Centuries earlier, in 1776, Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations just as the Industrial Revolution began to flicker across Europe. Smith dismantled the antiquated notion that wealth was a finite hoard of gold, arguing instead that prosperity flowed from productive labour and the “invisible hand” of the market, which incentivised innovation. Similarly, Karl Marx viewed labour as the fundamental human activity that transforms the world.

Today, we stand at the precipice of a digital revolution in which these theories are being put to a surreal and perverse test. In the expanding frontier of Artificial Intelligence, the “invisible hand” has begun to look like a sleight of hand. Creative labour doesn’t matter anymore, at least in Nigeria’s media ecosystem.

For Nigerian journalists and newsrooms, the digital economy is no longer a marketplace of fair exchange; it has become a modern enclosure movement. Intellectual commons are being fenced off and harvested by global tech giants without a single kobo of compensation for the “tillers of the soil.”

The most predictable and substantial profits are currently going to firms that sell the necessary tools to build AI, often likened to the merchants who profited more than the miners during the Gold Rush. As of early 2026, AI-driven wealth creation is largely concentrated in Silicon Valley, with top tech executives reaching record net worths, and AI startups achieving massive valuations.

For instance, Elon Musk leads the 2026 Forbes list with an estimated net worth of $839 billion, followed by Google co-founders Larry Page ($257 billion) and Sergey Brin ($237 billion), Amazon’s Jeff Bezos ($224 billion) and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg ($222 billion). I don’t have the numbers, but it’s doubtful whether any individual Nigerian publisher hits a billion-dollar net worth.

For the press, we either swim or sink together. We must work together to avoid mutual failure. Individual media outlets cannot take on the behemoths of Silicon Valley alone and win.

For decades, the bedrock of Nigerian democracy has been its independent press. Our pressmen and journalists have served as the nation’s primary witnesses, travelling to the furthest reaches of the Delta or the volatile borders of the north to document the pulse of the country, sometimes putting their lives on the line.

They and their publishers are the ones who bear the cost—economic, legal, and often physical—of extracting truth from the noise of a complex society. Yet, today, the fruits of this labour are being mindlessly treated by Silicon Valley as “free” raw material to generate the mega-wealth of Elon Musk & Co.

It is just time to act. Giant tech and AI firms must share the enormous value they reap from exploiting trusted Nigerian content with the human journalists and publishers who actually create it. It is the legal and patriotic duty of the Federal Competitive and Consumer Protection Commission to right all the wrongs.

These firms are currently scraping decades of Nigerian reportage to train systems that can mimic our cultural cadence, summarise our investigative journalism, and answer queries about our local politics. When a user asks an AI to explain the intricacies of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s latest fiscal policy or to summarise a deep dive into national infrastructure, the “value” is captured entirely by the tech firm: the original newsroom—which paid the journalist’s salary, costs of investigation, and all that goes into storytelling—is left to pick the crumbs that fall from Big Tech table.

Yet, in an era of rampant misinformation and sophisticated deepfakes, trusted journalism is more expensive to produce than ever. In Nigeria, documenting the truth is a service to the state, often performed under the shadow of business volatility and economic instability. But the Big Tech and AI firms turn these resources into mind-boggling wealth. That isn’t right or fair.

When AI models ingest the archives of Nigerian newspapers, they are not just taking data points; they are taking specialised local knowledge and hard-won public trust. If these firms continue to exploit this content without a revenue-sharing model, they are effectively starving the very sources they depend on for accuracy. If our newsrooms collapse because they can no longer monetise their work, AI models will eventually be forced to “hallucinate” based on a vacuum of real-time facts. The truth is an AI is only as smart as the human bravery that feeds it.

Our stories are our national assets. If an AI firm uses Nigerian reportage to build a product valued in the billions of dollars, a percentage of that value must flow back to the sources, as of right not of aid.  And this is not merely about corporate profits; it is about the survival of the Nigerian press.

To move from exploitation to equity, we need a model built on three pillars: transparent licensing, usage royalties and algorithmic transparency.  Countries like Australia, Canada and South Africa have already introduced measures along these lines. The Nigerian government, through its regulatory agencies, especially FCCPC and the Bosun Tijani-led Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, must provide the regulatory muscle for this fight.

