LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter commenced on Thursday, October 27th with his self proclamation of being “Chief Twit” appearing on his Twitter bio the same day.

Already, there have been changes including key personnel being fired and a change in the blue check policy for users who will have to pay a higher monthly fee.

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In a promise that Twitter will not be a “free-for-all hellscape,” Musk has put together a “content moderation council” and said that no account reinstatements or major content decisions will be made before they convene.

To his advertisers, he tweeted out, “Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.”

How is Michigan responding to the the changes to Twitter and Elon Musk’s ownership of the social media platform?

Detroit automaker GM has decided to put their Twitter advertising on ice for now while things are in flux. Patrick Morrissey, a spokesperson for GM said, “We are engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership. As in normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising. Our customer care interactions on Twitter will continue.”

Besides companies and advertisers wondering how the “new” Twitter will affect their bottom line, there are others who are wondering if the political censorship and the deplatforming of the past is over.

The pre-Musk banning of conservatives didn’t seem to have any limits, with no one appearing to be out of reach from being banned – from Project Veritas to Michael Flynn from Mike Lindell to President Donald Trump. Even the satire site Babylon Bee got shut down.

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Regardless of personal opinions about what is offensive to them, those who champion free speech say that the answer to offensive speech is NOT censorship. David Kallman, attorney with the Michigan Law firm Kallman Legal Group, PLLC, says, “The answer to speech you don’t like is more speech, not censorship. Elon Musk appears to be committed to the free exchange of ideas, even those that might offend others. We applaud his goal to make sure that all voices are heard and that Twitter becomes a platform where free speech is available to all.”

University of Michigan Assistant Professor Erik Gordon, whose areas of interest are entrepreneurship and technology, said in an interview with The Conversation, “So why would Musk or anyone want to take a company private? One key reason is control, which allows a buyer to impose his or her vision and singular strategy. Now the shares have changed hands, Twitter is Musk’s to do with as he pleases – from reopening the accounts of former President Donald Trump and Ye, the artist formally known as Kanye West, to slashing the workforce and firing executives.”

He continues, “With the company in his hands, Musk can, of course, do what he likes. He can implement any free speech policy that suits his fancy. He can let Trump and Ye tweet. He can ban Tesla short sellers and anyone who questions his foreign policy initiatives. He can fire 75% of his staff in a heartbeat – something a public CEO would have a very hard time doing…It’s too soon to tell if taking Twitter private will be a Dell-like success or a Toys R Us disaster. But given Musk has said he ‘doesn’t care about the economics,’ it may not matter.”

Another University of Michigan Associate Professor, Joyojeet Pal, doesn’t think Musk will be as free to do what he wants as some people think. He said on “India First” on India Today, “Even though it looks for him, as an individual, it is something great to have the platform for himself as he fashions it…There are certain risks associated with it but when he tweeted ‘the bird is free’ immediately the European Union’s internal market commissioner said ‘well, the bird is free but in Europe the bird will fly by our rules so as to make a point here that it’s not like  everything can change and nation’s rules can change and just be overrun. So it is true that now he has a lot more ability to do things his way but that doesn’t mean run free with free speech because whenever that has actually happened platforms have actually failed…look at 4chan, 8chan, the platforms that existed on free speech absolutism eventually advertisers don’t want to touch that kind of a platform.”