Twitter is by far one of the most renowned social media platforms. It’s a simplistic platform that’s accessible to nearly everyone and is easy to navigate, allowing users to share their interests quickly, engage in trends, and stay up to date with the latest news. In 2022 alone, over 450 million users actively use the app monthly. However, a recent change was suddenly announced, shocking almost all Twitter users: one of the wealthiest people in the world took over Twitter. In a $44 billion deal with some legal challenges, Elon Musk officially bought Twitter.

Musk ultimately revealed his ulterior motives, explaining why he bought the company. He describes himself as a “free speech absolutist,” desiring to make the platform a place where freedom of speech is true to its name. With his announcement, many internet trolls thought he would not moderate against hate speech, but he reassured users that the platform will not become a “free-for-all hellscape,” ultimately ruining the trolls’ plans. Though even with his reassurance, trolls are discovering loopholes to the moderation, recently increasing the amount of hate speech.

However, that doesn’t mean people aren’t testing the boundaries. Soon after buying the company, there has been a chaotic response from the Twitter audience. An organized campaign of internet users began to spread anti-Semitic posts under the hashtag “#TheNoticing” in regard to Musk’s speech stance. With over 1,200 tweets under the hashtag, many posts promoted harmful stereotypes about Jewish people, which are still online to see. Additionally, there was a spike in the usage of the N-word. According to The Washington Post, the usage of the word increased by 500% 12 hours after his takeover.

Seeing a rise in the usage of racism, LeBron James, a famous NBA star, tweets, “I don’t know Elon Musk and, tbh, I could care less who owns Twitter. But I will say that if this is true, I hope he and his people take this very seriously because this is scary.”

With both negative and positive opinions on his takeover, Musk ignites heavy backlash for other planned changes for Twitter. For example, there’s plenty of backlash regarding the firing of many Twitter employees. With the company’s priorities changing, there have been many reports of workers panicking about their job.

Musk is also working on the hugest revamp yet, the blue check mark for verified users. In order to be verified, The Verge reported that users would have to pay $19.99 a month to verify their validity.

“Elon Musk buying Twitter was probably his worst decision at the worst time,” mentioned Arcadia High School (AHS) freshman Stephanie Liu. “He’s just encouraging internet trolls to ruin the platform for everyone. It feels draining to open Twitter now.”

Though the backlash overpowers the positivity, some people believe that Musk’s takeover was necessary.

“I believe that Elon Musk buying Twitter was a good thing,” stated AHS sophomore Jaiden Chou. “Elon Musk is constantly trying to improve the quality of life for humans. Now, Elon Musk is working to enhance not only the real-life world but to the online world. Maybe he’s struggling right now, but soon, users will realize the importance of his control.”

Currently, Twitter is still facing undying controversy over Musk’s takeover, causing further damage to its reputation. Yet, it begs the question–will Twitter really withstand Musk’s takeover?

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