Elon MuskA South African-born entrepreneur whose companies have included the online payment service PayPal. He now controls Twitter, renamed 'X'. agreed to pay £37bn for Twitter. But then changed his mind.

Musk announced he wanted to buy Twitter in April. At first, the company was reluctant. Then the price was agreed.  

A few weeks later, Musk claimed to have doubts about how many of Twitter's 229 million users were real people as opposed to botsShort for 'robot', a program that automatically completes simple and repetitive tasks. They can imitate humans online..

Twitter's boss asserted that fewer than 5% were bots, but admitted it removed around one million fake accounts a day. Musk believes the proportion is more like 20%.

There could be other reasons for his second thoughts. When he made his bid of £45.50 per share, tech companies were doing much better. Twitter shares have since fallen by around £17.

At the same time, shares in Tesla - the basis of Musk's wealth - have fallen by about a third. Shareholders are worried that he would not be able to focus properlyMusk is already running SpaceX, Neuralink and the Boring Company as well as Tesla. on the company if he was running Twitter as well.

On Friday, Musk announced he was pulling out of the Twitter deal, even though he had signed a contract. Now the company is suing him. Musk, it said, seemed to believe he was "free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away".

Others are also hoping for the sale to go through - particularly those on the political right. Musk has accused Twitter of left-wing biasMusk has joked that Twitter's head office could be used as a shelter for homeless people. and criticised it for banning Donald Trump.

But many dread the idea of Musk taking charge, including Twitter employees who have worked hard to curb hate speech.

Musk's interest in Twitter, Martin Skaldany writes in Prospect, "is about imposing his vision of free speech on the world." It would lead to lighter moderation of harmful content and risk "turbocharging" fake news.

In The Guardian, Robert Reich is even more hard-hitting. "Musk advocates free speech but in reality it's just about power," he writes.

"Someone has to decide on the algorithms in every platform - how they're designed, how they evolve, what they reveal and what they hide. Musk has enough power and money to quietly give himself this sort of control."

Reich fears Musk would be "the wizard behind the curtainA reference to the film The Wizard of Oz." creating an illusion of the internet as "a brave new worldA phrase from Shakespeare's play The Tempest which was used as the title of a dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley. empowering everyone". In fact, it would be dominated by wealthy people "who wouldn't be accountable to anyone".

Yes: Platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are far too influential to be left in the hands of individuals or private companies. They have already proved to be a serious threat to democracy.  

No: Crowd takeovers are all very well in theory, but a company cannot be run by millions of people. Representatives would have to be chosen, which would be an impossibly complicated process.    

Or... Social media companies should be run as charities devoted to combating hate speech and fake news. Any profits should be spent on hiring and training more moderators to deal with these issues.  

Elon Musk - A South African-born entrepreneur whose companies have included the online payment service PayPal. He now controls Twitter, renamed 'X'.

Bots - Short for 'robot', a program that automatically completes simple and repetitive tasks. They can imitate humans online.

Focus properly - Musk is already running SpaceX, Neuralink and the Boring Company as well as Tesla.

Left-wing bias - Musk has joked that Twitter's head office could be used as a shelter for homeless people.

Prospect - A British current-affairs magazine.

Wizard behind the curtain - A reference to the film The Wizard of Oz.

Brave new world - A phrase from Shakespeare's play The Tempest which was used as the title of a dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley.