Media mogul Barry Diller on Monday likened Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter to the billionaire buying a “toy” and said the platform is likely to shrink under his leadership.
“You’ve got this extraordinarily wealthy person, and he bought a toy. He bought a toy, and how long he will use it, like toys, we don’t really know, but he’s not going to walk away, I don’t think,” Diller said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
The Expedia and IAC chairman said he thinks Musk will make some positive changes but said he doesn’t expect the app to expand its share of the social media space.
“Twitter will be better. It will be smaller,” Diller said.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk sealed the $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter at the end of last month and has since moved to make controversial changes to the platform and its operation.
The company laid off nearly half its workforce, cutting thousands of employees and scaling back efforts to combat misinformation on the site.
New Twitter rules unveiled Monday don’t include any misinformation policies, and the more lax content moderation has reportedly caused a surge of racist and antisemitic Tweets.
Musk also said he plans to end lifetime bans for users such as former President Trump and made the controversial move to put Twitter’s blue verification check marks, which users can currently earn if they meet credibility requirements, behind a paywall.
In a shift expected sometime after the midterms, the verification symbol used to identify known professionals — such as journalists, celebrities, politicians and other figures — will be available to any user who forks over $7.99 per month for the Twitter Blue subscription.
“Widespread verification will democratize journalism & empower the voice of the people,” Musk said of the verification changes.
“Twitter needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world,” the billionaire added.