The statement that was doing the rounds on Twitter congratulated Elon Musk on the purchase of Twitter and asserted that many people are saying that the change was necessary since the old management was “too concerned with the woke agenda”. Further, the statement said that his old account, which was permanently banned by Twitter, would be back on Monday. “Happy to be able to engage with an African-American owned business”, the statement ended.
However, it soon emerged that the statement was fake. News agency ANI that had tweeted the viral statement earlier published a twitter retracting their earlier update.
As an owner, Musk has moved to assure Twitter employees that he won’t gut the company. And he’s hinted at big plans for the platform, saying he wanted to use Twitter to create an “everything app” as well as “a common digital town square where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.”
Either way, Musk can now do as he likes with the platform. It’s a good bet that some controversial political figures could find their Twitter bans lifted. Political observers are watching not just for the return of Trump — who now has his own social platform and may not come back — but provocateur figures such as Roger Stone and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), whose personal account was suspended for spreading covid misinformation. And Musk seems inclined to usher in an era of loosened content restrictions, a sentiment that has many users and tech watchdogs concerned.
With just 12 days until the midterm elections, a resurrected Trump Twitter account could have electoral implications, giving the former president a megaphone to again challenge election results, blast his opponents and spread falsehoods.
What exactly Musk does next is an open question, to say nothing of Trump.
In an effort seemingly aimed at easing concerns from nervous advertisers, Musk, a self-professed “free-speech absolutist,” promised on Thursday that the platform would not descend into “a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences.”
But his first move was to fire four top executives, according to reports Thursday night, including CEO Parag Agrawal and legal chief Vijaya Gadde, the official who guided the company’s policies on harmful speech, and whose team banned Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
While the question of whether to indict a former president yields few easy answers, there is only one that is just: Trump must face criminal charges for his efforts to defraud the American people of their right to elect a president.
Bringing federal charges in any case requires as a threshold matter that a prosecutor determine that the defendant's conduct constitutes a federal offense and that there is sufficient evidence to sustain a conviction. Thanks in part to the committee's work, we know there is overwhelming evidence that Trump participated in a conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstructed an official proceeding of Congress — just two of the offenses that federal prosecutors are likely considering. Charging Trump would also meet other requirements, including that it serve a substantial federal interest. Other relevant considerations would support charging Trump too: Few imaginable federal offenses could be more serious than a criminal conspiracy to unlawfully remain in power. Trump was at the center of the various efforts to remain in power, and he has fought the DOJ's efforts to investigate the Jan. 6 attacks.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and finance chief Ned Segal have left the company’s San Francisco headquarters and will not be returning, sources said. Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal policy, trust, and safety was also fired, the Washington Post reported.
Musk had until Friday to complete his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter or face a court battle with the company.
The billionaire tweeted “the bird is freed” in an apparent reference to the takeover being completed.
In April, Twitter accepted Musk’s proposal to buy the social media service and take it private. However, Musk soon began sowing doubt about his intentions to follow through with the agreement, alleging that the company failed to adequately disclose the number of spam and fake accounts on the service.
When Musk said he was terminating the deal, Twitter sued the billionaire, alleging he “refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.”
In the ensuing months, Twitter and Musk would trade barbs via their attorneys as the two parties were slated to head to Delaware’s Court of Chancery to determine the fate of the company and whether it would end up in the Tesla chief’s hands.
Earlier in October, Musk had a change of heart and said he wanted to pursue his acquisition of Twitter at the original price of $54.20 a share if the social messaging service dropped its litigation. Distrustful of Musk’s motivations, Twitter’s lawyers said that the Tesla CEO’s “proposal is an invitation to further mischief and delay.”
A Delaware Chancery Court judge eventually ruled that Musk had until Oct. 28 to cement the Twitter deal or head to trial.
It is still unclear how Musk will finance the deal. Earlier this year, Musk secured some debt financing from a number of investment banks. He also got the backing of some high-profile investors including venture capital firms and technology CEOs.
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance, one of the original backers, confirmed to CNBC on Friday that it is an equity investor in Musk’s Twitter takeover.
“We’re excited to be able to help Elon realize a new vision for Twitter. We aim to play a role in bringing social media and Web3 together in order to broaden the use and adoption of crypto and blockchain technology,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a statement.
Web3 is a term the technology industry uses to refer to the next-generation of the internet.
On Thursday, Musk wrote a message intended to reassure advertisers that social messaging services wouldn’t devolve into “a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”
The select committee's public hearings, which culminated Oct. 13, made clear how Trump and his allies planned and executed a conspiracy to overturn the will of the American people. The committee demonstrated that Trump and those around him knew he had lost the 2020 presidential election but nevertheless pushed false election fraud claims to justify their efforts to overturn the results. The committee explained how Trump and his allies illegally pressured Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the will of the people, illegally pressured and harassed Arizona and Georgia legislators and election workers to do the same, and pressured the Department of Justice to legitimize election fraud lies to create a false pretext for overturning the election.
The committee further demonstrated that Trump's allies were in touch with violent extremist groups to plan the "Stop the Steal" rally on the morning of Jan. 6, that Trump had clearly specified that date for mob action in a tweet — after a marathon meeting with lawyers made clear that other options to overturn the election were not promising — that Trump sent a mob he knew to be armed to the Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power, and that he anticipated, incited and encouraged the violence that occurred on Jan. 6.
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