Elon Musk is buying the social media platform Twitter. He claims he cares about freedom of speech. Sounds great. The problem: the multi-billionaire wants to determine what freedom of expression is.
The wrestling didn’t even last three weeks. Then it was clear: Elon Musk can buy Twitter. If the shareholders agree, the majority of the communication platform with more than 217 million users will soon belong to by far the richest person in the world. How quickly and seemingly effortlessly Musk asserted himself is impressive.
Media are in demand among the super-rich: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff bought Time Magazine, pharmaceutical billionaire Patrick Soon-Shion bought the Los Angeles Times. Visionary Musk surpasses them all. Unlike US newspapers, Twitter is a global communication machine. A megaphone that cannot be overheard anywhere in the world and is second to none.
Musk says he wants to expand freedom of expression and speech and secure democracy with the takeover. May be. But he has an understanding of freedom of expression that is not unproblematic. Some of his tweets show what that means. He criticizes the pandemic measures in California as “fascist”. He compares Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler. He fuels the value of cryptocurrencies with a few tweets, only to later push it down again.
The Tesla founder is considered obsessed with power, thin-skinned and egocentric – with a very short fuse. At the opening of his new mega factory in Brandenburg, he barred the media from the celebration and even wanted to ban press talks near the company premises. That’s not freedom of expression.
Musk presents the planned purchase of Twitter as a largely altruistic act, a service to the open society so to speak. Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that! Musk’s statements should be treated with caution. What is the benefit for society if, of all people, someone who misleads investors and insults people with his tweets sets the rules for the discussion? There is already a lot of hate and fake news on Twitter. Now it is to be feared that there will be more of them.