How will Elon Musk shape Twitter?

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MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, an ultra-Trumpy conspiracy theorist in the House of Representatives, was in high spirits on October 27th. “FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!!!” tweeted the Republican congresswoman, as Elon Musk, the self-proclaimed new “Chief Twit” of Twitter, at last took control of the company. His professed admiration for free speech is being celebrated on the right, whose denizens complain that controls over the spread of misinformation online are an affront to their liberties. This is having a big impact on who uses Twitter. Many more people follow left-wing accounts on the platform than right-wing ones. But when news of Mr Musk’s bid to buy Twitter first broke in April, The Economist charted how Twitter’s centre of gravity was shifting to the right. We have run an update in the days since Mr Musk’s acquisition was completed, to see if a similar pattern occurred (see chart).