The billionaire now has to cough up US$44 billion for the social media company in a deal expected to close this year

Earlier this week, Twitter Inc and Elon Musk, AKA the richest man in the world, reached an agreement for Musk to buy the social media platform for US$44 billion. Now there’s a billion questions surrounding the purchase, including how Elon will come up with the cash, but what everyone is also trying to figure out is why the billionaire has suddenly wanted to buy Twitter.

Apparently, the SpaceX and Tesla founder has his sights set on improving the platform as a critical space for free and open speech.  

“Well, I think it’s very important for there to be an inclusive arena for free speech,” Musk said in a TED interview. “Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square, so it’s just really important that people have both the reality and the perception that they are able to speak freely within the bounds of the law.”

Twitter has been known to silence or ban specific content and even users, including former US president Donald Trump, on the grounds of tweets posing risk of incitement of violence, among other things. While this is in accordance with the platform’s stated terms and conditions, there exist concerns about media bias and censorship, which seems to be where Musk is coming from. The 50-year-old Tesla CEO has said, “If in doubt, let the speech, let it exist. But if it’s a grey area, I would say let the tweet exist.” 

Incidentally, Musk is known for being a big joker on Twitter and for moving markets with his infamous tweets. For example, crypto investors have largely blamed a few market fluctuations of cryptocurrencies on Musk’s series of tweets on Dogecoin, Bitcoin, and other currencies, often written in jest. Musk also devalued his own company on the market by tweeting that Tesla stock prices were “too high”. He and his company were also fined millions of dollars for his tweet about Tesla going for $420 per share, which was a cannabis joke. 

So whether or not this “for the good of civilization” notion is the true or primary reason behind the hefty social media acquisition, Musk has alluded to wanting to make Twitter’s algorithm more transparent. Security and privacy are other issues suspected to be on Musk’s to-do list with the platform, as Twitter direct messages are not encrypted and Musk has famously had his own personal run-in with privacy issues on app. Earlier this year, Musk tried to pay a teenager US$5,000 to take down a Twitter account that tracked Elon’s private jet movements. The teen declined the offer and then published Elon’s DM to him on the account.