For the press, we either swim or sink together. We must work together to avoid mutual failure. Individual media outlets cannot take on the behemoths of Silicon Valley alone and win. We need collective bargaining power to ensure that “innovation” does not become a euphemism for uncompensated extraction.

The argument that the internet is a “free and open” space has always been a convenient fiction for those who own the servers. While the distribution of information should be free, the production of verified information is not. It requires labour, capital, and entrepreneurship—the very factors of production Smith identified 250 years ago. And that must be paid for.

Big Tech must be forced to the table. Tunji Bello-led FCCPC should exercise its powers now. Innovation is the engine of the future, but it must not be fuelled by the theft of others’ intellectual labour. If tech giants wish to build truly “intelligent” systems, they must act ethically by acknowledging and reimbursing the human cost of their data sets.

This is our clear message: Big Tech brigandage must stop. Those who profit from retelling creative content must pay the original tellers. It’s about the basic tenets of a fair market: value for value, and respect for the productive/creative labour, the fundamental human activity, that makes human progress possible.

*Adediran, the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria’s CEO, writes via olusegunadediran@gmail.com

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In a telephone interview with NBC News, Trump declined to say what those consequences would be, and went on to add that he had not had discussions about whether to investigate Musk.

Asked if he thought his relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO was over, Trump said, “I would assume so, yeah.”

“No,” Trump told NBC when asked if he had any desire to repair his relationship with Musk.

“I have no intention of speaking to him,” Trump said.

However, Trump said he had not thought about terminating U.S. government contracts with Musk’s StarLink satellite internet or SpaceX rocket launch companies.

Musk and Trump began exchanging insults this week, as Musk denounced Trump’s bill as a “disgusting abomination”.

Musk’s opposition to the measure complicated efforts to pass the legislation in Congress, where Republicans hold only slim majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate.

The bill narrowly passed the House last month and is now before the Senate, where Trump’s fellow Republicans are considering making changes.

Nonpartisan analysts estimate the measure would add $2.4 trillion to the $36.2 trillion U.S. debt over 10 years, which worries many lawmakers, including some Republicans who are fiscal hawks.

Musk also declared it was time for a new political party in the United States “to represent the 80 per cent in the middle!”

READ ALSO: Ogun’s eminent Muslims gather under one crescent

Trump said on Saturday he was confident the bill would get passed by the U.S. July 4 Independence Day holiday.

“In fact, yeah, people that were going to vote for it are now enthusiastically going to vote for it, and we expect it to pass,” Trump told NBC.

Republicans have strongly backed Trump’s initiatives since he began his second term as president on January 20.

While some Republican lawmakers have made comments to the news media expressing concern about some of Trump’s choices, they have yet to vote down any of his policies or nominations.

Musk has deleted some social media posts critical of Trump, including one that signalled support for impeaching the president, appearing to seek a de-escalation of their public feud which exploded on Thursday.

During his first term as president, the House, then controlled by Democrats, twice voted to impeach Trump but the Senate both times acquitted him.

The White House and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Saturday on the deleted posts.

People who have spoken to Musk said his anger has begun to recede and they thought he would want to repair his relationship with Trump.

One of the X posts that Musk appeared to have deleted was a response to another user posting: “President vs Elon. Who wins? My money’s on Elon. Trump should be impeached and (Vice President) JD Vance should replace him.” Musk had written “yes.”

On Theo Von’s “This Past Weekend” podcast – recorded on Thursday as the feud between Trump and Musk unfolded and released on Saturday – Vance called Musk’s criticism of Trump a “huge mistake.”

“I’m always going to be loyal to the president, and I hope that eventually Elon kind of comes back into the fold. Maybe that’s not possible now because he’s gone so nuclear. But I hope it is,” said Vance, describing Musk as an “incredible entrepreneur.”

Trump is due to attend an Ultimate Fighting Championship fight card on Saturday in New Jersey.

Since his second election win, he has attended two previous UFC mixed martial arts fight cards with Musk.

Musk is not expected to attend on Saturday.

Musk, the world’s richest man, bankrolled a large part of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, spending nearly 300 million dollars in last year’s U.S. elections and taking credit for Republicans retaining a majority of seats in the House and retaking a majority in the Senate.

