From self-driving electric cars to the colonisation of Mars, there’s very little that Elon Musk hasn’t tried to do. And this week the entrepreneur swapped space for social media when he bought Twitter for $44bn. Initially the site, who received Musk’s bid a fortnight ago, rejected his offer but have now asked shareholders to vote to approve the deal.
‘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,’tweeted of the deal announcement.
With concerns about balancing freedom of speech and safeguarding against hate already rife on the app,Julian Knight, chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee said the deal was an ‘extraordinary development in the world of social media’ and that ‘it will be interesting to see how a privately owned Twitter will react to global moves to regulate.’quickly quit the platform after one final message accompanied by some pictures of her dog: ‘Ah he got twitter.
But as has always been the way on Twitter, amidst the debate, insults and insanity over the takeover were some really great jokes: ‘Does Elon Musk know that he’s wasted $45 billion on an app that just consists of us saying Sparks by‘If Elon Musk buys Twitter, I’m never signing in again until five minutes later when I’m bored and open the app without thinking,’ admitted comedian Mike Drucker.