Clouds on Twitter

Elon Musk continues to make waves. The billionaire now has less than a week to finalize the deal on the purchase of Twitter, a project that has been dragging on for months due to the entrepreneur’s second thoughts. According to rumors published by Reuters, banks financing the $13 billion deal have reportedly asked to suspend the deal because of growing uncertainties around the social media(The Post).

Layoffs on the way?

Indeed, the path to acquiring the social network has been rather bumpy, and even today it is still unclear how Musk wants to run the company as soon as he gains ownership. According to the Washington Post, Tesla’s patron would like to drastically downsize the company’s size, which would pose numerous risks both on the cybersecurity front and on the fake news front. Should he fail to finance the purchase deal, Musk aims to lay off 75 percent of Twitter’s employees. An indiscretion that, the U.S. newspaper reports, would have thrown the company’s workers into a panic after unrest in recent months(Wired).

New actors

Twitter’s tumultuous affairs, however, testify to how the world of social media is changing at an unpredictable speed, with new competitors putting pressure on the industry’s other major platforms. Musk himself had stated in the past that he was planning a new social media dubbed “X” or “all-around app”(Nyt). But complicating the market is especially TikTok, which has become the leader in short video and live stream commerce. Initially dismissed as a passing fad, China’s social media has become one of the most important, discussed and feared giants, including from a geopolitical perspective.

• What you need to know about the rise of TikTok(The Guardian).
• TikTok job ads testify to the company’s plans on e-commerce(The Guardian).