hands of practically anyone who could write a text intelligibly.
Wealthy figures also often increase their influence and power by purchasing news outlets, which, at a first glance, is beneficial for both parties: affluent individuals obviously have the funds to support companies and many news outlets could certainly use the money. Examples of this are endless: Jeff Bezos, the third richest person in the world, bought The Washington Post for $250 million. Patrick Soon-Shiong, inventor of the chemotherapy drug Abraxane, similarly purchased the Los Angeles Times for over $500 million. This is a popular trend because CEOs can use their media to get directly to the people and possibly sway their thinking. However, Elon Musk took an even more ambitious and strategic step forward. He realized that social media platforms are an even more powerful source than any newspaper. With this in mind, many could say that Elon’s purchase of Twitter for over $44 billion was a brilliant power move.
Although Elon Musk may have won over thousands with his mission against censorship on Twitter, he was feared by many when huge layoffs were mentioned in late October of 2022. By November 4th, 2022, Musk had fired some of Twitter’s top executives in addition to thousands of other employees. Furthermore, the Twitter company also faced an impersonation crisis when the Twitter Blue subscription service was launched, which gave users a verification checkmark on their account for $8 a month. Unsurprisingly, many fake accounts purchased the subscription and impersonated professional companies or even celebrities. Nevertheless, this chaotic mess may have somehow beneficial. It’s important to note that, according to Socialmediatoday.com, new account sign ups and daily user activity is at an all time high.
Whether or not you use Twitter actively, we have all become familiar with Elon Musk: the CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and more recently, Twitter. Being one of the richest and most successful men in the world, Musk quickly captured attention around the globe once he bought Twitter on October 27, 2022 for $44 billion dollars. However, Twitter users can’t help but wonder if this app is in the right hands - what would a businessman and engineer know about managing such a popular social media company?
It all began on July 15th, 2006 with Evan Williams, Noah Glass, Jack Dorsey, and Biz Stone, who started to develop a project called Twttr. This platform was originally envisioned as a messaging service where people could “microblog” by texting simple messages or updates to their friends through the phone number “40404”. By the end of 2013, Twttr had, thankfully, changed to Twitter. But more importantly, the application exploded and quickly became worth over $31 billion. Inevitably, Twitter started to become more than just sharing inside jokes and personal updates; millions started using it for spreading information and news. This was somewhat of a revolution - journalism was no longer just in the hands of professional writers and news anchors. It was, and is, now in the hands of practically anyone who could write a text intelligibly.
Wealthy figures also often increase their influence and power by purchasing news outlets, which can be beneficial