Falsely surprised or embarrassed to be asked about it on a show TedElon Musk clarified his thoughts on his potential takeover of Twitter and the changes he wants to make to the social network.
Will repurchase? Will not repurchase? Once again, the planet’s most revered megalomaniac multi-billionaire, Elon Musk, puts on a show. After becoming the majority shareholder of Twitter with a 9.2% stake, the businessman made a $43 billion takeover bid to take over the microblogging platform. A proposal that has not been validated by the company’s board of directors, and which should not be. But with the boss of Tesla and SpaceX, anything is possible.
Chance of the calendar or not, Elon Musk gave an interview to the media Ted, Thursday April 14, 2022. The opportunity for him to describe his vision of the future of Twitter with large sprinklings of libertarian philosophy. Asked about his desire to buy Twitter, he immediately went on to explain that it seemed important to him that there be “an inclusive arena for free speech” and that people have “both the reality and the perception of having the freedom to speak freely within the bounds of the law”. He also blasted how he believes algorithms control debates on the platform and said he wants to make them open-source so everyone can see what is being done and how the tweets are handled.
He thus thinks that the platform’s current moderation efforts are contrary to freedom of expression and would like to reshuffle the cards in this area. “A good test to know if we are in a situation of freedom of expression: does a person you don’t like have the right to say something you don’t like?he explains. In this case, we are in the presence of freedom of expression”. He simply concedes that Twitter must abide by the laws of each country where it operates and therefore there are limits to free speech. A doubt about a tweet? “It should be left in line”retorts the tycoon.
Elon Musk also argued for the appearance of an Edit button that would not prevent viewing previous versions of a tweet, or his desire to lower the price of Twitter Blue subscriptions, or even “eliminate scams and spam, as well as bots”. This conference was also an opportunity to discuss his use of the network, and ultimately a lot of himself, triggering laughter and applause from the audience. In short, to do Elon Musk.