Elon Musk suffers from the same delusion as everyone else online, the notion he actually has an identity. The lack of freedom on social media means free speech claims are already moot.
The stock market on Thursday morning was rocked by the news that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has offered a hostile bid to take Twitter private. Musk stated that he had no confidence in the current management to do what needs to be done with the service. Musk has two goals, based on papers submitted to the Securities & Exchange Commission detailing his communications with Twitter chair Bret Taylor. First, Musk is looking out for his investment in Twitter, currently 9%, worth $3 billion; he has posed the question, in tweets, whether Twitter is « dying, » becoming less vital as a platform, and he argues that substantial change is needed to avert that prospect. At the same time, Musk has a loftier goal. He says he wants to ensure Twitter will be a platform for free speech. « I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy, » wrote Musk to Taylor. « However, since making my investment, I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company. » Also: Elon Musk offers to buy Twitter for $43 billion and take it private In remarks later on Thursday, Musk spoke of specific changes he would institute during a TED Talk, including eliminating spambots and open-sourcing Twitter’s algorithm.
