter, of course, has hundreds of millions of users worldwide. For Musk, free speech is a huge selling point for him. Social media platforms often promote such, as Musk is trying to do. Twitter has suspended many users over their history. The most well-known case came when President Donald Trump was suspended from the platform following the events at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. 

Musk often advertises himself as a man of the people. He is flashy, and always active on Twitter, even before offering to buy the platform. He often tweets about his business ventures, and even hosted Saturday Night Live last year. The people responded to him after Musk had bought a significant amount of Twitter shares prior to his final offer. The stock price of Twitter then rose, and another bump was seen following the announcement of the deal. 

In terms of changes to the platform, free speech and appeal to users seems to be the priority. Defeating spam bots, authenticating all humans, and making algorithms open sources to increase trust were among the goals stated by Musk in his announcement tweet. 

On April 4, Musk tweeted a somewhat cryptic poll related to the edit button, the most commonly recommended feature that Twitter has yet to implement. Over 4.4 million people voted in said poll, with 74% in favor of an edit button. Time will tell if that addition is actually put into place. 

Will the changes to the platform really be significant? The odds are low. Musk is not going to completely shut everything down, or turn the app into something it is not. However, the reinstallation of banned accounts like Trump and others could be something to watch out for if Musk’s free speech policy is put in practice.