What Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter may mean for the company and free speech

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• Judy Woodruff:

  And now to our other lead story.

  Business entrepreneur Elon Musk and Twitter announced a $44 billion deal today for Musk to buy the company and take it over. The deal reportedly is the largest to take a public company private in at least two decades. It's also led to major concerns about how Musk, who is one of the world's richest men, will handle questions of extremist content and free speech.

  As Stephanie Sy tells us, Musk says he has plans to change Twitter's approach and how it operates.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Judy, when Elon Musk first made his bid about two weeks ago, many weren't sure how seriously to treat his offer. But after a surprising weekend of negotiations, Twitter's board accepted the offer today.

  Musk has made it clear repeatedly he does not agree with all of Twitter's previous bans on users for posting content that might be considered hateful or used to incite violence. In announcing the deal, Musk wrote today: "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.

  For a look at some important questions, I am joined by The Washington Post Silicon Valley correspondent Elizabeth Dwoskin.

  Elizabeth, thanks for joining the "NewsHour."

  Elon Musk has put a good chunk of his net worth into this bid for Twitter, but he has made it clear this was never about business. So, what is it about?

• Elizabeth Dwoskin, The Washington Post:

  Yes, he has said it is not about money repeatedly.

  I think you have to take him at his word that, in the last year, he has become fairly obsessed with talking about ideas about free speech and the digital town square and the power of platforms like Twitter. And he wants to control that.

  And I will also put in that he is probably this savviest marketer in the world. And his own personal marketing mechanism is his own 80 million-plus Twitter follower presence online. So this is also buying his own marketing machine.

• Stephanie Sy:

  But ownership, as you know, is not the same thing as control.

  On the free speech issue, today, Elon Musk tweeted — quote — "I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means."

  Elizabeth, is it fair to assume that Musk is going to try and shed all constraints on legal free speech on Twitter?

• Elizabeth Dwoskin:

  I mean, he said that.

  He said, basically, Twitter should follow the — social platforms should — he thinks should follow the letter of the law on free speech in the U.S., which we all know is — well, is the First Amendment, which basically allows huge latitude for free speech, short of direct calls for violence.

  So he's said that. And I just got off listening in on a town hall on Twitter that — within Twitter's employees, that are they're talking about it literally right now at Twitter. And what the employees themselves are extremely worried, that he's going to strip the company of the safeguards and protections against misinformation and hate speech that the company has worked to build over the last five or so years.

  People that work there are really, really worried about that. And some are even tweeting crying emojis right now.

• Stephanie Sy:

  He's not only going to have to be accountable, though, to his employees, now that he's the owner of Twitter, Elizabeth. Won't he also have to go through the same tightwire act of not losing users and advertisers?

  I mean, isn't that, to some degree, accountability?

• Elizabeth Dwoskin:

  I think so.

  One of the questions that was asked at the town hall, though, was, it seems like there's not — when he takes the company private, there might not be a board of directors. So people were actually asking today, what kind of accountability will there be on Musk if he wants to reinstate Trump's account, for example, or allow images of ISIS beheadings?

  I mean, there's been terrible things online that tech companies, even though they have a long way to go, have worked — have worked really hard to get rid of. I think there's been some reporting today that advertisers themselves — I mean, think about it. If you are a big advertiser of toothpaste, do you want your ads — or Pepsi — do you want your ad showing up next to a child being raped or an ISIS beheading?

  These are horrible things that these companies work hard to get rid of and have rules about. And, yes, they make tons of mistakes, but stripping them of the rules would be hard, would be very hard for advertisers. But Musk has also expressed a lot of skepticism of the advertising business model. And, actually, there's no clear answer on whether he would even keep that on Twitter once it goes private.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Well, as you know, Twitter under CEO Jack Dorsey made the decision to ban President Trump after the January 6 Capitol assault.

  And others like Marjorie Taylor Greene have since been banned as well for spreading false information. Mr. Trump said today he's not planning to go back on Twitter. But, Elizabeth, has Musk indicated he will restore accounts of people who have been deplatformed, is what they say in the Twitterverse?

• Elizabeth Dwoskin:

  Well, he said that the deplatforming had gone too far.

  He even said that right after January 6, during the insurrection. I thought that was really interesting at the time, because here is a moment in American society when the whole tech industry is saying we're just going to blanket ban not just Trump, but many of his followers as well that were promoting the interaction.

  And Elon Musk is going the other way, saying that tech companies are going to regret some of the decisions that they made around content moderation. So that's one of the things that gives Twitter employees pause and a lot of observers pause as well about what he might do.

  He certainly hasn't come out and said: I'm going to restore Trump. But people are reading between the tea leaves. And, interestingly enough, that question was not answered in today's town hall.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Twitter has struggled with issues like trolls and bots and bad actors gaming and manipulating the platform.

  One thing Musk said today he will do to build trust in the platform is — quote — "authenticate all humans," I mean, I think something only Elon Musk would say, authenticate all humans.

  But are you hearing Elizabeth any positive reaction to his ability to potentially solve some of Twitter's real problems with his design acumen?

• Elizabeth Dwoskin:

  Well, overall, the response that I have heard is negative, but I always say the caveat I don't have a crystal ball into every Twitter employee's mind. And I may be hearing from the people who are more upset, so got to pull that as a possibility.

  I do think some people — look, Elon Musk is really seen — for all his wildness and firebrand ways, he is a visionary leader and brilliant, and lots of people in the tech world and outside of it think of him that way. And that's kind of what the — Twitter's leadership I have seen has tried to really emphasize, is that here's a person who can bring a lot of value to Twitter.

  One of the things that the CEO said to the employees today was, he said we all think of Twitter as this place that this platform that has — this unrealized potential, because it's used by these power influencers, but it's never gained the widespread social acceptance of a TikTok or a Facebook or YouTube — I'm sorry, the widespread use, the level of users or profits.

  So I think he was saying exactly that to employees. Like, look what Elon Musk could potentially bring.

  But I don't know if people will be assured by that. I think they also have a lot to lose.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Yes.

  Elizabeth Dwoskin, who reports on Silicon Valley for The Washington Post, thank you.

• Elizabeth Dwoskin:

  Thanks for having me.