Elon Musk wants to embrace freedom of speech, buys Twitter

Elon Musk is busy with it, freedom of speech on Twitter. The Tesla CEO solved it by buying part of Twitter.

You know Elon Musk from several things. Making PayPal big, maybe. Or making the Tesla car brand big. Or his mission to make Mars inhabited with SpaceX. Or simply simply because you follow his fantasies on Twitter.

Elon Musk on Twitter

Because there are quite a lot of them. Musk sometimes tends to… put a lot on Twitter. Maybe a little too much, sometimes. Elon Musk was already called back in 2018 for price manipulation on Twitter. In short, statements he made would clarify the moment to buy or sell shares and so, for example, Tesla stocks change in value ‘because Musk said so’. That was no longer allowed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC.

free speech

Since then, Elon Musk has not been feeling well when it comes to freedom of speech and speech. He recently created a poll on Twitter where he asked what his fellow Twitterers thought about it and he repeatedly called himself a ‘free speech absolutist’. In short: Elon Musk likes to set limits on what is and is not allowed on Twitter. He does that by buying the company.

Elon Musk buys Twitter

Okay, not a takeover, but Elon Musk has bought a pretty hefty 9.2 percent share of Twitter, according to a SEC document. He is now the largest shareholder. This is, of course, to have more influence over the medium of Twitter and their way of thinking and acting. It’s now just under 10 percent—which cost the richest man on Earth about $2.89 billion.

Full takeover?

Enough to attend at least the occasional shareholder meeting, but it seems Elon Musk could potentially be targeting a full-scale takeover, Reuters said. “The stock that Musk has bought is a pittance of his total net worth. A full takeover cannot be ruled out.” says analyst Angelo Zino.

A special move by Musk and perhaps the beginning of more freedom of speech on Twitter. No matter how good or bad that is.