Musk Buys Twitter. So What?

The world's richest man, Elon Musk, owns Tesla, SpaceX.....and now Twitter, a social media platform favored by many, including former President and former Twitter user Donald Trump---before Twitter canceled his account for spreading "misinformation."

Musk first made his offer of about $44 billion to outright purchase Twitter last week.

Twitter's board said "no." They liked Twitter the way it is, but once the idea of the board's legal fiduciary responsibility was raised, the board changed its mind and accepted Musk's offer.

What does this mean to conservatives and ---particularly, Christians?

Be informed, not misled.

Just before 3 PM ET, yesterday, shares were halted, the world learned the Twitter board had changed their mind---reversed course, and the $44 billion deal had been completed. 

A press release was sent out:

Twitter, Inc. today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an entity wholly owned by Elon Musk, for $54.20 per share in cash in a transaction valued at approximately $44 billion. Upon completion of the transaction, Twitter will become a privately held company.

Under the terms of the agreement, Twitter stockholders will receive $54.20 in cash for each share of Twitter common stock that they own upon closing of the proposed transaction. The purchase price represents a 38% premium to Twitter's closing stock price on April 1, 2022, which was the last trading day before Mr. Musk disclosed his approximately 9% stake in Twitter.

Twitter Board Chair Bret Taylor said that the directors "conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon's proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing," and noted they "believe it is the best path forward for Twitter's stockholders."

This "thoughtful and comprehensive decision" was made only after the legal ramifications of their first reaction were made abundantly clear to the Board. And after they had adopted a "poison pill" to try to dissuade Musk from moving forward with his takeover plan.

While it will take several months for this to close, it is, we're told, a done deal.

So the richest man in the world now owns Twitter. "So," one would ask, "what does that mean to me?"

Musk's motivation.

Clearly, Musk believes he will make a lot of money in this deal. That's what he does. And why he does it.

As part of the press release, Musk repeated what he had said earlier: 

"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. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it." 

Musk describes himself as a “free-speech absolutist.” In a recent TED interview, the billionaire said he’d like to see Twitter err on the side of allowing speech instead of moderating it. He said he’d be “very reluctant” to delete tweets and would generally be cautious about permanent bans. He also acknowledged that Twitter would have to abide by national laws governing speech in markets around the world.

I think from what I've read about Elon Musk, he sincerely does believe in free speech from a libertarian perspective.

The Left has lost its grip on social media.

The Federalist said a couple of weeks ago when Musk's interest in buying Twitter became public, "Mega-billionaire Elon Musk wants to buy out Twitter, and leftists are freaking out at the thought of their censorship regime potentially being on the brink of destruction."

The Washington Post’s Max Boot, argued that democracy is only possible with politically motivated censorship.

I am frightened by the impact on society and politics if Elon Musk acquires Twitter. He seems to believe that on social media anything goes. For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.

— Max Boot 🇺🇦 (@MaxBoot) April 14, 2022

The Federalist said:

It’s no secret that Twitter wields the power to suppress and deplatform its political foes. It deliberately, maliciously, and selectively chooses whose content gets attention and whose doesn’t. President Donald Trump, Canadian truckers, doctors, and scientists discussing the origins of Covid-19 and possible treatments, The Babylon Bee, and countless others have all been targets of its ideological censorship, which culminated in election interference.

The most notable example of this meddling was in 2020 when Twitter throttled reporting about Hunter Biden’s laptop and the corrupt Biden family business. The New York Post’s stories about then-Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden’s knowledge of and involvement in Hunter’s overseas business dealings were legitimate, but Twitter didn’t care.

Twitter claimed the reporting violated its “hacked materials policy,” which it has since refused to enforce, and banned the New York Post from tweeting until it took the article post down.

Free speech is the cornerstone of democracy.

The First Amendment gives Americans five basic freedoms: freedom of speech, press, petition, assembly, and religion.

While all five are important, perhaps freedom of speech is talked about the most.

Free speech is the cornerstone of our democracy.

Although what you say can have consequences, it gives Americans the right to express opinions without government censorship or control. 

It not only protects speech that people like but speech that people don’t. Because when it comes to free speech, either everyone is protected or no one is protected at all.

It allows citizens to support political movements and candidates. It gives people the power to call out government corruption and abuse. And most importantly, it empowers people to give unpopular opinions.

In today’s politically charged climate and with the rise of social media, we have seen the advent of selective freedom of speech.

The Left, in their lust for power, has taken over social media to be used as a control tool---to silence what they don't agree with and elevate what they do agree with.

We are at a point where Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. are all used to advance a radical Leftist, so-called "progressive" agenda. While claiming to create "community," they are creating cultural chaos and a "cancel culture" that simply erases what does not fit their personal agenda.

These causalities include Donald Trump, The New York Post, and virtually unknown people who happen to post something unacceptable.

Musk claims to be a warrior for freedom of speech. We'll see.

If he does what he says he is going to do, it will open a wonderful opportunity for conservatives to get their messages out to the public for consideration without being censored.

And it will assist in advancing the message of the Gospel, as Christ told us to do.

We should be optimistically but carefully watching as this Twitter transition unfolds.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.