Elon Musk’s attempt to take Twitter private with the stated goal of orienting it toward free speech could threaten smaller alternative social media platforms popular with conservatives, such as Parler, GETTR, and Truth Social.
The news of Musk’s offer to buy Twitter for $41 billion on Thursday drew applause from many prominent conservatives who would be the target audience for a free speech alternative, such as commentator Dinesh D’Souza, British political celebrity Nigel Farage, and former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly.
Competitor platforms, though, went on the defensive.
“Musk has made clear that in order to be saved, Twitter needs a wholesale tear-down to the foundation,” Jason Miller, a former senior adviser for former President Donald Trump and the CEO of GETTR, said on Thursday. “Its leadership must be removed, and the politically discriminating ideologues running day to day operations must be replaced.”
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GETTR touts itself as dedicated to “principles of free speech, independent thought, and rejecting political censorship and ‘cancel culture.'”
Musk expressly tied his initial purchase of 9.2% of Twitter earlier this month to his ambition of making the platform more free speech-oriented, which he said is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.
“Since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form,” Musk said in a letter to Bret Taylor, chairman of the board of Twitter, on Thursday. “Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.”
“I don’t have confidence in management nor do I believe that I can drive the necessary change in the public market,” Musk added, saying that if Twitter doesn’t accept his offer to buy the company, then he would have to “reconsider” his position as a shareholder altogether.
“If Musk succeeds, that could be a threat to the free speech focused platforms,” said Dan Gainor, vice president at the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog that tracks censorship on Big Tech platforms.
“But it could also mark the return of social media as more of a free speech entity, lifting all boats. People can be on more than one platform at a time — the more the merrier, I think,” Gainor added.
The early reaction to Musk’s bid from conservatives was strongly favorable.
“Elon Musk is showing us that free speech IS worth fighting for! I hope Twitter’s board sees the light. If they reject his offer, the company’s stock will likely never recover,” tweeted Republican firebrand Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
Other Republicans said any criticism of Musk’s bid is coming from those who want to be able to keep censoring conservatives.
“The panic coming from blue-check media after Elon Musk’s offer to buy Twitter is the fear of losing the ability to censor conservatives online and silence free speech they don’t like,” said GOP Rep. Darrell Issa of California.
Conservatives often cite prominent examples of anti-Republican or anti-conservative bias on Big Tech platforms, including Trump’s widespread social media bans, the suppression on Twitter of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden before the 2020 election, and the many famous conservatives who have been suspended or kicked off Twitter for flouting the platform’s content moderation policies.
Farage said Musk’s bid for Twitter “is the best news for free speech in years!”
Free speech advocates said Musk’s attempted purchase would help to hold social media giants such as Facebook and Google and other major players on the internet better accountable for bad behavior.
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“If Musk restored what was heralded as the potential of not only of Twitter but the internet generally — liberating people from centralized state and corporate control and fostering free discourse, it’d be one of the most valuable developments in years,” popular independent journalist Glenn Greenwald said. “I realize it’s a big ‘if.’“
