Twitter under Musk: a threat to activists worldwide?

ust two weeks before going to trial, Elon Musk has agreed to follow through with his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. The billionaire entrepreneur had tried to call off the takeover just days after announcing it in April. Twitter shares soared as the news was confirmed.

The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, is buying Twitter for the equivalent of around €41 billion. That makes the deal one of the biggest in Wall Street history.

General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, sent out a series of tweets about Kenya on October 3, in which he threatened to invade the neighbouring country. Following these "humorous" comments, a video taken out of context is circulating on Kenyan social media, in which users mock the Ugandan military. We tell you more in this edition of Truth or Fake.

The world's richest man Elon Musk has completed his $44 billion takeover of Twitter, and tweeted: "The bird is freed".

The world's richest man now controls one of the most influential social media platforms. What's his plan? And how will he use that power?

Elon Musk said afterwards in a tweet that the arrangement is only temporary. It is unclear if or when he will name a new board.

We look at a new report from Le Monde and an anti-corruption investigative website into shady links between Russian mercenary group Wagner and the militia in Sudan. Also, ahead of the COP 27 conference in Egypt this week, the focus is not just on climate change but human rights in Egypt. Finally, a French Twitter user's joke about Americans' lack of geography gets a life of its own.

Employees are bracing for bad news after receiving a memo about job cuts, with every second worker reportedly at risk of being laid off. Elon Musk has already fired top executives since buying the social media giant.

Half of the social media giant's staff were reportedly laid off, some advertisers pulled their ads and US President Joe Biden said the platform "spews lies all across the world."

Cornet and four other Twitter employees had filed a lawsuit in California federal court on Friday accusing the social media company of violating federal and California laws requiring employers to give 60 days' notice before engaging in mass layoffs.

The mass layoffs announced on Twitter have affected the newly-formed African team of the social media platform based in Ghana. However, Ghanaian lawyers are considering legal action against Twitter for violating Ghanaian labour laws.

Since Elon Musk became CEO of Twitter, data shows a million users have fled the platform. DW rounds up some of the most popular microblogging alternatives — and sees if Mastodon lives up to the hype.