The Tesla CEO wants full control of Twitter but for what purpose?
Why does Elon Musk want to buy Twitter? It’s the question everyone is asking Thursday morning after the billionaire entrepreneur, Tesla CEO, and serial pot-stirrer made a $43 billion take it or leave it offer to the Twitter board. «If it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder,» Musk said, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s tantamount to, Let me play as captain or I take my ball and go home. In typical cheeky fashion, Musk tweeted about the potential deal with echos of The Godfather: «I made an offer» But why is he doing this? To understand, we need to rewind a bit. A few weeks ago, Musk started complaining about Twitter as not being a bastion of free speech and ran a poll. Musk was airing a common frustration among some Twitter users who complain they’re shadow-banned for speaking their minds on the platform. While 70% of his respondents said, «No,» I saw the poll as a flawed exercise in self-selection. Musk’s 84 million Twitter followers are often devotees to his particular brand of libertarian maverickism. Twitter, which is not a government body but in fact a private company, has no compunction to follow the rules of free or balanced speech.
