The Twitter-Musk saga continues with the Tesla CEO and founder defending his position on Thursday claiming that he sees the investment as nothing more than a turning point for civilization.
At the TED2022 conference held in Vancouver, Canada, Elon Musk explained that his acquisition of the microblogging platform was not about monetary gains, but rather about ensuring Twitter remained a trusted platform for democracy.
In a conversation with TED chief Chris Anderson, Musk said:
This is not a way to make money. My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization.
Objecting against the lack of free speech on Twitter, Musk stated that the platform should open-source its algorithm and increase transparency in the way it handles and manages user content. He added:
The code should be on Github so people can look through it and say, ‘I see a problem here,’ ‘I don’t agree with this,’ they can highlight issues, suggest changes.
Musk explained that the way he would make the platform adhere to the principles of free speech would be by following a simple rule:
Is someone you don’t like allowed to say something you don’t like? And if that is the case, then we have free speech.
In the case of controversial tweets, Musk claimed that the platform should simply not add the tweet, stating:
I think we want to be very reluctant to delete things and just be very cautious with permanent bans; timeouts are better.
The SpaceX CEO also acknowledged that even if he was able to acquire Twitter successfully, there would still be some loose ends, claiming:
I think everyone will still blame me for everything. If I acquire Twitter and something goes wrong, it’s my fault, 100%. I think there will be quite a few errors.
Musk also claimed to have thought out a ‘Plan B’ stating he had “various ideas” if the offer was rejected but gave no further details as to what it may be, claiming those were “for another time.”
