Musk stated that he planned to introduce new features to the platform, make its algorithms open-source, combat spambot accounts, and promote free speech, framing the acquisition as the cornerstone of X, an "everything app".

He relayed this idea to Twitter board chair Bret Taylor and CEO Parag Agrawal, proposing to either take the company private or start a rival social media platform.

[61][62] On May 4, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom summoned Musk to discuss the effect of his buyout on free speech and "online harms".

[103][104] In response, Taylor pledged to pursue legal action against Musk at the Delaware Court of Chancery with the goal of completing the acquisition,[105][106] with the ensuing lawsuit once again overseen by the Twitter board's transaction committee.

[107] On July 10, Twitter hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to represent its case, including "key lawyers" William Savitt and Leo Strine,[108] along with Potter Anderson & Corroon, Ballard Spahr, Kobre & Kim, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

[125] Musk filed a "termination letter" with the SEC on August 29, citing Zatko's claims as evidence Twitter breached their contract,[126][127] before asking McCormick to delay the trial by a few weeks.

[166][167] The next day, Musk wrote in an open letter to advertisers that Twitter would not become a "free-for-all hellscape", reiterating that his motives for the purchase were not based on greed but rather a desire to create "a common digital town square".

Musk immediately became Twitter's new owner, summarily firing Agrawal, chief financial officer (CFO) Ned Segal, Gadde, and general counsel Sean Edgett,[171][172][173] with the executives escorted out of the company's headquarters by security.

[237][243] On April 22, U.S. House Republicans demanded that Twitter's board preserve all records pertaining to Musk's takeover proposal, which sets the stage for a potential congressional probe following the 2022 midterms.

[139] Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Congress such as Jim Jordan, Yvette Herrell, Marsha Blackburn, and Ted Cruz praised the deal, calling it a restoration of free speech.

[253][254] In June, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton launched an investigation into whether Twitter had misled authorities on its number of spambot accounts, alluding to prior claims made by Musk.

[263] LGBTQ+ users and activists expressed apprehension about the deal based on tweets by Musk mocking transgender people, fearing that the re-platforming of suspended Twitter accounts would lead to a rise in online harassment and hate speech.

[282][283] Other Republican politicians, including Dan Crenshaw, Darrell Issa,[284] Marjorie Taylor Greene,[285] Marsha Blackburn,[191] Anthony Sabatini, Amy Kremer,[286] Lauren Boebert, Dick Black,[287] Cruz,[288] and Jordan applauded the purchase as well.

[306] Multiple celebrities in the entertainment industry announced their departure from the platform,[307][308] while some left-wing influencers such as John Pavlovitz and Rob Reiner urged fellow leftists to remain on Twitter for the time being.

[307][305] The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) observed a 500 percent spike in the use of the racial slur "nigger" in the 12 hours after Musk completed the acquisition, while The Washington Post noted an increase in pro-Nazi, misogynistic, and anti-LGBTQ+ tweets.

[321] Paul R. La Monica of CNN Business suggested that Tesla's declining stock price indicated that Wall Street investors were doubtful on whether Musk's purchase would go through.

[331] Cathy Young of center-right news website The Bulwark felt that Musk's planned reforms to Twitter were "unlikely to succeed", further observing that commentators who opposed the purchase viewed it as right-wing backlash against "perceived left-wing social media bias".

[334] Equity analyst Angelo Zino believed that Twitter's acceptance of Musk's proposal may have stemmed from its realization that alternative bidders would be unlikely to emerge due to social media companies' declining asset prices.

[336] Similarly, Joan Donovan, research director at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, stated that the lack of moderation on Twitter would lead to online harassment.

[347] Tulane University Law School associate dean for faculty research Ann Lipton and mergers and acquisitions expert Julian Klymochko both expressed doubts that Musk could prove there was a material adverse effect.

[348][349] Felix Salmon of Axios noted that a clause in the contract opened the door for a judge to grant specific performance and order Musk to move forward with the deal.

[352] Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Holman W. Jenkins Jr. questioned whether Musk had proposed the acquisition "out of mouth momentum or excessive enjoyment of the limelight or for some mysterious reason that causes an onlooker to throw up his hands".

[358] New York University's Center for Social Media and Politics executive director Zeve Sanderson cautioned that if Musk were to lay off 75 percent of Twitter's workforce, it would make it more difficult for the company to moderate its content.

[285] Spiked's O'Neill claimed that liberals' negative reaction to the closure reflected their fear of freedom and liberty,[361] while Washington Examiner's Christopher Tremoglie disapproved of Musk's idea for a moderation council as continued censorship.

[368] Also writing for The New York Times, Kate Conger, Ryan Mac, and Tiffany Hsu noted that Musk's meetings with civil rights activists and his plans for a content moderation council were reminiscent of the actions taken by Zuckerberg following backlash on Facebook's handling of the 2016 U.S.

[370] Scholars who studied the First Amendment, such as professor Jonathan Turley of the George Washington University Law School, praised Musk's plans to tone down content moderation on Twitter.

[371] Literary group PEN America opined that the midterm elections in November would serve as a test as to whether Musk would allow disinformation to spread rapidly on the platform,[372] while American left-wing activist coalition Stop the Deal warned of real-world consequences if a rise in hate speech occurs on Twitter.

[378] A nonfiction book about the acquisition, Breaking Twitter: Elon Musk and the Most Controversial Corporate Takeover in History, was announced by author Ben Mezrich in December 2022 and released in November 2023.

[384] The Verge's Jay Peters pointed to Musk's radical changes and declining user numbers as evidence that the takeover was a "disaster",[385] while Bloomberg's Aisha Counts zeroed in on the increase in misinformation and hate speech.

[393] The Washington Post reported that the company had lost $24 billion in equity value, "a vaporization of wealth that has little parallel outside the realm of economic or industry-specific crashes, or devastating corporate scandals.