Trump named Musk to head an effort to downsize the federal workforce and slash spending, lauding him at the White House only about a week ago for his work as head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk cut only about half of one per cent of total spending, far short of his brash plans to axe two trillion dollars from the federal budget.

Source: Reuters/NAN

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If there is one president that is set to impact world politics for the better and also possibly for bad in the next few years, Donald Trump would clinch the top spot. And make no mistake about it, by the end of his second term in 2029, if eventually he decides not to pursue a third term ticket (he has already joked about it), America and nay, world politics would never be the same.

Trump’s return to power after a four-year hiatus has seen him firing on all cylinders. Even at 78, age has not showed any sign of slowing him down. He is also out with a vengeance against those whom he perceives as enemies who facilitated his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden.

Trump is the first convicted felon in America’s history to occupy the White House, having been found guilty of 34 counts of felony in the Stormy Daniel, hush money, record-falsification case. But that does not bother him as he has told his supporters that he is the most prosecuted president in history. His sentencing was put off after he became president-elect. Over 77 million Americans believe in him and cast their votes for him in the last elections.

From his first day in office, Trump showed that he meant business about making ‘America GREAT again.’ However, with the ways he is going about it, it is in doubt whether America would be as great as he has promised or it would be brought to its knees in the next couple of years.

The 47th president of the United States of America is a dealer in government, no, cancel that, he is a bully in the White House. It appears that there is no president or prime minister that would not be ‘bullied’ for the ‘benefit’ of Americans. There is no institution that cannot be downgraded so far as President Trump does not believe in what they stand for.

He has signed dozens of executive orders freezing all foreign assistance, removing illegal immigrants from the United States, firing civil servants, and asking Elon Musk to “cut the fat out of the unnecessary bureaucracy and trim the federal departments.”

READ ALSO: Tribute to Dr. Kayode John Fayemi on his 60th birthday

He is banning automatic citizenship of children born in the States by illegal immigrants, he has recognised only two genders – male and female, withdrawn the USA from the World Health Organisation (WHO), and has stopped the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) from communicating with the WHO.

He has also withdrawn America from the UNESCO and from the Climate Change Convention. Mercifully, he has not withdrawn yet from the UN and its specialized organizations and NATO. Although, some of these actions requires legislative support, and some, constitutional amendments, Trump does not care. One of such is the birth-right issue. Any child born in the United States of America automatically becomes an American citizen. It is so recognised by the constitution of the United States. To change the law would require two-third majority of the states in the US to effect it. But Trump wants an end to the policy. Already, a federal judge has blocked the order – albeit, temporarily.

He has bullied the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, into negotiating how they intend to stop illegal migrants from getting into the United States as well as the curtailment of illegal drugs shipments into the USA. His desire is to make Canada the 51th States of the USA and he does not care if his action and utterances is against international laws and conventions. Trump has unilaterally changed the Gulf of Mexico into the ‘Gulf of America’. He has set his sights on Greenland, an Arctic Island under the control of Denmark as well as The Panama Canal, a critical waterway in world trade. Trump is interested in the Canal as he believes that China has surreptitiously taken over control of the area.

Before he was sworn-in, Trump vowed to send illegal migrants back to their respective countries. From his first day in office, he has done just that. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has fulfilled that key campaign promise of Trump in his first week in power by removing 7,300 illegal immigrants from the United States. The move is part of a broader crackdown on illegal immigration and a direct response to President Donald Trump’s vow to increase deportations, especially targeting violent criminals in the country. Many of those deported were in handcuffs and ferried back to their countries in military aircrafts.

Columbia and Guatemala initially rejected the poor treatment of her citizens but after being threatened and bullied with economic sanctions, both nations had to relent. Indeed, a trade war could have had crippling consequences for Colombia, which counts the United States as its largest trading partner. That is largely due to a 2006 free trade agreement that generated $33.8 billion in two-way trade in 2023, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The use of U.S. military aircraft to carry out deportation flights is part of the Pentagon’s response to Trump’s national emergency declaration on immigration. The Pentagon had said that it would provide flights for the deportations of more than 5,000 immigrants held by U.S. authorities in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.

His controversial plan to move Palestinians from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt and for the USA to take over Gaza has been condemned, with many Palestinians vowing not to leave their ancestral homes.

