By offering to buy and maybe fix Twitter, Elon Musk proves why he is a national treasure
Elon Musk may be about to do for social media what he’s doing with the electric car market and space travel: disrupt it. And for those who see tech companies shutting down certain kinds of speech, it can’t happen fast enough.
He’s offered to buy Twitter for $41.4 billion, after he rejected a seat on the company’s board.
“Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it,” Musk said in a letter to Twitter’s board on Wednesday. His official offer was made public in a regulatory filing on Thursday.
Earlier, the Tesla founder had published a poll on Twitter asking if the social media company “rigorously” adhered to the principle that “free speech is essential to a functioning democracy,” Musk bought nearly 9.2% of Twitter stock, becoming the company’s largest shareholder.
He was already hinting that his presence would make “significant improvements” on the site that boasts nearly 330 million monthly active users, including perhaps, an edit button. The move brings new meaning to Sun Zhu’s ancient adage, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
Musk has suggested that he thinks Twitter censors center-right ideological content or at least that there’s a possibility of it. Big tech companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Twitter are not typical private corporations; they have effective monopolies on their markets and thus enjoy significant market power that can be granted or removed (think Google ads) and influence (think Donald Trump’s now-banned Twitter feed).
When these companies censor or show bias, they have the power to influence algorithms, feeds, information channels and more. Yet they are privately owned, so how to change them is a challenge. It’s encouraging to see a guy like Musk step up to the plate.
There’s something really admirable about a guy who posts memes, enjoys the satire of the Babylon Bee, and seems to value technology and free speech equally.
Musk is not your typical tech guru turned billionaire: One minute he’ll tweet about SpaceX — “Starbase” is located in Brownsville, Texas — and the next he’ll tweet that “communism has failed every time it’s been tried.” He’s not exactly a politico or even an ideologue, but he doesn’t have his head stuck in the sand when it comes to big tech bias or censorship.
There’s something refreshing and endearing about that, even though regular people know he’s not exactly “one of us.”
Musk isn’t perfect, no doubt. I’ve heard he’s no fun to work for, and he’s also said he’s a socialist. But it’s hard not to get behind a self-made man who wants one of the world’s largest online platforms to be a champion of free speech.
Imperfect but humorous, hard-working but self-effacing, Elon Musk is a national treasure — protect him at all costs, as the kids say.
This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 12:11 PM.
