Elon Musk has criticised Donald Trump’s Truth Social, calling it an echo chamber.
In an interview with The Financial Times published on Friday, Mr Musk admitted that he knows more headaches are coming his way if his ongoing Twitter bid materialises. However, the Tesla founder said that is a sacrifice he is willing to make in order to protect free speech.
Mr Musk said he is on a personal quest to keep discourse on the social network from becoming one-sided, as Truth Social’s content has become for the right.
“[Truth Social] is essentially a rightwing echo chamber,” Mr Musk told the Times. “It might as well be called Trumpet.”
In May, Mr Musk said that he doesn’t think it was appropriate to ban Trump from Twitter, adding that “it was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”
Earlier this week, Mr Musk revived his original offer of $44bn (£38bn) to purchase the company, which the tech platform has accepted. The billionaire made the offer of $54.20 a share in a letter to Twitter filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
Mr Musk also touched on his rather peculiar presence on Twitter, his persona on the platform and the many polls he posts on controversial topics.
Just this week, Mr Musk was accused of promoting a pro-Russian peace deal after asking his 107m followers if they agreed with a redone election on annexed territories and Crimea “formally [becoming] part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake).”
Crimea was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, but most countries consider it territory within Ukraine. Mr Musk has not commented on a bridge explosion in the early hours of Saturday morning that cut access from Russia to the annexed region.
“I play the fool on Twitter and often shoot myself in the foot and cause myself all sorts of trouble . . . I don’t know, I find it vaguely therapeutic to express myself on Twitter. It’s a way to get messages out to the public,” Mr Musk told the Times.
The SpaceX founder also opened up about his estranged relationship with his transgender daughter, Vivian, who he says has been influenced by a “neo-Marxists” mentality at the unspecified elite university she attends.
“It’s full-on communism . . . and a general sentiment that if you’re rich, you’re evil,” Mr Musk told the outlet. “It [the relationship] may change, but I have very good relationships with all the others [children]. Can’t win them all.”
Mr Musk added that he wasn’t interested in buying Twitter for the money, but rather as a selfless quest to give users a “maximally trusted and inclusive means of exchanging ideas.”
In April, Twitter revealed in a securities filing that Mr Musk offered to buy the company outright for about $44bn. After first trying to thwart the hostile takeover, Twitter ended up agreeing to the deal.
Mr Musk then announced in May that his proposed takeover of the social media platform was “on hold” as he looked for more information about spam, bots and fake accounts on the platform. The social network sued the billionaire to force the deal through, arguing Mr Musk had violated the terms of their contract.
A trial was set in the Delaware Court of Chancery for 17 October, and depositions of figures in the case like Mr Musk and Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal were scheduled for this week. The fate of the litigation is now unclear.
