Elon Musk let it be known Thursday that he has secured the financing in his bid to take Twitter private and is considering a “tender offer,” which is a direct pitch to shareholders.
“A tender offer would appeal directly to a company’s shareholders, rather than its board. If Musk decides to officially pursue his Plan B, he would essentially be offering to buy each Twitter shareholder out at $54.20 per share,” Time magazine explained. “If he convinces enough shareholders to sell to him, he would eventually gain a controlling interest in the company. Tender offers can be associated with a hostile takeover, because they bypass the company’s leadership and appeal directly to shareholders.”
The Tesla CEO also took to Twitter to vow that if his bid is successful, he would eliminate spam bots and ensure only “real humans” can use the platform.
“If our twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!” he tweeted, adding, “And authenticate all real humans.”
And authenticate all real humans
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 21, 2022
It was the latter comment that got a lot of folks worked up over the possibility of there no longer being anonymous accounts on Twitter.
Needless to say, there was plenty of skepticism and complaints about this being the antithesis of free speech — here’s a couple of examples:
Can’t wait until I have to give up my personal identifying details to the richest dude on earth. What could go wrong? https://t.co/LInZubkADO
— Scott Stedman (@ScottMStedman) April 21, 2022
So Musk wants to verify who runs accounts. Not exactly in the interest of free speech & anonymity. https://t.co/J6N1iqTAAI
— Politix Fireball (@PolitixFireball) April 22, 2022
There were plenty of fair questions posed and some who liked the idea of users having to identify who they are… here’s a quick sampling of some of those responses from Twitter:
Authentication based on Dogecoin transactions would be cool
— Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) April 21, 2022
True authentication would defeat many of the concerns about online harassment and free speech. If people are forced to use their real names, they will be much more civil – like a public square.
— Scott Morefield (@SKMorefield) April 21, 2022
— Brian (@Briannistler) April 22, 2022
How can we ensure the people from at-risk regions who have to be under pseudonyms to enjoy the freedom to express the truth while authenticating they’re real humans without blowing their cover?
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) April 21, 2022
The right to Anonymity is paramount, not everyone lives in places where you get to freely speak or is able to do so due to the current political climate of it all.
Also too many have been perm unjustly suspended over bogus DMCA claims, it’s a broken system.
— Kaleb (@KalebPrime) April 21, 2022
two questions!
what about pseudonymous and anonymous accounts?
what if a verified human gets banned for whatever reason, and tries to create a new account?
— Alex Barredo 📉 (@somospostpc) April 21, 2022
I ran in the federal election. I spoke in public, and drew crowds. I was on the news. I was in articles, and on the radio. I am published, have a podcast, a show, and a webpage.
Not only was I not verified – I was censored by Twitter. https://t.co/mu97nl0ntp
— The Real Andy Lee Show (@RealAndyLeeShow) April 21, 2022
Actually a great idea and long overdue for all social media platforms. Authenticate all accounts with Veriff, Onfido, whatever. I am sure that a large % of all content/conversations here (even in Latvian) are generated by state-agent bots/trolls. https://t.co/OjA7bIpN3h
— Mārtiņš Vaivars (@Martins_Vaivars) April 21, 2022
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