Dear Reader,

People are all atwitter about Twitter. The social media site is not new to breathless chatter, criticism, and speculation, but in recent days it has become an object of intense focus because the world’s richest man, after first announcing a substantial stake in the company, offered to buy it outright. Just this morning, Elon Musk announced that he has lined up $46.5 billion in financing to buy Twitter. 

Whether he will succeed in the acquisition or not is guesswork, which I will let others guess about. But a successful purchase of the social media giant gives rise to countless other questions. Will he reinstate Donald Trump’s account? Will he change the rules of engagement and suspension? Will he change the policy about anonymity? Will he vaporize the bots? Will he vanquish misinformation? Will he add an edit button?

Only time will tell, but all the talk brings me back to a more fundamental question about the platform, one that I have touched on a number of times here and in the podcasts: Is Twitter good or bad? Or, put another way, is Twitter more good than bad or more bad than good?