Elon Musk just bought Twitter for $44 billion. Its users have mixed feelings

Billionaire Elon Musk, the planet's richest human being, struck an agreement to buy social media giant Twitter for $44 billion on Monday afternoon. As a consequence, Twitter will no longer be a publicly-traded company.

"Twitter agreed to sell itself to Mr. Musk for $54.20 a share, a 38 percent premium over the company’s share price this month before he revealed he was the firm’s single largest shareholder. It would be the largest deal to take a company private — something Mr. Musk has said he will do with Twitter — in at least two decades, according to data compiled by Dealogic," the New York Times reported.

"Hey guys, Twitter is ours!" Musk wrote after closing the deal.

Musk said in a statement that he intends to transform Twitter into a haven for unrestricted free speech for everyone.

"Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," said Musk. "I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it."

Musk also tweeted earlier in the day that he hopes that "even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means."

Users on the platform are split over whether Musk's takeover will make Twitter better or worse.

There are two main arguments. The first is that unrestricted free speech is a fundamental right that should extend to digital environments like Twitter.

The second is that unrestricted free speech will lead to a frenzy of propaganda, conspiracy theories, and hate speech.

In fact, some believe that Musk's gigantic purchase is purely a means of boosting his own power.

Notably, former President Donald Trump, Twitter's most famous de-platformed user, announced that he will not return. His social media venture, Truth Social, has been a total flop.