It is difficult to answer the question about the Twitter success after Elon Musk acquired it. The new CEO has been bringing many policy changes that he promised, but on a trial and error basis. Elon could convince the users earlier about the information that he will bring when he acquires the platform. One of the assurances that he gave the Twitteratis is about the liberty to practice free speech on Twitter. He is an absolutist, but the freedom is restrictive. It was seen during the 2020 elections.
During the pre election campaigns, the former President Donald Trump created a havoc. The amount of misinformation, erratic behavior displayed post and before the elections was unprecedented. In order to curb it, the former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey took the decision. The decision got a mixed bag of reactions. Conservatives criticised it heavily and Democrats welcomed the decision. But, Musk is an absolutist, and he believes that free speech is “the bedrock of the democracy”. So, after reinstating certain controversial figures, Elon Musk-led Twitter will lift the ban on the political advertisements.
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Elon Musk-Led Twitter Reinstates Political Advertisements
In 2019, the then Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that the platform will no longer run the political advertisements. Twitter was plagued with misinformation. Dorsey, in a Twitter thread, cited reasons for doing so. He said that the political ads on the internet “present entirely new challenges to civic discourse”.
The rise of the misinformation, deep fakes, and unverified information is at a greater “velocity, sophistication, and overwhelming scale”.
We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons…🧵
— jack (@jack) October 30, 2019
But, in a new decision, Twitter has overturned the ban and decided on a plan “to expand the political advertising we permit in the coming weeks”. On January 3rd, 2023, on Twitter’s Safety Page, they provided the reason to lift the ban. They wrote, “We believe that cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics”.
So, in the light of it, Twitter will be lifting the ban on cause-based ads in the USA. The microblogging site will be in tandem with the advertising policies of TV and other media organizations.
Moving forward, we will align our advertising policy with that of TV and other media outlets. As with all policy changes, we will first ensure that our approach to reviewing and approving content protects people on Twitter. We'll share more details as this work progresses.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 3, 2023
In the tweet, they said, “As with all policy changes, we will first ensure that our approach to reviewing and approving content protects people on Twitter”. In October 2022, Musk announced about the content moderation policy which was levied with the task of scrutinizing the content on the platform along with reinstatements. But, the billionaire dropped the plan after its revenue plunged when the activists lobbied against advertising on Twitter. The platform lost a major chunk of the revenue after advertisers pulled out.
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The CEO Had Lost Billions In 2022
The year 2022 was not a good one for the tech industry, especially the last quarter. Due to many overestimations, many companies had lost a lot of money. The post-pandemic flux that the companies went through coupled with a looming fear of recession proved fatal. But, the person who lost a major chunk of his money was Elon Musk. In 2022, the Tesla owner decided to dabble into the social media space and proposed to buy Twitter.
Elon Musk traded his Tesla stocks which are valued worth $4 billion. He also got funding from external sources. But, the purchase is not proving financially viable for him. According to a Forbes report, the billionaires collectively lost $669 billion in 2022. But, Elon Musk contributed $115 billion to the money that went into the drain. The Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund was one of the investors who aided him for the $44 billion purchase. The company’s stake valuation was $19.66 million, which was reduced to $8 million in November 2022.
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