Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk disclosed a 9.2% stake in Twitter Inc (NASDAQ: NYSE:TWTR) at the beginning of the month. Now the billionaire aims to purchase the whole company.
Some have speculated that Musk's offer could be trivial following a series of questionable Twitter polls and suggestions about the direction in which Twitter should head. Musk put those speculations to rest Thursday during an interview at "TED2022."
"Having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization. I don't care about the economics at all," Musk said.
Musk's Twitter Play: The Tesla CEO is focused on doing what he can to help create an arena for free speech, he said. That's why he believes the Twitter algorithm should be open sourced.
If people's tweets are emphasized or de-emphasized, that action should be made apparent to all on the platform, he said: "So there's no, sort of, behind-the-scenes manipulation, either algorithmically or manually."
Musk thinks he will be blamed for anything that goes wrong with Twitter if he is able to acquire it, he said Thursday.
He described owning the social media platform as potentially being "miserable." Yet his feelings about Twitter's importance to democracy and freedom override any caution he would otherwise have.
"The civilization risk is decreased the more we can increase the trust of Twitter as a public platform," Musk said. "I do think this will be somewhat painful and I'm not sure that I will actually be able to acquire it."
If Twitter accepts his offer, he noted that he intends to retain as many shareholders as is allowed by law in a private company.
"I could technically afford it," Musk said. "But what I'm saying is this is not a way to, sort of, make money."
See Also: Mark Cuban, Donald Trump, Dave Portnoy And More React To Elon Musk's Twitter Bid
TWTR Price Action: Twitter shares surged in premarket trading following Musk's offer, but have pulled back since and turned negative for the session.
According to data from Benzinga Pro, the stock was down 1.83% at $45.01 Thursday afternoon.
Photo: screenshot from TED2022 on YouTube.
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