Elon Musk outlines vision for Twitter, wants his ‘worst critics’ to stay

SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk on Monday struck a deal to buy Jack Dorsey’s micro-blogging platform Twitter for $44 billion, and vowed to improve trust and remove bots to make the platform a more democratic space.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” the 50-year-old, who is the world’s richest man, said in a statement released by Twitter after the deal was struck.

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“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots and authenticating all humans,” Musk added.

“Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it,” the billionaire promised.

Prior to the announcement of the $44 billion deal on Monday, the 50-year-old had highlighted his vision for the company in a tweet signalling an imminent takeover.

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“I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,” Musk had tweeted hours before the deal was announced.

A self-declared “free speech absolutist” Musk had earlier clashed with politicians on both ends of the political spectrum for his refusal to ban Russian media outlets on Starlink-provided satellite internet in the war-torn country of Ukraine: “Starlink has been told by some governments (not Ukraine) to block Russian news sources. We will not do so unless at gunpoint,” the billionaire had tweeted on March 5, nearly two weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.

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Given Musk’s stance on free speech, progressives had raised concerns about the possibility of former US President Donald Trump’s return to Twitter, which, along with other major social media companies, had permanently banned the 75-year-old for his alleged role in the January 6 riots that culminated in the storming of the US Capitol.

However, Trump on Monday ruled out a return to Twitter, and told Fox News that he would instead use his own social media app, TRUTH Social, starting some time next week.