Hear him: “Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent. The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area…” Trump said, without explaining why they could not let Gazans rebuild Gaza.

Expectedly, Trump’s stunning realty-centric proposal was immediately rejected by Arab countries, including America’s ally, Saudi Arabia, which issued a statement affirming that its position on the establishment of a Palestinian state is firm and unwavering.

Some aides of Trump have suggested that the US President was merely grandstanding and his remarks were aimed at galvanizing other Arab states to come up with solutions rather than leave Palestinians in the lurch. “It’s going to bring the entire region to come with their own solutions,” Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said in one TV interview.

Many world leaders are still in shock by his audacious proposal. Where he gets such a power is still not clear to many. Indeed, Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was really angry when he said that Donald Trump was elected to govern the United States, and not “to rule the world.”

“I respect the election of President Trump, who was elected by the American people to govern the United States, but he was not elected to rule the world. The U.S. president has to maintain democratic and civilised relations with the rest of the world,” Lula noted, with reference to Trump’s intention to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

As for those of us in Nigeria, having enjoyed the movie ‘Coming To America’ and with most having literally lived the American dream, the rest of us should simply get our popcorn ready to watch the ongoing season film, ‘Coming from America’.

On the home front and using Elon Musk, Trump has reinstated service members dismissed for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine; stopped the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, DEI, programmes across federal government establishments, paused federal grants and loans, tried to entice millions of federal workers to resign in a bid to drastically reduce the size of the federal work force, and to push out people who do not support his political agenda. In return, the administration offered roughly two million federal workers the option to resign but be paid through the end of September.

Aside granting pardon to the January 6 rioters in the US, he has ordered the Acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to compile a list of all agents and FBI staff who worked on the January 6 investigations. He has shut down USAID office across the globe and put Marco Rubio in charge. Now, there are talks that he would allow less than 10 per cent of USAID workforce back to their jobs.

In Africa, Trump has falsely accused the South African government of “confiscating land” from white farmers. But President Cyril Ramaphosa said his country has not seized land and urged Trump to mind his business. “We won’t be bullied by Trump,” he said. Without any consultation, Trump ordered air strikes against the Islamic State in Somalia.

Coming home to Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu has been advised to get a long spoon while eating on the same table with Trump. Bolaji Akinyemi, former external Affairs Minister, said that Tinubu must learn to avoid getting into trouble with Trump. Already, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and NIDCOM are making preparations on how to receive Nigerians who may be deported back to the country by Trump.

Americans voted for Trump and he is acting on what he promised during his campaign. Although prices of foodstuffs have been on the increase since the clampdown on illegal migrants began as many farm workers are being repatriated, Americans should be ready to endure the necessary pains.

His conduct when it comes to international politics is where he may have his fingers burnt. You don’t become a bully at international fora, no matter your military might. Trump might think that he is just doing deals to better the lot of the American citizens, but it should be clear to him that the correct terms for what he is doing are coercion and extortion. He is a bully both in the USA and in the international arena. He should be reminded however that there are known bullies in world history and the end of some of them wasn’t that palatable.

As for those of us in Nigeria, having enjoyed the movie ‘Coming To America’ and with most having literally lived the American dream, the rest of us should simply get our popcorn ready to watch the ongoing season film, ‘Coming from America’.

See you next week.

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An unsmiling Trump – inmate no. P01135809, according to Fulton County Jail records – was captured glaring at the camera in the mug shot.

The image represented yet another extraordinary moment for Trump, who did not have to submit to a photograph when making appearances in his three other criminal cases.

He wasted little time trying to turn it to his advantage, posting it on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, as well as his own social media site, Truth Social.

His campaign website featured the mug shot along with a message from Trump defending his actions and asking for donations.

The X post appeared to be Trump’s first on the site since his account was banned after a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

X owner Elon Musk reinstated Trump’s account late last year.

Trump spent only about 20 minutes at the jail before heading back to his New Jersey golf club.

Before boarding his private plane at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, he repeated his claim that the prosecution – along with the others he faces – is politically motivated.

“What has taken place here is a travesty of justice,” he told reporters. “I did nothing wrong, and everybody knows it.”

Trump, 77, already has entered uncharted territory as the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges, even as he mounts another campaign for the White House next year.

