In the US, civil rights organizations warned of harmful content on the platform, while Republicans celebrated the change in ownership.

The firing of Gadde sparked concern among civil liberties groups that fought for Trump’s Twitter ban, such as Muslim Advocates.

“Elon Musk claims that he doesn’t want Twitter to become a ‘free-for-all hellscape’ but he would guarantee that outcome by letting white nationalist hatemongers back on the platform and pushing out the staff responsible for policing hate content,” said Muslim Advocates’ senior policy counsel, Sumayyah Waheed. “This is not about left v right political brinkmanship or collegiate debates over free speech. This is about the safety of communities of color, people of minority faiths and other marginalized communities who are already under assault.”

Civil rights advocates warn that the billionaire’s proposed changes, which are thus far vague but focus on moderating content less closely, in the name of “freedom of speech”, risk making the platform “a supercharged engine of radicalisation”. Allowing Trump to return in particular could have a huge impact on content.