Oct. 28 (UPI) — Elon Musk has accomplished a long-discussed $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, making him the proprietor of the social media behemoth.

“The chicken is freed,” Musk tweeted late Thursday.

Musk, the world’s richest man, closed the deal and started to reshape the platform that he is criticized for months over allegations of not being politically impartial by firing a number of executives, The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN reported, citing unnamed sources.

These fired Thursday embody chief govt Parag Agrawal and chief monetary officer Ned Segal, amongst others, in response to the experiences.

The completion of the deal comes a day after Musk dramatically entered Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco on Wednesday with a sink in his arms. A video of his entrance was posted to his Twitter account, which is adopted by greater than 120 million folks. The caption learn “Getting into Twitter HQ — let that sink in!”

Hypothesis — and considerations — over whether or not Musk would purchase Twitter started when he turned its largest stakeholder in April. Quickly after, he offered to buy the platform with a view to “unlock” its “extraordinary potential.”

The self-proclaimed free speech absolutist has attracted fear from critics over his hands-off method to censorship and proclamations that he would reverse Twitter’s everlasting ban on former President Donald Trump.

Trump, a former frequent person of the platform, was booted from Twitter two days following the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the Capitol “as a result of danger of additional incitement of violence,” the social media company mentioned.

In the meantime, predominantly right-leaning politicians and pundits have considered the deal as a guard to free speech as they view the banning of Trump and others from the platform in addition to its efforts to confirm content material of some posts as an assault on their first modification rights.

In an effort to assuage worries, Musk earlier Thursday issued an open letter to Twitter advertisers explaining he’ll stop the platform from turning into a “free-for-all hellscape.”

“The explanation I acquired Twitter is as a result of it is very important the way forward for civilization to have a standard digital city sq., the place a variety of beliefs could be debated in a wholesome method, with out resorting to violence,” he mentioned. “There may be presently nice hazard that social media will splinter into far right-wing and much left-wing echo chambers that generate extra hate and divide our society.”

After the acquisition was introduced, Cease the Deal, a coalition of nonprofit advocacy teams, together with GLAAD and Media Issues for America, warned the deal will make Twitter “an much more hate-filled cesspool.”

“Musk’s plans will go away the platform extra susceptible to safety threats, rampant disinformation and extremism simply head of the midterm elections,” the coalition mentioned in a statement.