Elon Musk, a self-described “free-speech absolutist,” sealed an agreement last week to acquire Twitter for $44 billion. The deal, which will be one of the largest takeovers in recent years, has inspired some to quip that the world’s richest man is spending billions of dollars to buy free speech.
The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX has repeatedly criticized the social media site for restricting free speech.
According to Musk, free speech is “the bedrock of a functioning democracy” and Twitter serves as “the digital town square” where important issues are discussed.
The Media Research Center has identified about 3,600 instances of censorship on big tech platforms with conservative content being the primary target. Twitter was involved in more than half of the censorship cases, the right-leaning media watchdog group found. The list includes suspending the accounts of sitting President Donald Trump in January 2021 and censoring the New York Post’s Hunter Biden stories.
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