Twitter announced this week that they will be accepting Elon Musk’s bid to buy the platform for a whopping $44billion, and thousands of people are rejoicing given Musk’s promises to ameliorate free speech and improve the platform overall. On the flip side, others are wondering what kind of consequences the new ownership will carry for current and new users of the platform. Since millions of people rely on the platform for business, such a huge change may have unforeseen repercussions; here are some ways that your business’s Twitter account may be affected by the change in ownership.

Accounts are being deleted en masse

Can you tell that Twitter is doing account deletions today? When I lose 300 followers in 2 hours, I know they are cleaning house. I wonder if @elonmusk will allow us to keep our “sensitive material,” accounts.

— Michael Stokes (@Stokes_Photo) April 25, 2022

Though there is much praise and hope for a new and improved experience, there are also a lot of doubters, many of whom are going to the extreme and just deleting their accounts. For business owners, losing too many followers could be disastrous–and plenty of users are already reporting a noticeable dip in their following.

You may need to authenticate your profiles

And authenticate all real humans

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 21, 2022

Musk is on a mission to “defeat the spam bots or die trying”, in which he notes doing so means authenticating “all real humans.” This doesn’t immediately seem like a downside, but there is no telling on how business accounts may be affected as they aren’t “real humans.”

Free speech = a lawless community?

Ah he got twitter. I would like this to be my what lies here as my last tweet. Just really *any* excuse to show pics of Barold. I fear this free speech bid is going to help this hell platform reach its final form of totally lawless hate, bigotry, and misogyny. Best of luck. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/fBDOuEYI3e

— Jameela Jamil 🌈 (@jameelajamil) April 25, 2022

Will Twitter become a digital Wild West? Some believe it may be so. It remains unclear at this time what exactly Musk has in mind for improving “free speech” on the platform, but there are numerous users who have been vocal about their fear that it could mean the normally-moderated hate comments may be making a comeback.

Of course, the above is just speculation and at this time no one knows how exactly Twitter will be changing for the better or worse–if at all. The only thing we can do is hope for the best.