Media Reacts to Elon Musk’s Takeover of Twitter

Pundits and commentators across the spectrum unleashed a wave of op-eds on Tuesday after Twitter finally agreed to billionaire Elon Musk’s purchase offer. 

Calling Twitter “the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said Monday that he wanted to improve the social platform by “enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.” Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey welcomed Musk’s takeover as a solution to Twitter being “owned by Wall Street and the ad model.” While many wondered if former President Donald Trump would return to the app if allowed, Trump said Tuesday that he would not. 

Voices from the right generally praised Musk’s move as a victory for free speech and often framed the Tesla CEO’s critics negatively. An editorial by the Washington Examiner (Lean Right) said Musk's free speech attitude “will save democracy.” A Fox News (Right) homepage tagline said Twitter employees who opposed Musk’s takeover were “tyrants” and “triggered.”

Meanwhile, perspectives from the left ranged from skepticism of Musk’s intentions to outright opposition to the buyout. A CNN (Left bias) op-ed argued that the “unfettered” free speech purportedly advocated by Musk could allow racist and misogynist harassment to silence vulnerable communities. Others argued that Twitter needed to do more to combat disinformation “running buck wild across the platform.”