Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44 billion, plans to privatize the platform

Twitter has officially been sold to the world’s wealthiest person, Elon Musk, for roughly $44 billion.

Elon Musk said he wanted to buy and privatize the social media platform because he thinks it’s not living up to its potential as a place for free speech, but some experts say the move could be problematic. Tech Expert Amber Mac said, “I think at the end of the day it’s going to mean some pretty significant changes for Twitter and its hundreds of millions of users.”

The outspoken Tesla CEO in a joint statement with Twitter said that he wants to make the service “better than ever”.

Mac doesn’t believe Musk is the right fit, “he is a person who likes to share everything from Hitler memes to boner memes and the list goes on and on. He doesn’t necessarily believe in the idea to have decency on that platform but does believe in the idea that you can say, share and promote what you want.”

The Space X founder says twitter will have new features such as getting rid of automated “spambots” and making its algorithms open to the public to increase trust.

In recent weeks, Musk has also voiced relaxing Twitter’s content restrictions. Those are the rules that suspended former President Donald Trump’s account.

When it comes to a push toward absolute freedom of speech, Amber Mac said that Musks ideas could impact safeguards that are currently in place. “I think a lot of people are worried that with Elon Musk taking over the platform that many of those terms would be removed and that potentially means that the dialogue on Twitter, which clearly at this time can be pretty hateful, could potentially get worse,” Mac said.

Twitter said the transaction was unanimously approved by its board of directors.

Twitter said the deal is expected to close sometime this year.