Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter has been trending from the moment the world’s richest man initially made the offer. Musk has discussed several ways in which he hopes to change the social media company, even as the White House discusses overhauling Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and the ACLU raises concerns about what a Musk-owned Twitter will mean for free speech.
Straight Arrow News contributor Ben Weingarten believes free speech proponents should be in full support of Musk running Twitter.
If you believe in free and open discourse in America, then you should be cheering on Elon Musk’s effort to buy Twitter.
I stand by that statement not knowing what specifically he’d do were he at the helm of the company; I stand by that statement not being able to look within Musk’s heart to know how sincere he was in his devotion to free speech; I stand by that statement notwithstanding my skepticism over Musk’s business in China.
No matter what, it’s clearly going to be an uphill battle—with Twitter adopting a so-called poison pill to defend itself from Musk’s takeover. Let the lawsuits start flying. That it is going to be such an epic battle is incredibly revealing.
By the mere act of seeking to effectuate change at Twitter by first buying a big chunk of it and with it a board seat, only to reject the board seat offer and pivot to a takeover, Musk has exposed the hypocrisy and fraudulence of our supposed democracy-defending keepers of the liberal order in our ruling class and showed self-evidently that our betters believe Twitter to be integral to the modern public square, and thus worthy of First Amendment defense against their censorship.
Elon Musk said in his offer letter—which details a bid at a significant premium to Twitter’s recent trading prices—that:
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.
In a Ted Talk, Musk explained that:
You’d think that this is the kind of view that would be shared by all who have prospered under our relatively free system, from those in Silicon Valley to the journalists who are arguably the greatest beneficiaries of free speech, to everyday Americans.
And yet the backlash against Musk was swift.