Elon Musk, the billionaire, has agreed to purchase Twitter for around $44 billion, the firm said Monday.
Tesla’s outspoken CEO, who is also the world’s wealthiest person, stated that he wants to acquire Twitter because he believes the company is not living up to its potential as a platform for “free speech” and should be spun off into a private company to foster user trust and improve its ability to meet what it calls a “social imperative” of freedom of expression.
“Twitter serves a purpose and has a global influence,” its CEO, Parag Agrawal, tweeted. “I am ecstatic about our teams and motivated by the task, which has never been more critical.”
Musk refers to himself as a “free speech absolutist,” but he has not defined that term precisely. The billionaire said in a recent TED interview that he would like Twitter to err on the side of permitting expression rather than controlling it. He noted that he is “very hesitant” to erase tweets and is generally circumspect about permanent bans. Additionally, he stated that Twitter would be required to adhere to national laws that govern speech in markets worldwide.
Musk, on the other hand, often censors social media users who criticise him or his firm and has used the site to harass journalists who have published unfavourable pieces about him or his company.
Twitter’s board of directors first considered so-called poison pills, which would have rendered any proposed acquisition prohibitively costly. However, once Musk revealed the financial commitments he made to support his $46.5 billion bid — and no other purchasers materialised — the board initiated discussions with him.