READ ALSO: Niger crisis: Tinubu directs Ulamas to return to junta

Far from damaging his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination, however, the four cases filed against him have only bolstered his standing.

He holds a commanding polling lead in the Republican race to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election.

Dozens of supporters, waving Trump banners and American flags, jostled for a glimpse as Trump arrived at the jail.

Among the Trump backers gathered outside was Georgia U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the former president’s most loyal congressional allies.

Lyle Rayworth, 49, who is in the aviation industry in the Atlanta area, had been waiting near the jailhouse for 10 hours, since early on Thursday.

“Yeah, I’m hoping he sees me waving the flags, showing support,” Rayworth said as he awaited Trump’s arrival. “He needs us.”

The image is certain to be circulated widely by Trump’s foes and supporters alike.

Source: Reuters

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Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, on Wednesday announced the initial version of Threads, an App built by the Instagram team.

Zuckerberg said the App offers a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations, will be compatible with the open, interoperable social networks that can shape the future of the internet.

Mrs Tinuola Popoola, an ICT expert, confirmed she has downloaded the application and reiterated that the App is centred around building the community of people first.

“If you notice all the products that come from Mark Zuckerberg, like the Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, his Apps are always centred around building community.

“Like Zuckerberg said, he is trying to build community before monetisation; so what I have seen about this is that Thread is a healthy rival to Twitter.

READ ALSO: Elon Musk tells Twitter staff to work long hours or leave

“For those of us that have been unable to find our way through Twitter, this is a good way to start something relating to Twitter.

“Also as entrepreneurs, you don’t always have to look for something new to do, there are existing solutions, systems that have weaknesses, look at those weaknesses and leverage it for your strength,’’ she said.

According to her, the emergence of Threads is a creative imitation.

She further added that while leveraging on the weakness of an existing solution, it should meet the needs of the people, which Threads is already doing.

Mr Chinemerem Ndubisi, a tech savvy young man, said the coming of Threads is a welcome development because Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, keeps implementing changes on his App.

“On Twitter, for you to be verified before now, you have to be a popular person in your niche but now you have to pay a fee before verification which some people are not comfortable with.

“Musk keeps sacking people, Twitter proposes your feeds and he recently limited the number of posts you can engage in a day if you are not verified.

“He did all of that in a bid to force people to pay for the App and all of these discouraged people.

“The coming of Threads now is so apt because in the market currently, there is so much volatility because of Elon Musk and changes he implemented on Twitter,’’ he said.

Ndubisi said that Threads is like the most performing App that has ever been built because in less than seven hours of its introduction into the market, more than 10 million people downloaded it.

He, however, is uncertain on how well Threads will perform because Twitter already has a foothold, whereas its competitive advantage is its existing ecosystem which is a shoot off from Instagram.

“Instagram is linked to Facebook and they are both linked to WhatsApp, so it is very easy for people to inter-network between these Apps,’’ he noted.

Another tech savvy Nigerian, Odukoya Oluwadara, described Threads as a great innovation and a solid competition for Twitter.

Oluwadara said: “Threads has already forced Musk to partially retrace his position on his rate limit policy.

“Twitter currently is not solving any new problems, but Zuckerberg has proven that he is very great at imitation.

“He has clearly understudied Twitter’s competitive advantage in the social media space and is doing well to replicate same.’’

He, however, expressed the fears of data privacy with Threads.

According to him, Threads seems to collect an astonishing range of data including sensitive information that can identify people way more than his competition.

In another account on the development, Musk has threatened to sue Meta over the allegations that they hired Twitter’s former employees to build Threads and on intellectual property rights.

Meta’s Spokesperson, Andy Stone, however, dismissed the allegation saying “no one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee’’.

Musk also in a tweet on the development said that “competition is fine, cheating is not’’.

However, while sampling the opinions of people, it was realised that some have heard about the App but yet to download to sign up, some never heard, while others are already leveraging the benefits of the App.

Source: NAN

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“The people have spoken,” tweeted Mr Musk, saying that 51.8% of more than 15 million Twitter users voted for the ban to be lifted.

But the former US president may not return to the platform, earlier saying: “I don’t see any reason for it”.

His account was suspended in 2021 due to the risk of incitement of violence.

