WhatsappElon Musk was not a well-known name in the world until recently. Get used to hearing about what he says and does. He has fast become a person that everybody wants to hear from, and what he has to say on so many matters is so unpredictable. His latest move in purchasing Twitter is just one of what may turn into major moves by the richest man in the world. Many on the left, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, are publicly calling out Musk and his purchase of Twitter “dangerous for our democracy”.
Listen to this interview and judge for yourself from his comments and insights.
Elon Musk says that he was motivated to purchase Twitter in order to restore freedom of speech. After years of political censorship, in one direction, Musk wants to stop that for what he deems the most influential public square in the world today, Twitter.
It is quite ironic that many on the left are now complaining that Musk will “use Twitter as a political tool to de-platform his political opponents” when Twitter has literally been doing that for years against the conservative right. How else can one explain how President Trump was de-platformed from Twitter but the Supreme Leader of Iran, the biggest state sponsor of terror in the world, still has a Twitter account. And that is just one of many examples.
“You could secretly ban one party’s candidate…secretly turn down the reach of their stuff and turn up the reach of something else and the rest of us might not even find out about it until AFTER the election.”
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 26, 2022
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Many think that by removing the politically motivated agenda of Twitter that it might also lead to great growth for the company. Regardless, Musk has been quite clear in stating that his motivation to purchase Twitter was the issue of free speech and not profit related, which is extremely refreshing to hear. Will he succeed in his endeavor by taking over ownership of Twitter? Only time will tell.
Elon Musk claims to have bought Twitter in order to preserve the freedom of speech in the world.
The billionaire Tesla owner issued a response following the acquisition, saying:
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. 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. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.
This cannot be overestimated. Twitter’s openness or non-openness under new ownership will be observed by all of the major players in social media. If Twitter turns into the most freedom oriented of the platforms, it will probably encroach on Facebook and perhaps even YouTube. That will cause Facebook and YouTube to either open up their policies a bit or risk losing market share to Elon Musk’s new and improved Twitter.
Elon Musk is certainly an unpredictable and powerful person that walks to a different tune than most people. His influence will be felt for many years to come.
