After news broke Monday that Twitter's board had agreed to accept Elon Musk's $44 billion offer to purchase the company, significant figures and meme artists rapidly got to work responding to the shake-up.
In a declaration after the sale was revealed, Musk, among Twitter's best-known personalities, said free speech is the "bedrock of an operating democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square."
" I also want to make Twitter much better than ever by improving the product with brand-new functions, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and validating all humans," Musk stated.
Musk, a prolific Twitter user, tweeted quickly before the statement, "I hope that even my worst critics stay on Twitter, because that is what free speech suggests."
Some began right away promoting for the reinstatement of those who have been banned from the platform, including former President Donald Trump, as some users tweeted that free speech had actually dominated and the motto "Make Twitter Great Again" began trending.
Trump, who was prohibited two days after the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, informed Fox News that he would not go back to Twitter, choosing rather to join his own Truth Social platform within the week, as originally planned. Nevertheless, Trump said he anticipated Musk to improve Twitter.
" I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on Truth," Trump said. "I hope Elon buys Twitter, because he'll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be remaining on Truth."
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., confirmed news of the purchase.
" Today is a motivating day for freedom of speech. I am confident that Elon Musk will assist rein in Big Tech's history of censoring users that have a different perspective," she tweeted.
On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., stated Musk's purchase of Twitter "definitely" offers him concern.
" He stated he wants to make it this global message board. My first concern to him' [is] the message board going to include Donald Trump?'" Durbin stated, according to The Hill.
Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, provided a poll to his Twitter fans.
" Is Elon Musk purchasing Twitter an advantage?" he asked. The two answers offered: "Yes" or "No, I hate free speech."
Republican Politician Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also appeared to back Musk's purchase, asking him to move the company's head office to the state.
" Bring Twitter to Texas to sign up with Tesla, SpaceX & the Boring business," he tweeted, listing a few of Musk's other business.
Some companies, consisting of the NAACP, advised Musk to keep hate speech off the platform.
" Mr. Musk: free speech is terrific, hate speech is undesirable. Disinformation, misinformation and hate speech have NO PLACE on Twitter. Do not enable 45 to go back to the platform. Do not permit Twitter to end up being a petri dish for hate speech," the NAACP stated in a declaration, describing Trump, the 45th president.
The American Civil Liberties Union recommended that one person should not have full control of a business so at the heart of political speech.
" In today's world, a small handful of personal tech business-- including Twitter-- play an extensive and distinct role in enabling our right to reveal ourselves online," the ACLU tweeted. "We should be fretted about any powerful main star, whether it's a government or any rich individual-- even if it's an ACLU member-- having so much control over the boundaries of our political speech online."
Old tweets from Musk resurfaced showing his positions on the platform in the past. In a tweet from 2020, he wrote, "Twitter sucks." In a tweet from 2016, he composed, "Exactly! I like Twitter."
In spite of the measured declarations from some, others might not assist however make jokes and memes about the sale.
Douglas A. Boneparth, the president of the monetary planning business Bone Fide Wealth, joked, "Sex is cool, but have you ever paid $44 billion for an edit button?" Musk recently asked users whether they would desire an edit button should he end up purchasing the company.
Others seized the day to tease Musk.
" Elon musk investing $43 billion to stop getting bullied on twitter when he could've just been less annoying is crazy," user @bocxtop said ahead of the sale, including, "this tweet will self destruct as quickly as the sale is final btw."
Author Mike Drucker reassured users there was one thing Musk might not change.
"Elon Musk might change Twitter, however there's something he can't change: Our self-respect (we never had that)," he composed.
YouTuber Quackity4K had an ask for Musk.
"finally elon musk can ban these minecraft Stans," he composed, describing fans of the computer game Minecraft.
Business owner and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone utilized the "How it started/How it's going" meme format to show, in the most literal sense, how Twitter's leadership had changed, juxtaposing an image of Twitter's original leadership, consisting of Jack Dorsey, with an image of Musk.
On Monday afternoon, Dorsey's name began to trend on the site, in addition to Musk's, with some comforting doubters that if they had bookings about Musk's ownership, Dorsey had a similar mentality to Musk.
"If you're mad that twitter is gon na be run by a rich libertarian weirdo google jack dorsey," user @FanSince09 wrote.
