As Elon Musk takes over Twitter, opinions are divided. While certain celebs have hailed the decision, eyeing a comeback on the social media platform, others have threatened to quit

Sheetal

On Thursday, Elon Musk became Twitter Inc’s new owner and reportedly fired top executives, including the CEO Parag Agrawal. There has been a mixed reaction to the development. Although many have poured in congratulatory messages for the new owner, there is a section of users, including celebs, who have threatened to quit. This backlash is a continuance of their hatred for Donald Trump, whom they fear might make a comeback as Musk takes charge.

Great accomplishment

Elon Musk had started buying shares of American social media company Twitter from January 2022 onwards and by April 14 started the acquisition. After Musk pulled out of the deal in July, Twitter sued him and the agreement closed down at 44 billion dollars, while Musk was given the time till October 28. Musk on Thursday entered the Twitter HQ with a sink in his hand and broke out the news to the entire world with a tweet, ‘Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!’

NBA legend Shaq congratulated Musk and tweeted, ‘Excited to see what you accomplish here.’ Earlier, in April, when the agreement of 44 billion dollars was announced, American commentator and podcaster Joe Rogan had hailed Musk as a superhero in his podcast, and on Saturday, he re-tweeted Musk’s post, ‘Comedy is now legal on Twitter.’

Actor, filmmaker and producer Ren Reiner has urged Twitter users to not quit, but rather bring about a change by voting for Democrats. He wrote, <’For those who are fighting to preserve our Constitutional Democracy, now is not the time to leave Twitter. Now is the time to Vote Blue.’

‘Chief Twit’

The ‘Chief Twit’, as now Musk calls himself, has posted, ‘the bird is freed’, to highlight his plans for the company. But many celebs are quitting; Bill & Ted star Alex Winter, This Is Us executive producer Ken Olin and Billions showrunner Brian Koppelman being among them. Disney star Josh Gad also shared how he is considering saying a final goodbye to Twitter. While Alex changed his bio to ‘not here for now’ before exiting the social networking site, Ken wrote, “I’m on @TribelSocial for the rest of the day. Gotta wean myself of of this soon…’

Earlier, in April, actress and activist Jameela Jamil had made her intentions clear about leaving twitter if Musk had taken over: The actress re-joined the platform in July when Musk pulled out of the acquisition process. But now as Twitter is officially Musk’s, Jameela has refrained from tweeting and is instead promoting her upcoming series She-Hulk. Many are also waiting to take the decision on quitting after knowing Musk’s stance on reversing former US President Donald Trump’s twitter ban!

For the banned users

Tesla CEO, Musk has often shared how he wants to promote ‘free speech’ and do away with the permanent ban on users. On Saturday, he confirmed that Twitter will have its own ‘content moderation council’ to make important moderation decisions on the platform. He wrote: “Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints…To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies.” Thus, it will take longer than it should for controversy’s favourite children Donald Trump, Ye (Kanye West) and Kangana Ranaut to get their Twitter accounts reinstated!

Moving on

Power shift and firing happened in quick order, and people must have had their own reasons for favouring or quitting Twitter. All business sectors are unpredictable, be it corporate or entertainment, maybe better things are in store for him. —Shehzad Shaikh, Actor

Expected lines

Nowadays, it’s really important for big tycoons to control news and media platforms, so they can keep a check on their public image globally. Because in today’s digital era, there is no authenticating platform to confirm anything. Elon Musk taking over Twitter was expected someday. —Anuj Sachdeva, Actor