Despite concerns from both sides of the aisle about the power and influence one man has to buy a major social media platform like Twitter, this deal gives America something invaluable: an experiment in social media. 

After a dramatic saga of big promises and billion-dollar offers, CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk finally closed the deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion, only a day before the deal’s deadline. Musk began his reign by firing the CEO, CFO, and general counsel of Twitter before dubbing himself the “Chief Twit” on his own Twitter account. 

Reactions to the transaction are split down party lines. Right-leaning influencers applaud the purchase as a victory for free speech, while left-leaning influencers condemn the purchase as ill-informed and selfish. Instead of falling along party lines, now is the best time to wait and see. 

Musk has already hinted at several sweeping changes. He has expressed interest in removing lifetime bans, and a variety of unique systems for splitting Twitter into different zones based on the maturity of content or style of interactions. Any of those changes could be game changers for social media. 

From the beginning, people skeptical of the Twitter buyout worried that Musk’s policies could open the door for more racism and trolling on the platform, supported by a barrage of N-word tweets in the 48 hours following the acquisition announcement. To address that concern, Musk said in an open letter to advertisers that Twitter would not become a “free-for-all hellscape.” 

Analysts and political commentators have waxed eloquently trying to predict how these policies and the idea of privatized social media will work, but nobody knows. That’s the beauty of the Twitter buyout, now that it finally went through: the world will see if privatized social media with more transparent policies can function in today’s internet. 

While there is still good reason to worry about a billionaire wielding enough power to casually buy and reshape a major social media company, fortunately, Twitter is only one small slice of the social media pie. According to Search Engine Journal, Twitter ranks 10th by monthly active users, well behind Facebook and Instagram but even trailing Pinterest and LinkedIn. Any damage Musk does to Twitter will not radically impact the internet as a whole. 

So look at this Twitter buyout as one big experiment in social media practices. If it works, maybe other social media platforms will implement similar reforms. If it doesn’t, users will migrate to other platforms. The world has a lot to learn from Twitter in the next year.