Elon Musk surprised people today spending nearly 3 billion dollars to buy almost 10% of Twitter. Musk is now the single largest shareholder. Ethan Huang asks, will this have consequences for free speech?
Late last month, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk posed a question to his 80 million twitter followers.
His tweet read: “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle? The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.”
Underneath the tweet was a poll with the options “yes” or “no.” Millions of votes and thousands of retweets later and the results were in: 70% of voters said no.
In response to the poll’s results, Musk tweeted, “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done? Is a new platform needed?”
Just last month Musk said he was giving “serious thought” to creating a new social media platform. That’s hard to do.. even for Elon Musk.
Today, Musk purchased over 9% of Twitter’s shares. This makes him the company’s largest stock holder. Even the company’s founder and former-CEO, Jack Dorsey, only owns just over 2% of its shares.
Musk’s purchase today could encourage other activist investors to buy shares and Musk could also increase his holdings.
His filing did not state the purpose of his huge purchase today or any plans he might have for the company. But Musk has a history of criticizing Twitter’s policies.. especially in regards to free speech.
He claims to be a “free speech activist,” but giving the world’s wealthiest individual --- with a reported net worth north of 270 billion dollars--- influence over one of the most prominent information sharing platforms is worrying to some.
When the stock market closed today, news about Musk’s purchase sent Twitter’s shares soaring to over 27%. Though, following the large-scale purchase, the sometimes cryptic maverick Elon Musk simply tweeted today, “Oh hi, lol.”
For Annenberg Media, I’m Ethan Huang.