Twitter’s previous management acted just days after Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC on 6 January.

Hundreds of rioters entered the complex as the US Congress attempted to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.

The ensuing violence led to the deaths of four civilians and a police officer.

Soon after the riots, Donald Trump’s Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts, which all had tens of millions of followers – were also suspended.

READ ALSO: Donald Trump says he’ll run for president again in 2024

Several months later, he launched his own social media platform, Truth Social.

Earlier this week, the Republican announced that he would once again run for the US presidency in 2024.

Mr Musk, the world’s richest man, took control of Twitter in October in a $44bn (£37bn) deal.

He immediately embarked on a series of radical changes within the social media giant, amid concerns that he might loosen Twitter’s regulations on hate speech and misinformation.

With just over a week before the US midterm elections on 8 November, he responded to questions about whether he would reinstate Mr Trump’s account by tweeting: “If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if Trump is coming back on this platform, Twitter would be minting money!”

Earlier this week, he told employees that the company’s office buildings would be temporarily closed, with immediate effect.

The announcement comes amid reports that large numbers of staff were quitting after Mr Musk called on them to sign up for “long hours at high intensity” or leave.

Source: BBC

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Mr Musk tweeted “the bird is freed” in an apparent reference to the deal.

A number of top executives, including the boss, Parag Agrawal, have reportedly been fired.

Mr Agrawal and two other executives were escorted out of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters on Thursday evening, said Reuters.

The completion of the deal brings to an end months of legal wrangling but it has prompted questions over the platform’s future direction.

Chief financial officer Ned Segal, and the firm’s top legal and policy executive, Vijaya Gadde, are leaving alongside Mr Agrawal, according to US media reports.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Elon Musk strikes deal to buy Twitter for $44bn

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone appeared to confirm the executives’ departure.

In a tweet, he thanked all three for their “collective contribution to Twitter”, calling them “massive talents” and “beautiful humans”.

Meanwhile, Bret Taylor – who had served as Twitter’s chairman since last November – updated his LinkedIn profile to indicate that he was no longer in the post.

Mr Musk, a self-styled “free speech absolutist”, has been critical of Twitter’s management and its moderation policies.

They clashed over the terms of the takeover, with Mr Musk accusing Twitter of providing misleading information about the firm’s user numbers.

He has also said he would reverse bans on suspended users, which could include former US President Donald Trump, who was excluded following the Capitol riot in January 2021.

At the time, Twitter said there was a risk Mr Trump would incite further violence. But Mr Musk has described the ban as “foolish”.

Earlier this week, Mr Musk said that he doesn’t want the platform to become an echo chamber for hate and division.

“Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hell-scape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” he tweeted.

The takeover has prompted discussion among Twitter users over what the platform will look like under Mr Musk’s ownership.

There are fears that more lenient free speech policies would mean people banned for hate speech or disinformation may be invited back to the platform.

As well as Mr Trump, that could include political extremists, QAnon loyalists and Covid-19 deniers.

In response to Mr Musk’s missive, Thierry Breton the EU commissioner for the internal market tweeted “In Europe, the bird will fly by our EU rules” suggesting regulators will take a tough stance against any relaxation of Twitter’s policies.

Mr Musk as well as being the world’s richest person with $250bn to his name, is a controversial figure.

He made his fortune through the electric car company Tesla, and space exploration firm Space X.

But he has drawn additional attention by his outspoken intervention in unrelated matters, often using Twitter as the platform, ranging from geopolitical issues such as the war in Ukraine to the rescue of the schoolboys trapped in a Thai cave.

It is not clear yet whether the clear out of senior management is the forerunner to company-wide job cuts.

Earlier reports suggested 75% of staff at the social media company were set to lose their jobs but those reports were “inaccurate”, according to Ross Gerber, a shareholder in both Twitter and Mr Musk’s other company Tesla.

“There are a lot of talented people at Twitter, especially on the engineering side and they want to retain as much of that talent as possible,” Mr Gerber told the BBC.

But he said the job losses could nevertheless extend far beyond upper management.

Mr Musk might look to cut product managers and end projects “that aren’t going anywhere” he said.

The social media platform’s shares will be suspended from trading on Friday, according to the New York Stock Exchange’s website.

Source: BBC

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