Elon Musk owns Twitter. Here's what he must decide next.

The company seemed to be at peace for the first time in its 15-year history after Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO. The stock wasn't lighting any fires, but the company had weathered the storm with a world-changing ban. The problem of troll and bot numbers was not as bad as it used to be. Facebook was an irredeemable trash fire of misinformation, but a better Twitter, where we could finally, really hear each other think, seemed possible.

Jack's house fell in less than five months. It has fallen to a new owner who posted a Hitler meme and deleted it, despite censoring employees and retaliating against critics.

The new owner is none other than Musk. The owner of the two companies has held strong and wacky opinions about the information platform that is about to become his sole property. He was presented as an entitled control freak, but also one that was distracted by multiple concerns in his ever-widening portfolio.

Musk has a history of buying and starting companies and then moving on to the next big thing. The answer depends on how Musk answers crucial questions before he loses interest.

Let's make it clear that this is not an ordinary media buy out. It is a big deal. The world's richest human, Donald Trump, was dismissed by some users on Monday as the second richest human, Jeff Bezos, after his purchase of the Washington Post. The Post has a million readers. All of the 200 million active daily users can be double as content creators.

It is not an ordinary medium. It is the most immediate platform ever built because it sits at the center of events. Its wittiest and most controversial content is distributed all over its elder brother Facebook. The media tends to agree when something is thought of as news. It has a good relationship with TV, where people like to read out the mean things on social media.

It has a network of communities in every human field, lovingly crafted and woven together over years of fascinating threads. Which leads to the first of three important questions.

Does Musk really care about Twitter's current users?

In the statement announcing the takeover, Musk was as measured as he has been in the last few weeks. He described it as the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.

The community could not argue with the list of features Musk suggested, such as defeating the spam bots and making the algorithm open source.

Musk is naive about free speech. The new owner seems to be unaware of the problem of hate speech and the way mobs can conduct targeted harassment. Musk can blithely send all the messages he wants about hoping his worst critics stay on social media.

Tweet may have been deleted

Human rights groups are raising concerns over Musk's ownership.

217 million daily users who like it fine just now may be scared off by a return to the cesspool of hate under Musk. Maybe Musk is betting that he can win back enough users who left to make up for anyone who would leave.

I would not bet on those creative, knowledge-rich, carefully-threaded communities sticking around for long if we turned the site into a Wild West environment with no content moderation. If the latter include the worst kinds of troll, Musk may find that maximally trusted doesn't play well.

What kind of business does Musk want to run?

Taking it back from Wall Street is the first step in the right direction.

Tweet may have been deleted

The offer from Musk will benefit Dorsey to the tune of over a billion dollars. He has a point. There is a crossroads at which Twitter stands. The model of selling ads on the platform is the same as before. A $3-a-month subscription service called Twitter Blue is on the other side.

Can Musk sell enough of his showmanship to convince people to stop buying ads for the company? It is difficult to make a decision since it is necessary for the company to take on so much debt that the interest payments alone will be $1 billion a year. The amount of revenue that was generated by the ads on the platform in the year 2021, is just a little under that.

It will be difficult to quit ad revenue since so many of the company's 7,500 employees are dependent on it. When Musk became the largest shareholder of the company, those employees were already wary of his style. They are dealing with a person who has shown no sign that he is up to the task of running a media company.

If Musk sweeps aside the company's moderation systems, advertisers will head for the exits, causing employee resentment to pile up. One question that could provide the spark is moderation.

Does Musk want to reinstate Trump?

Donald Trump claims he wouldn't come back to the site if invited. Longtime Trump watchers know how much this claim is worth. The former guy is more likely to be missing his old home because of the tanking of Truth Social and the aides printing out tweets for him to read.

When asked at an internal meeting if Trump would be reinstated under Musk, the CEO of the company said that they constantly evolve their policies.

The drumbeat from the right is going to sound very loud in Musk's ears. Those who dislike lies, demagoguery, and criminality will push in the opposite direction. Musk wants to be at the center of a major controversy and he will be exactly where he wants.

Dragging out and teasing the answer to the Trump question may be fun for Musk. The answer could have a huge impact on the upcoming elections. The house that Jack built could start to look shaky if employees walk out.