Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, agreed to acquire Twitter for $44 billion on Monday, ending a narrative that included hostile takeover threats before handing him personal control of one of the most prominent social media sites on the globe.

Twitter notably functioned as a megaphone for former US President Donald Trump until the network banned him, and Musk, a self-described “free-speech absolutist,” has stated he wants to change the company’s overbearing content management.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk stated in a Twitter release. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots and authenticating all humans. ”