Would Elon Musk's Takeover of Twitter Be Good or Bad?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Billionaire Elon Musk's efforts to buy Twitter are fueling a sharp partisan split on whether the move would help or hurt the online flow of information.
Musk offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share in cash, or about $43 billion, and said the platform "needs to be transformed as a private company" and has the "potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe." Twitter says its board is reviewing the proposal, which Musk calls his "best and final offer."
Media voices on the left and center often expressed concern about Musk's potential purchase of Twitter. One writer for Washington Post (Lean Left bias) argued that the move is an example of how rich people, "without accountability, make decisions with potentially life-changing ramifications for many." WaPo columnist Max Boot said he was worried by Musk's efforts and alleged that he "engages in online bullying and traffics in hyperbole and outrage."
Right-rated voices often celebrated Musk's efforts as a potential win for free speech. National Review (Right bias) writer David Harsanyi accused concerned liberals of trying to suppress dissent, and of hypocrisy for not expressing similar concern "at billionaire Carlos Slim, the New York Times’ largest shareholder, or Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of the Washington Post."
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Right
Three cheers for Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter and protect free speech
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Elon Musk explains. Hear, hear!
Whatever Twitter’s potential, it’s a potent forum already — but far from a free-speech icon. And Musk’s takeover bid (he’s offered $43 billion) aims to fix that.
That’s throwing Twitter’s censorious staff into a tizzy. They just can’t handle the idea of letting people say things they don’t like to hear.
Hence the company’s...
From the Center
How ‘free speech absolutist’ Elon Musk would transform Twitter
It turns out he wasn’t in “goblin mode” after all. Last week Elon Musk, in his characteristically antic manner, tweeted a series of suggestions for improving Twitter after he was revealed to have become its largest individual shareholder. They ranged from asking if the site’s HQ should be turned into a homeless shelter to whether advertising should be removed from the platform’s premium service.
Many of these tweets were subsequently deleted, including one sharing a meme depicting the attorney Saul Goodman from the series Breaking Bad with the words: “In all...
From the Left
Elon Musk is the last person who should take over Twitter
I woke up Thursday morning to the news that Elon Musk, the world’s richest troll, wants to buy Twitter, one of the world’s most influential social media platforms. So I went on Twitter and wrote: “I am frightened by the impact on society and politics if Elon Musk acquires Twitter. He seems to believe that on social media anything goes. For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.”
The hyperbolic reaction was a sight to behold. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who had one of her Twitter accounts permanently suspended for spreading covid-19...
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