Elon Musk and Twitter: Free Speech Is Not Free
Especially when it costs over $40 billion
Free speech is not free when a billionaire offers to pay over $40 billion for it in all cash. Despite the millions of tweets praising Elon Musk as a champion and defender of free speech, people must realize that no billionaire spends that amount of money, or any amount of money really, out of purely philanthropic motivations.
Sure, Elon Musk loves Twitter. He values its utility as “the de facto public town square.” He thinks he can make some improvements.
He also thinks he can make some money.
To understand why, we must review and understand what motivates Musk. But first, let’s review how we got here.
Five Days on Twitter’s Board
He was on the board, and then he wasn’t. Elon Musk had purchased 9.2% of Twitter, making him its largest shareholder with a ~$3 billion stake. This was disclosed in a regulatory filing to the SEC on April 4th.
How did Twitter respond? By keeping its friends close and Elon Musk closer.
On April 5th, Twitter Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal tweeted that Musk was joining the Twitter Board of Directors. The lovefest only lasted five days, following a series of tweets from…
