Elon Musk has agreed to go ahead with the deal to buy Twitter at the original $44 billion that he offered, according to reports.

From Fox News:

Fox Business reported Twitter intended to close the deal for Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the social media company at $54.20 per share, the original offer Musk made in April. Shares from Twitter stock quickly soared after the announcement which also received approval from Twitter shareholders.

That immediately caused a meltdown by some in the liberal media. Funny how it’s the media who can’t seem to deal with someone who wants free speech.

NBC News reporter Ben Collins notably penned a lengthy Twitter thread describing how Musk’s Twitter purchase could affect the 2022 midterm elections.

“For those of you asking: Yes, I do think this site can and will change pretty dramatically if Musk gets full control over it. No, there is no immediate replacement. If it gets done early enough, based on the people he’s aligned with, yes, it could actually affect midterms,” Collins wrote. [….]

Others also agreed with Collins on the risk posed by Musk purchasing Twitter.

“Be afraid, be actually afraid,” former Politico Magazine editor Garrett M. Graff wrote.

Euronews correspondent Shona Murray tweeted, “The end of Twitter as we know it is nigh.”

“Huge changes anticipated on this bird app after it goes private. Guardrails will be dropped, misinfo & conspiracy theories will thrive. No functional alternatives available, this is it: a complete destruction of the global public square. Been nice y’all,” BBC journalist Dickens Olewe wrote.

MSNBC host Joy Reid also retweeted Collins’ thread along with author Don Winslow’s warning about the threat Elon’s ownership of the social media site poses.

“*IF* Musk gets control of Twitter, And Zuckerberg has control of Facebook, And CNN is under new Republican backed management, We have a massive problem. And do not listen to anyone who tells you differently,” Winslow tweeted.

When the left is freaking out so badly, you know that it’s a great thing. Imagine the insanity that anyone thinks that Mark Zuckerberg is favorable to Republicans or that CNN is now under “Republican backed management” just because you have someone who wants to go back to real news. They’re just so frightened that they wouldn’t control such an important communication vehicle, that there might be free speech and not just their narrative. It’s glorious to see.

But there were a couple of other surprising notes to the news as well. Hu Xijin, the Global Times commentator who is Chinese state media, threatened Musk, saying he believed too much in “freedom of speech” and would be “taught a lesson.”

Elon Musk has released his personality too much, and he believes too much in the US and West’s “freedom of speech.” He will be taught a lesson. pic.twitter.com/nv4VU7rFIv

— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) October 4, 2022

I’m thinking even China is freaking out that their bot army might now take a hit with Elon in charge. That’s their effort to manipulate the narrative and if he takes down the bots, they are going to be hurting. How wonderful would that be — a hit right in the influence of the CCP.

Then on top of the liberal media and the CCP flipping out, suddenly people started losing a ton of followers Tuesday night after the announcement. Not just well-known accounts, but people across the board were losing followers. Some theorized that it might be Twitter trying to clean up the bots before Musk took over, although some thought it was an effort to purge conservative followers before the takeover.

JUST IN 🚨 Multiple Twitter users report unexpected and sudden decrease in followers count following Musk buyout deal news.

— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) October 4, 2022

Twitter has now removed 11,000 of my followers in the last hour.

— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) October 4, 2022

Lost ~12K followers in last few hours. I assume Twitter is purging some of their legion of bots before final sale. Also mildly curious if the bot armies that obviously swarmed Elon yesterday had anything to do with him deciding to go through with purchase to stop them/their aims?

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) October 5, 2022

They know they have to clean everything up before he comes in and looks under the hood. There’s likely a lot more behind the scenes that we don’t know about as well. But the meltdown is marvelous to see. The last thing liberals want is a vehicle that isn’t being constantly manipulated but is the free market exchange of ideas. Because in that environment, they lose, badly.