Musk’s Twitter investment could deliver bad news for free speech

This purchase could be just another piece of performance art by Musk, who has in turn favored bitcoin and made great impact. He has also taken to Twitter to promote altcoins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, as well as warning his online followers: “Don’t bet on crypto to farm!”

“True value is to build products and provide services to your fellow human beings, not money in any form,” he cautioned, which is likely to pass on to others if your electric vehicle (EV) company, your net worth is $273 billion. Simple advice might be. is rising and you can shoot your own rocket into space.

So perhaps we should take Musk’s Twitter investment more than a man who has contemplated the meaning of life while sipping whiskey and smoking weed during a podcast and once mysteriously claimed that he had to take Tesla private. The pass is “funding secured”. But I suspect there’s something even more serious that informed Musk’s decision to invest in Twitter, even though he’s often seen reveling in the sly: Maybe he wants to kick Twitter over heels.

Consider the survey he did (on Twitter, of course) a few days ago. He tweeted, “Freedom of expression is essential for a functioning democracy. Do you believe that Twitter strictly adheres to this principle?” More than two million users of the platform answered Musk’s question, of whom 70.4% voted ‘no’.

A day later, Musk, who calls himself a “free speech absolutist”, was again on the social media platform: “Given that Twitter actually functions as a public town square, it is difficult to adhere to free speech principles.” Failure fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be abolished?” This time, he didn’t care about a survey asking: “Is a new platform needed?”

It all follows Musk’s fight with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which is monitoring his Twitter posts for a very good reason: They move the markets. Musk said in a court filing that the SEC’s oversight of free speech appears to be “calculated to placate his practice.”

So despite ample room to exercise his speech – and aggressively trying to undermine the free speech of some of his critics – Musk clearly feels sad. It’s not clear why Twitter is their target.

Musk’s Twitter rants and ruckus have been widespread and unbridled. He once tweeted a meme comparing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Hitler, then deleted it. He has tweeted transphobic memes. He has called a British cave explorer a “pedo man”.

One explanation for Musk’s sensitivity can be found in his liberal leanings. Efforts by social media platforms to curb some of the most dangerous forms of political propaganda have increased the hackles of that crowd (along with far-rightists and Trumpists). Now Musk has fired a shot at Twitter’s bow by buying 9.2% of its stock — which is far less expensive than Facebook doing the same (a 9.2% stake in Meta Inc. would cost him about $58 billion).

Does Musk want to take over Twitter? I do not think so. The company’s financials are not very good, and social media companies are quite difficult to run. The car accident that is former President Donald Trump’s social media experiment, Truth Social, should serve as a cautionary tale for Musk.

Does Musk want to name some people on Twitter’s board of directors? Perhaps. This will allow him to have a say on his affairs without spending too much time or money.

This is worrying, as it is not the norm to be a free speech absolutist who is not entirely in favor of free speech – or even close to a media company. Musk has already got a decent pop on his Twitter stakes. Shares rose 26% on Monday after their investments were disclosed in a regulatory filing. He will certainly be around for a long time, and speculation that Twitter may be playing for an acquisition will further increase his holdings.

But Musk probably isn’t in it for the money. He’s in it just to make a point. And that’s probably in it to intimidate Twitter’s management. Anyone who has complained that their freedom of expression is being “cold” should probably be sensitive to the specifics. But it would be assumed that the richest man in the world is actually more of a philosopher than an old-fashioned bully.

Timothy L. O’Brien is a senior columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.