It felt like a tool for challenging authority when it first burst into the mainstream.
Pro-democracy activists in Libya and Egypt used the social networking site to spread their message. The Americans occupied Wall Street. The #BlackLivesMatter took root on social media after George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder.
One of the defining ideas of the 2010s was that social media was a tool for bottom-up organizing that would empower dissidents and marginalized groups and give ordinary people the ability to communicate on equal footing with tycoons and tyrants. In 2010, the Chinese activist and artist Ai Weiwei said that it was the people's tool, the tool of the ordinary people.
The narrative ended this week when the richest man in the world bought the company.
The billionaire industrialist whose on-again, off-again bid for Twitter this year has been marked by chaos and confusion has now added the company to his portfolio.
The deal made history for a number of reasons. For the first time in years, a major social media network has been sold to an outsider.
It was a symbolic end to a decade in which social media became more useful to the powerful than the powerless.
The deal was a big one. Musk made an offer worth $44 billion for the social media platform, saying he wanted to turn it into a private company and allow people to speak more freely. The battle that followed lasted months.
There was a move. The price Mr. Musk agreed to pay for the company in April was proposed on October 4. The purchase of the company was completed on October 27th.
There is a chance that Mr. Musk's takeover won't make a difference overnight. Political protests and acts of rebellion will still be hosted on the platform. When Mr. Musk is in charge, the public town square may feel different.
It was dismissed as a novelty app by tastemakers when it started in 2006 because nerds and narcissists were bored with mundane details of their lives. It was called the "Seinfeld of the internet" by one critic.
Millions of people went to make sense of the world around them as it grew into a global water cooler. It was a useful tool for those wanting to steer a conversation, attract attention to a cause or simply peer into the kaleidoscope of human thought.
Talk about the news, complain about airline food, flirt with strangers, announce an earthquake, yell at your senator, cheer for your sports teams, post nudes, make dumb jokes, ruin your own reputation, and so on and so forth were all things that could be said on a daily
It wasn't the biggest social media platform or the most profitable, but it did seem to level the playing field in a way other apps didn't.
Powerful people found that the apps they used to amplify their power could be used in new ways. They found a way to crack down on dissent. Extremists were able to cause hatred to drive women and people of color offline. The more attention you get, the more you change your behavior. The belief that giving people the tools to express themselves would create a fair and connected society started to look hopelessly nave.
When Donald J. Trump used his account as president to spread conspiracy theories, wage culture wars, undermine public health and threaten nuclear war, the idea that the app was a gift to the poor became harder to argue.
New rules on misinformation and hate speech have been put in place by the social media company. The changes made the platform safer and less chaotic, but they also angered users who were not comfortable with how powerful the site had become.
The company made permanent the suspension of Mr. Trump's account after the January 6, 2021, insurrection. They said the platform's leaders bowed to the mob. Some users were nostalgic for the messier, more freewheeling version of the social networking site.
Mr. Musk is one of the users on the platform.
Mr. Musk was the CEO of a small, struggling electric car company when he joined the social networking site. He didn't have a lot of followers, and he didn't have a lot of followers either, so he didn't post a lot of status updates. I went to London and Oxford and met a lot of interesting people. I really enjoy Britain.
As the companies grew, so did Mr. Musk's follower count. He began to let down his guard on his social media accounts. He posted pictures of rockets and carried out stunts, such as selling a propane-powered flamethrower.
Mr. Musk was better at pithy self-expression than the average chief executive, and his impulsiveness fit in perfectly on the micro-blogging site. He kept using social media and eventually amassed a large following whose love for him boosted his projects.
Executives at the micro-blogging site have been struggling to explain their creation for years, usually falling back on vague bromides. If you won the popularity contest, you could get almost anything you wanted, from a higher stock price to a hosting gig.
The use of the platform became more Trumpian as Mr. Musk became one of the biggest stars. He ridiculed federal securities regulators and picked fights with reporters. His posting schedule increased as his politics shifted right. He was unable to log off, to let a grudge go unavenged or to filters himself in any way. Mr. Musk has said that he finds social media useful.
When the opportunity arose, Mr. Musk decided to buy the platform.
Who knows what Mr. Musk will do with his new social media platform. He did not say who would replace the executives he had fired. He promised to restore the accounts of people who were banned for spreading false and damaging information. He talked about how to make the company profitable through subscriptions, data licensing and cost-cutting.
Mr. Musk sees his acquisition of the site as a way to return it to its former glory.
After the deal had closed, he said that the bird was free.
It is possible that relaxing the rules on the platform could revive it. It is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 He said on Friday that he will convene a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints before reversing bans.
It is safe to say that with Mr. Musk at the helm, there will be no return to the days of rebels and revolutionaries communicating under the radar. The bird flew.
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