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The Story

Weekend listen: Elon Musk's (paused) Twitter takeover

The Story

The Times

Current Affairs, Daily News Podcast, News Analysis, Politics, News, Audio Storytelling, Uk News, Exclusive Interviews, Investigative Reporting, In-depth Journalism, Daily News, Long-form Audio, Global News

3.91.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2022

⏱️ 72 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today's weekend listen comes courtesy of our sister podcast, Danny In The Valley.

Yesterday, Elon Musk put his $44 billion takeover of Twitter on pause. Some investors now seem sceptical that the deal will happen at all, although Musk says he remains committed.

Whatever happens next at Twitter, the future of online debate is being thrashed out in public this weekend. So today we're listening to a recent podcast from Sunday Times West Coast correspondent Danny Fortson, examining the deal and the state of social media.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today and get one month free at: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.

Subscribe for free to Danny In The Valley: https://podfollow.com/danny-in-the-valley

Host: Danny Fortson, West Coast correspondent, The Sunday Times.

Guests:

- Hany Farid, professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Information.

- James Currier, general partner at NFX.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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1:03.6

Hello, hello, Callum McDonnellt here from Times Radio. I'll be filling in for Manvine Rana

1:08.2

on stories of our times next week. But in the meantime, as Elon Musk waits for no person

1:14.2

apparently, we're bringing you a bonus episode this weekend.

1:17.4

Yesterday, Musk put his $44 billion takeover of Twitter on pause. He, of course, as you might

1:31.2

expect, tweeted, Twitter deal temporarily on hold, pending details, supporting the calculation

1:37.4

that spam and fake accounts represent less than 5% of users. Two hours later, he added,

1:44.0

still committed to acquisition. Over the last few weeks, Musk has begun to sketch out a plan

1:53.3

for how Twitter would change under his ownership. On Tuesday, he said Donald Trump would be allowed

1:59.8

back as part of a free speech initiative. On Thursday, two senior executives were sacked,

2:17.2

the company said it was going in a different direction and wished them well. But this latest move

2:22.4

looks more like a dig at that hefty price tag really. If lots of Twitter account are fake,

2:27.7

maybe it's not worth all that money after all.

2:35.2

The company's stock took a big hit yesterday. Investors seem skeptical that this deal will happen

...

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