Tesla CEO Elon Musk argued Twitter may play an integral role in decreasing “civilizational risk” and protecting democracy.
The billionaire tech mogul made the comment after he got a chance to elaborate on his Wednesday letter offering to purchase Twitter during an appearance at the TED 2022 conference in Vancouver.
“I think the risk of civilizational risk is decreased the more we can increase the trust of Twitter,” Musk told TED curator Chris Anderson during a Thursday interview on stage. Musk also argued Twitter is “important to the function of democracy, to the United States as a free country, and to help freedom in the world.”
MUSK OFFERS TO BUY 100% OF TWITTER IN $41 BILLION PROPOSAL
Musk told the TED audience that his purchase bid was not because he saw a potential opportunity for profit but something more significant. “Having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization. I do not care about the economics,” Musk said.
When asked about how he might change Twitter’s approach to content moderation, Musk emphasized that speech should be limited in accordance with each country’s laws but appeared unwilling to provide any other guidelines. “If in doubt, let it exist,” Musk said.
When it comes to free speech, Musk defined the concept as when “someone you don’t like is allowed to say something you don’t like.”
Musk also expressed an interest in open-sourcing Twitter’s algorithm. This would include the ability to look back at tweets and see if there had been any changes to the algorithmic elements of the tweet, Musk said. He described Twitter’s current algorithm as a “black box” and claimed that tweets were being mysteriously manipulated, hence its need to be open source.
Musk appears to want to clamp down on scambots and spambots on Twitter. Musk has been a vocal critic of crypto spam bots, many of which pretend to be affiliated with Musk or Tesla in an attempt to sell cryptocurrency to unsuspecting accounts. In an April 5 tweet, Musk declared them to be the “single most annoying problem” on Twitter.
When asked to elaborate on the implications of adding an edit button, Musk said such an option should only be available for a short period after each tweet.
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Musk sent a letter to Twitter board Chairman Bret Taylor on Wednesday offering to purchase the social media company at $54.20 per share in cash, up to $41 billion. The offer was made after Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced on Sunday that Musk decided not to join the company’s board of directors despite the billionaire purchasing a 9.2% share in the company. The board of directors met on Thursday to discuss the offer.
Musk claimed to have a “Plan B” if Twitter rejected his offer but did not elaborate on that point.
TED is a conference that hosts short talks and claims to offer “ideas worth sharing.”
