Guess Who Just Became the Largest Shareholder of Twitter in Order to Shake Things Up!
There has been a shakeup rumored to be coming for Twitter after it banned President Trump last year.
Most people believe that Twitter oversteps their boundaries and even violates the First Amendment in prohibiting the freedom of speech. I’m personally town on whether they actually have the right to do what they do, even if it’s not a smart thing to do because they are a private enterprise and as such, I believe that they should be able to refuse service to anyone just like a restaurant would be free to refuse service to a belligerent customer.
That said, Twitter’s suspensions are often biased and done in a manner that only affects one side of the conversation.
I think there are a number of people at fault for all of these problems ranging from the people themselves, to the government, and Twitter as well. Even former CEO Jack Dorsey admitted that he feels partially to blame for all of this.
“The days of usenet, irc, the web…even email (w PGP)…were amazing. centralizing discovery and identity into corporations really damaged the internet. I realize I’m partially to blame, and regret it,” Dorsey said in his tweet.
the days of usenet, irc, the web…even email (w PGP)…were amazing. centralizing discovery and identity into corporations really damaged the internet.
I realize I'm partially to blame, and regret it.
— jack⚡️ (@jack) April 2, 2022
Well, there is one man out there who seems to have his mind set on making things better for Twitter users out there and that man is Elon Musk.
Musk recently asked his Twitter followers a few questions:
Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.
Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022
Is a new platform needed?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2022
Someone even asked him about whether or not he would consider building a new platform.
Am giving serious thought to this
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2022
After he had asked them the poll question on whether or not they believed Twitter holds to free speech on their platform, he followed it up with, “The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.”
The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022
Well, he wasn’t joking as he is not the majority shareholder in the company with a 9.2% stake worth approximately $2.89 billion. So, it definitely looks like Elon has some plans to do something about the problems with Twitter and the way the platform operates. To put this into perspective, he now owns about 4 times more shares than even Jack Dorsey himself.