A billionaire who dislikes curbs on free speech may welcome back a suspended account of the past.
Elon Musk’s courtship of Twitter has been a lot like the billionaire himself: Brusque, confusing, filled with plot turns and ultimately taken seriously by a larger tech community that initially wrote his offer off as a pipe dream.
That Musk would want to buy Twitter is almost as shocking as the fact that Twitter might sell, and the resulting news cycle swirling around any potential deal has sucked most of the oxygen out of the room over the last few weeks.
The first hint that the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX might be interested in the long-beleaguered social media platform came on April 4, when filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed Musk had taken a 9.2% stake in Twitter.
That lead to a flurry of activity during which Musk tap danced between being an active investor to an passive investor and back to an active investor again.
Musk has long been a critic of Twitter’s usage policies on free speech. A major donor to the American Civil Liberties Union, he has been at the forefront of issues of free speech and tech for years.
His interest in the social media platform immediately alarmed advocates for user protections from harassment — and caught the eye of Republicans, who demanded all of Twitter’s communications with Musk be preserved.
He then spent another week or so asking his 83 billion Twitter followers what changes they’d like to see made at the company, while simultaneously trolling its board of directors by suggesting they turn the platform’s San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter and drop the “T” from their name.
Musk also declined a seat on the board. The board then adopted a “poison pill” strategy to fend off any takeover.
Finally, on April 14, he offered what he said was his “best and final” bid for the company of $52.20 a share, or around $43 billion.
He offered a concrete plan for structuring the bid a week later, and create three holding companies through which he’d finance the offer and merge a subsidiary with Twitter.
Now, it appears Twitter has finally succumbed to Musk’s wiles.
So What About Donald Trump?
By far the most historically important user of Twitter is former president Donald Trump.
His use of the platform without warning, and seemingly without intervention from any of his aides or government agencies, lead to a new age in political discourse.
That is one in which a politician could speak directly to the masses without a filter, context, the press parsing his statements, or even a media handler.
But Trump was banned from Twitter for inciting violence during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The company said his words on the platform lead to directly violent action by his followers, and suspended his account outright.
That took away both Trump’s most important outreach to his fans and devotees, but also put the company on the outs with millions of new users, many of whom had joined the platform specifically to follow the former president or retweet their support.
For a while, it looked like a new Trump media venture might solve that propaganda vacuum, but the effort, dubbed Truth Social, faltered on the stock market and failed to sign up even a fraction of the users it had projected.
Now, with Elon Musk owning Twitter, the billionaire’s past statements about limitless freedom of speech have many market watchers wondering: Is Donald Trump about to make a comeback on Twitter?
The Trump Twitter Conundrum
Musk’s vigorous defense of free speech has been welcomed by both sides of the aisle, to some extent.
Many First Amendment rights scholars have agreed with him that language that is legal in American should be used on the platform without restrictions.
That’s about where the agreement between sides ends.
About 1.4 million of Musk’s followers said they did not believe that Twitter protected free speech when he polled them via his Twitter handle in March.
Musk then followed that up with a tweet asking, “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?”
The idea that Musk may soon be in charge of Twitter and the rules it uses to govern speech on its platform have sent many conservative users, pundits and lawmakers into a tizzy.
A group of 18 Republicans sent a letter April 22 demanding Twitter preserve all its communication with Musk over the deal, many of whom have said the site’s banning of Trump was unfair and partisan.
The move was seen as a warning shot across the bow of Twitter as midterms elections approach and Republicans begin signaling their priorities should they regain control of the House in November.
Musk has also said that Twitter should be “very cautious with permanent bans,” and has criticized the left in various tweets, including saying “The woke mind virus is making Netflix unwatchable.”
Whether Musk will bring Trump’s account back may depend on three things. One, does he believe Trump’s suspension was justified? Two, is he willing to go to court if Trump lands Twitter back into hot water? And three, how close to the free speech exceptions to the First Amendment does he want to hew?
The answer should arrive shortly –Twitter accepted Musk’s bid on the afternoon of April 25.
