What Fears Do People Have After Elon Musk's Twitter Takeover?

Individuals online, including various public figures, journalists and anonymous critics, openly shared their criticism about Musk becoming the owner of Twitter.

Musk announced on Thursday evening that he bought Twitter for $44 billion, after spending months trying to get out of the deal. In his first moments as owner, Musk reportedly fired several top Twitter executives, including the CEO and Chief Legal Officer.

One Reddit user told Newsweek that Musk's "history of false allegations, employee abuse and his huge ego" is why some people are fearful about what's next for the platform.

"I think those are valid fears," the user known as u/Erick_Alden said. "A narcissist with lots of money is one of the scariest things imaginable. I am also deeply worried that his free-speech approach will embolden the alt-right to enter mainstream politics."

Twitter Discourse

In one tweet, user @MalteEngeler shared his predictions for Musk's Twitter.

"Prediction: First we will get an edit button (to simulate user friendliness), followed by more ads and unmoderated hate soon after," the tweet read. "However, don't get me wrong: The problem isn't Twitter being owned by a right wing egomaniac but Twitter being ownable in the first place."

Other Twitter users made similar comments, with many openly disapproving of Musk's long-promised "edit" button.

"As long as they don't implement an edit button idgaf but the way those people always stumble over their words I'm guessing they will before too long," @patnspankme tweeted.

In another tweet, user @DanielRegha asked that Musk not follow through with the button.

"Elon Musk kindly ensure an 'edit button' isn't introduced, cos this will ru!n the platform as Twitter thrives on raw tweets," the tweet read. "Adding an edit button will affect comments & already quoted RTs. Twitterers have been asking for it, but they fa!l to realize the obvious d!sadvantage."

'Deeply Worried'

One Reddit thread listed several hypothetical scenarios that they feared could happen now that Musk owns Twitter.

In the thread titled "a cynical yet realistic prediction of what Musk will do with Twitter," the poster known as u/Erick_Alden received over 4,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments from other users.

The user predicted that Musk might make Twitter private in order to avoid scrutiny from public stakeholders as well as turn it into a Web3 platform.

"Prediction on what Musk will do with Twitter," the post read. "Act surprised when Unions, Democrats and Labor Organizations magically disappear from the platform."

The post continued, with u/Erick_Alden predicting also that Musk might launch a "governance token" and incentivize users to buy and use the token while simultaneously "manipulating the price behind the scenes."

"And he'd reinstate Kanye West and Donald Trump's accounts," one user commented.

"So essentially it'll turn in Elon's personal echo chamber," another user commented.

"If there's one thing I've learned from a life spent on internet, it's that huge platforms can rise and fall overnight," another commented.

User u/Erick_Alden told Newsweek that with the country currently in a "bad place," he thinks that enabling "fringe internet fanatics" could possibly worsen the divisions.

"Basically, the creeps on 4chan will be able to post in a way that everyone in the world will be able to see it," u/Erick_Alden said.