Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX CEO, in his first public appearance since his bid to buy social media giant Twitter, made the news, explained why he made the offer, saying “Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square, so it is just really important that people have the reality and the perception that they are able to speak freely within the bounds of the law.” 

Musk was speaking at the TED 2022: A New Era, a live-streamed event from Vancouver, British Columbia, when he expressed the intent to “open source the algorithm”, and attempt to improve trust in the platform. 

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The tech billionaire has previously expressed complaints about Twitter not permitting freedom of speech. Not long before Musk’s purchase of 9% of the Parag Agrawal-headed company, the innovator hinted at building his own social media platform.

However, until now, Twitter’s competitors have not fared nearly as well, including the recent one launched by former US President Donald Trump – Truth Social. 

Musk’s takeover bid arrived on Thursday, with his message to Twitter’s board chair Bret Taylor, “After the past several days of thinking this over, I have decided I want to acquire the company and take it private. Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it”. 

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The entrepreneur has been extremely active on Twitter, often casing a flurry – like his recent spade with the Chechen chief Ramzan Kadyrov, after Musk challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to a wrestling match to stop the war in Ukraine

Musk, who considered becoming a full-time influencer, drew the ire of the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over his 2018 tweets about taking Tesla private. He ended up paying a fine and having a lawyer review his tweets about Tesla, but in a recent hearing, Musk slammed the American agency quoting Eminem in the process. 

While Musk has been buying Twitter shares since late January, he only made it public recently. For now, there’s been no indication of the Twitter board taking Musk up on his purchase offer.