How Elon Musk Backed Twitter Into a Corner

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorTwitter is now in Elon Musk’s hands. What his successful maneuver to buy the company means for its 200 million-plus users — or for media and entertainment companies that use the platform to reach global audiences — is anything but clear.In the space of three weeks, Musk went from disclosing a 9.2% stake in Twitter to clinching a $44 billion deal for the company on April 25.

The tech billionaire has promoted the idea that he wants to protect “free speech” on Twitter, which he calls “the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.” Analysts expect the deal to get shareholder approval and face no regulatory hurdles.

When it closes, which is projected to be sometime in 2022, Twitter will become a privately held company. It’s tempting to view Musk as a mega-rich guy — he has an estimated net worth of more than $260 billion, making him the wealthiest person in the world — who is throwing around tech-stock play money to get his hands on a new toy for which he gets to set the rules.But Musk’s decisions about how Twitter handles disinformation and hate speech in the name of free speech stand to have a major impact on the company’s business as well as potentially how governments regulate speech on social media.“If Musk decides to loosen content moderation policies, he puts Twitter ad dollars at risk,” says Forrester research director Mike Proulx. “Brands are becoming more conscious of their adjacency to risky content or disinformation, so they may take their dollars to other channels with greater safety measures in place.”It would be surprising if Musk did anything, particularly in the short term, to jeopardize Twitter’s value or radically change its business, says.