New Delhi (29.10.2022): Finally Elon Musk has clinched the Twitter deal and has taken control of the microblogging site after a long hiatus that the deal underwent. Musk has not only changed his Twitter profile as ‘Chief Twit’ but has set priorities for Twitter straight. When he reached Twitter headquarters in California, he tweeted a video holding a sink with the message, ‘Entering Twitter HQ -- Let that sink in!’ after the cleaning act by reportedly escorting out the four top Twitter geeks.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Content Moderator Vijaya Gadde, Chief Finance Officer Ned Segal and General Counsel Sean Edgett were divested from the company with over 75 per cent more which comes to around 5,400 employees likely to be given pink slip soon to replace a new lot to make it more personal than coloured one.

Musk, who is known for his professional uprightness and ruthless decisions, invested $44 billion i.e. Rs 3.63 lakh crore to a loss-making company, who runs two successful ventures Tesla and SpaceX. But it did not always make losses. The social media platform that started as an advanced version of various social media sites which used to provide services like informal chats and the purpose was more of entertainment and fun around the year 2010. But two-three years down the line, out of various social media platforms Facebook and Twitter have started influencing not only Indian but global politics as well.

The reach, importance and influence of social media have become such that many news breaks are now happening on Twitter and information is reaching people through tweets even of the New Delhi dispensation. So it has become the main source of information dissemination leaving even the electronic media way behind. It has also become an opinion maker and serves narrative-building purposes not only for the government but also for opposition political outfits of India and other countries. It is influencing policy-making and facilitating citizen journalism. It works as a broadcaster to spread the news for many websites and even for news channels for greater reach. Facebook too is there but it is trailing way behind Twitter.

Interestingly, the micro-blogging site gave enough space to anonymous people who used to speak, write and articulate well but had no reach. The curiosity quotient generated a new tribe called influencers and the phenomenon became a fashion fad for people around the world. Many inaccessible folks became accessible to such people who generally remained in obscurity. But it was misused by the so-called extreme left and extreme right ideologies which were in a way acknowledged by Musk but the partiality of its top brass harmed the platform immensely and the profit-making site during the April-June quarter in 2021 at $ 66 million became a loss-making in the corresponding period next year.

The vision of Twitter was broad but its execution was faulty. This is when an out-and-out professional like Musk needed someone who comes with the promise to provide a common digital space for people across the globe for healthy discussion and to make it the most respectable space for advertisers. He also makes it clear that this is not for profit-making but for humanity but takes it with a pinch of salt. Twitter injudiciously blocked former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in 2021 and film actor Kangana Ranaut to name a few. But when Tesla motors CEO says that it will not be free for all he must have meant that the platform cannot be taken for a ride for personal agenda by anyone.

(By Vinod Kumar Shukla)