What’s Going On Here?Twitter shareholders approved its buyout this week, but the deal’s far from done. What Does This Mean?The once-hot Musk versus Twitter topic might not be trending anymore, but that doesn’t mean the drama’s cooling off. Musk – who pulled out of his Twitter buyout deal in July – has been battling the social media company and its lawyers ever since. And just as Twitter’s shareholders stamped their seal of approval this week, a whistleblower testified to the government that Twitter lacked basic security measures. In fact, they even claimed a spy had landed a job there and got their hands on precious data – potentially including accounts of senators in the room. Twitter can always rely on the “disgruntled ex-employee” card to discredit the fiery testimony, sure, but you can bet Musk will hope these slippy security stories will help him wriggle out of the deal. Why Should I Care?Zooming in: Let’s all be friends.
Twitter’s board of directors is duty-bound to seek the best outcome for the company’s shareholders, which could include forcing the deal through. Musk, though, isn’t budging on his claim that Twitter withheld vital information about the platform’s number of bots. So maybe the two staunchly committed parties should consider compromising: Musk could easily up the $1 billion he promised to pay if the deal fell through, extra cash that would appease shareholders by funding the company’s recovery. Plus, skipping out the reluctant owner bit wouldn’t hurt either of them.
The bigger picture: Hear, hear.
Those Twitter-happy senators will have been listening very closely: lawmakers are already keen to enforce stricter regulations on big tech companies, so details of lackadaisical security practices may only hasten their clamp-down efforts. After all, if politicians tar all social media and tech companies with the same brush, any fallout from Twitter could affect the likes of Meta and Amazon too – and they’ve already faced more than their fair share of browbeating. | 
