On Wednesday Elon Musk got to work turning Twitter into his vision of a digital town square. According to multiple reports, Elon Musk is officially the new owner of Twitter, Inc. 

The seven-month-long bot-wrangling legal battle appears to be over. And Former President Trump, who has been banned from the platform, commented that he was happy that Twitter was now in “sane hands.”

The billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla visited Twitter’s San Francisco Headquarters on Wednesday. Employees at that office received an email from Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland telling them that Musk would drop into the offices.

Musk entered the building carrying a white sink. And posted a video to his 40.6 million Twitter followers "Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in."

The Wall Street Journal reported that the dramatic entrance was followed by some high-profile terminations. The top executives of Twitter including Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust and safety were fired and escorted out to the building.

Throughout October Twitter shares have rallied 26%. And at Thursday’s close shares were up at $53.70 inching towards Musk’s $54.20-a-share takeover price.

Digital Town Square 

Musk tweeted a statement to reassure advertisers. Some of them have expressed concern about content moderation. Musk says buying the platform is related to his views on free speech. But he also believes that Twitter could be a more profitable platform to both creators and advertisers.

Musk has always claimed he wants to make Twitter into a “digital town square,” where the healthy debate of ideas is open to a myriad of opinions. 

The billionaire has been championing free speech in a non-violent way. He has claimed that “traditional media” caters to the most “polarized extremes” on both the right and the left. And bots and click-bait are used to maximize revenue.  And that the focus should be about choice.

The statement added that “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” 

“In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all, where you can choose your desired experience according to your preferences, just as you can choose, for example, to see movies or play video games ranging from all ages to mature.”