I won't be surprised if Musk gets rid of Twitter in a year or two.

[Kablooie]

First, if he opens it up to unmoderated free speech it will be swamped with ads, scams, child porn, propaganda, hate speech and all other kinds of horrors. So there will have to be rules as to acceptable and unacceptable speech. I expect he plans to use AI extensively to implement rules. Over time this might be a solution but I'm sure it's a very difficult problem and the specifics will have to be constantly updated as new innovative abuses are developed by the underbelly of societies.

Also Twitter is worldwide and each country has it's own ideas of what should and shouldn't be posted. In China, for example, if Musk allows speech unacceptable to the government they could stop Tesla sales or shut down the Tesla plant. Other countries could also use threats to Tesla sales in order to control him. He will have to allow government censorship in order to continue to grow Tesla.

Keeping speech free while limiting abuse is a real headache for media companies.
Defining the balance of acceptable and unacceptable speech could be a problem that sucks up a lot of Musk's time. His other companies could suffer as a result.

So in a year or two we may find Musk trying to get out from under Twitter.
How he does this, I don't know. I don't think he will find anyone who wants to buy it outright so maybe he would have to take it public again and then shove it off onto a new CEO. Who knows?

I just expect it's going to be a big problem for him in the future and one he wishes he hadn't taken on.

[WarGamer]

1. It won't suck up any of Musk's time.

He has people.

And I've heard nothing about "unmoderated"...

[Ocelot II]

2. Dog chases car. Dog catches car. Now what?

I sure wouldn't want to be in charge of a goat rodeo like Twitter.

[Haggard Celine]

3. "Goat rodeo"

I've never heard that expression before, but damn, is it apt.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Musk seems to have a short attention span. Like Slobfather, he may just get bored with...

the whole thing and dump it.

[joshcryer]

5. All he's going to do is shadowban people.

And modify the algorithm so that people on the far right don't get signal boosted. Some on the left may also fall into that (mainly the doxxers who are fairly common on Twitter). Shadowbanned links to posts will remain visible (which will boost the far right on other platforms) but they won't get pushed to the platform as a whole and retweeting them won't do anything. It'll be obvious to those accounts they're shadowbanned but Musk will say "your posts are visible I don't know why you are complaining."

I guarantee you a year from now there won't be much of a difference and Musk will be sitting on a platform that is not, decidedly, worth the price he paid. I expect him to go public again after awhile so he can just have a company that is pumped by investors.

[USALiberal]

6. I'm sure he has his best people working on it. Nt

[OAITW r.2.0]

7. $44BB and burn it? Why?

Musk knows a great communication channel to own when he sees it. Go Private and try to manage that Free Speech thing that he thinks he knows.

[Eliot Rosewater]

8. I have seen the future. GOP states refuse to certify any election they lose, twitter spreads

lies about voter fraud.

America is done.

[rockfordfile]

9. I could careless but when he becomes the owner it's time to quit twitter.

We shouldn't support a un-American fascist and racist pos.

[Walleye]

10. He has already been warned by the EU. They don't like hate speech or violence

[Stuart G]

11. Much sooner in my opinion. It will be a ..."Pain in the Ass "...He thinks he can run it all..

...that is really ....stupid!

[Flaleftist]

13. I don't see him kowtowing to China or any other government, like Google and others already do

I may not agree with everything he does or says, but that doesn't seem like him. I think his ego is too big to allow it to appear that he is subservient to China. Obviously, some moderation will be necessary, but allowing things like child porn verse the Wuhan Lab leak theory to be discussed are two different things. I'm sure the former will not be tolerated. If for no other reason, because it is illegal.

[JHB]

14. Two scenarios:

1) Aside from some PR stunts, thanks to advice from his lawyers, it stays pretty much the same; or
2) It follows the model of MySpace after Murdoch bought it: His actions drive people off, it goes away, and is supplanted by something else.

Even the RWers will leave if everyone else does. That's why all their attempts at substitute services have failed: They don't like it if it's only people they agree with. The need people on the site they can troll or attack to make it worth their while.

[UTUSN]

15. "unmoderated free speech it will be swamped" - that'll do it, he (no one) can handle it