Billionaires and blue ticks: Will Twitter go the same way as MySpace and Bebo?

Elon Musk - a man who sounds as though he was named after a rather naff aftershave you only find in Christmas gift boxes - is the world’s richest man, and, in common with so many rich men, he likes things to play with. Like Twitter.

Buying the social media platform gives him enormous influence, and the power to alter and shape debate which could have a profound impact on elections, and even governments.

That makes this a dangerous deal, but it is also one that may be Musk’s undoing.

He has paid ludicrously over the odds for a platform that is utterly toxic, and the bile, the hatred and venom that sear across debates is now all on his shoulders as owner.

Twitter is giant empty vessel where nuance is bludgeoned, and tone is impossible to read.

The plus points - reaching and finding people with shared interests and enjoying their humour and observations - are so often suffocated by trolls and bots.

Mid-lockdown, I asked: “what do you want to see in our town centre?”

I didn’t expect the answer to be “a public gallows to hang the FFP reporters.”

It’s easy to dismiss such posts as rubbish, but Twitter has weaponised words, and people have been badly hurt after being caught in the crossfire.

No-one in their right mind would respond with something as grotesque if asked face to face. Twitter has changed how we engage with each other and that brutal harshness is spilling over into the real world

The platform has given a voice and platform to far-right alt supremacists, fake news nutjobs and oddballs, as well as people who seem to be permanently angry about everything, and they can instigate harrowing pile-ons and go for the jugular whenever they want. Some revel in the toxicity.

Twitter is a world where you are right and anyone who may have a different view is simply wrong. He who shouts loudest commands the mic.

If Twitter went the same way as, say, MySpace or Bebo, overnight, would we miss it?I’d like to think Musk could make it a place where tolerance and reason are given priority. I fear his promise of “free speech” will be harrowing to watch.

Musk already faces a backlash following his purchase. Twitter’s ability to spread news like a virus means people are already trying to make it so wild and weird that the app’s value crashes so badly that Musk’s backers bail. They did it when Yahoo bought Tumblr in 2013 and lost a fortune before offloading it.

Musk is clearly a smart guy given the giant corporation he has built up, but running Twitter isn’t the same as running a factory churning out expensive cars.

And £$44billion is a hell of a lot of cash to buy something he spent months trying not to acquire.

If he gets it wrong - and many fear he will - then his advertisers will walk and he’ll be left with a very, very empty “common digital town square.”