Twitter shows signs of life with user growth

Billionaire and avid platform user Elon Musk has made an offer to purchase 100% of the shares for the social media giant.

Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Friday.

We take a closer look at the bid by the world's richest man to buy Twitter for $43 billion. Elon Musk would need the backing of major investment firms for the hostile takeover. We explore what a potential purchase could mean for free speech on Twitter and find out why Musk's asking price may have a drug-related reference. Also on the show, we report on why the price of fertilisers is skyrocketing and we get the latest on a fuel shortage in Kenya.

The billionaire entrepreneur says he has secured $46.5 billion in financing for his bid to take over the social media giant Twitter. The Tesla and SpaceX owner says he is "exploring whether to commence a tender offer."

Twitter Inc. is poised to agree a sale to Elon Musk for around $43 billion in cash, the price the chief executive of Tesla Inc. has called his "best and final" offer for the social media company, people familiar with the matter said.

Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Tuesday.

The world's richest man appears to have succeeded in his $44 billion takeover of one of the internet's most influential social networks, but what comes next? From finding a new CEO, to confronting new EU regulations, to boosting lacklustre performance, Twitter's future as a private company under Elon Musk will be filled with challenges. FRANCE 24's Bryan Quinn takes a closer look.

Twitter is a convenient way to stay up to date with everything from the latest memes and hot takes to the news. But being an active Twitter user can also mean you have to sift through a lot of online toxicity. If you think the toxicity has gotten too much for you, here is how you can deactivate your Twitter account.

Elon Musk has promised big changes at Twitter, after the social media platform accepted his takeover bid worth $44 billion. But the acquisition has sparked concern about how Musk will balance a commitment to free speech with rules about moderating content, as well as questions about his links to China. Meanwhile, Musk's electric car company Tesla has been rebuffed by Indian officials, who say they won't import the brand's cars from China.

After buying Twitter for $44 billion, Elon Musk is promising to protect free speech and bring about much-needed changes, including taking on bots and introducing an edit button to the platform. We take a closer look at the billionaire Tesla founder. For more analysis on what changes the latter might bring to Twitter, we speak to Chris Bail, Director of the Polarization Lab at Duke University.

A victory for free speech or for disinformation? That is the 44-billion dollar question after Elon Musk's swoop for Twitter. Does it matter any more than Amazon's Jeff Bezos owning The Washington Post or all the French captains of industry whose often money-losing media purchases buy them a platform to voice their views?

After Elon Musk's $44 billion bid to buy Twitter was accepted, rumours exploded on social media, claiming that Musk had reinstated former US president Donald Trump on the platform. However, Trump's Twitter account is still suspended. Meanwhile, in the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial, Heard's legal team is getting grilled in the court of public opinion over... makeup claims. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.