Elon Musk is buying Twitter. How will he fulfill his promises?

Tesla CEO Elon Tesla Musk has promised to become the next Twitter owner. Assuming that happens, next up on his agenda will be planning how to fulfill his promises to develop new Twitter features, open its algorithm to public inspection and defeat “spambots” on the service that mimic real users.

He’ll also need to have the company start “authenticating all humans,” as he described it in a statement quoted in the Monday press release announcing the acquisition. It’s not clear what Musk meant by that phrase.

It is also a question of technological feasibility and how we will know if the changes would be beneficial to users or not.

Experts who have spent years studying content moderation and researching Twitter have doubted that Musk is aware of what he is doing. After all, there are plenty of fledgling examples of “free speech” focused platforms launched in the past few years as Twitter antidotes, largely by conservatives unhappy with the company’s crackdowns on hate, harassment and misinformation. Many have failed to address toxic content and at least one platform has been blocked by its technology providers.

“This move just shows how effective (moderation features) have been to annoy those in power,” saidKirsten Martin is a professor of technology ethics from the University of Notre Dame. “I would be worried as to how this would change Twitter’s values.”

The fact that no other bidders emerged in public before Musk’s deal was a sign that other would-be acquirers might find Twitter too difficult to improve, saidScott Kessler, analyst at Third Bridge.

“This platform is pretty much the same one we’ve had over the last decade or so,” Kessler said. “You’ve had a lot of smart people trying to figure out what they should do, and they’ve had trouble. It’s probably going to be tough to make a lot of headway.”

Musk received some effusive, if highly abstract, praise from an unexpected quarter — Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who praised Musk’s decision to take Twitter “ back from Wall Street ” and tweeted that he trusts Musk’s mission to “ extend the light of consciousness ” — a reference to Dorsey’s notion that “Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness.”

Others familiar with Twitter’s situation say that they are still shocked by Musk’s bid.

“Twitter is going to let a man-child essentially take over their platform,” saidFormer Twitter employee, Leslie Miley has also worked at Google and Apple. Miley was the only Black engineer at Twitter who held a leadership role when he quit the company in 2015. He also expressed doubts regarding Musk’s ability to understand the platform’s complexities.

“I am not sure if Elon knows what he is getting,” Miley said. “He may just find that having Twitter is a lot different than wanting Twitter.”

Musk’s more passive approach to content moderation has many users worried about the potential for disinformation, hate speech, and bullying to flourish on the platform, which it has struggled to control in recent years. Wall Street analysts saidIf he takes it too far, it can also lead to the exclusion of advertisers.

Twitter Inc. shares rose over 5% Monday to $51.70 a share. Musk offered to purchase Twitter for $54.20 per Share on April 14. The stock is up sharply after Musk offered, but it remains well below the $77 per share mark reached in February 2021.

Musk has described himself as a “free-speech absolutist” but is also known for blocking or disparaging other Twitter users who question or disagree with him.

In recent weeks, he has proposed relaxing Twitter content restrictions — such as the rules that suspended former President Donald Trump’s account — while ridding the platform of fake “spambot” accounts and shifting away from advertising as its primary revenue model. Musk believes he can increase revenue through subscriptions that give paying customers a better experience — possibly even an ad-free version of Twitter.

Asked during a recent TED interview if there are any limits to his notion of “free speech,” Musk saidTwitter will adhere to all national laws restricting speech in the world. He would also adhere to any other national laws. said, he’d be “very reluctant” to delete posts or permanently banning users who violate the company’s rules.

It won’t be perfect, Musk added, “but I think we want it to really have the perception and reality that speech is as free as reasonably possible.”

Following the announcement, the NAACP issued an appeal to Musk, urging him not to allow Trump, 45th president, onto the platform.

“Do not allow 45 to return to the platform,” the civil rights organization saidIn a statement. “Do NOT allow Twitter to be a place for hate speech or falsehoods which subvert our democracy.”

Trump was both a candidate and president. He made Twitter a powerful platform for communicating directly with the public. Trump used divisive and incendiary language to address hot-button topics, and often used it as a means of dividing people. After the Jan. 6 storming, Trump was banned permanently from the service.

“If Musk either fires or drives away the team at Twitter that’s committed to keeping it clean and making it less hate-filled, he’ll see an immediate drop in user activity,” said saidSiva Vaidhyanathan (University of Virginia) is a media studies professor. “I think he’s going to find pretty fast that inviting the bigots back in is bad for business.”

Some users saidMonday, they announced that they would quit the platform if Musk takes it over. To which he responded on Twitter: “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”

While Twitter’s user base of more than 200 million remains much smaller than those of rivals such as Facebook and TikTok, the service is popular with celebrities, world leaders, journalists and intellectuals. Musk himself is a prolific twitterer with a following rivaling many pop stars in the ranks for the most popular accounts.

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Krisher reported from Detroit. O’Brien was reporting from Providence, Rhode Island. Reporting by O’Brien was made possible by Marcy Gordon (AP Business Writers), Barbara Ortutay (Oakland, Calif.), and Kelvin Chan (London).