Free speech warrior and billionaire Elon Musk tweeted his opinion on President Joe Biden’s performance on Friday, (he’s not impressed) as well as his commitment to restore former president Donald Trump’s Twitter account.
It was perhaps his views on President Trump that were more surprising than his views on Biden – Musk is apparently not a fan of Trump’s “divisiveness.”
Even though I think a less divisive candidate would be better in 2024, I still think Trump should be restored to Twitter
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2022
Big Tech has previously censored certain political stories – look no further than Hunter Biden’s laptop – and views in the name of “disinformation.” Musk’s commitment to restore free speech has many liberals up in arms and threatening to leave Twitter altogether.
Musk tweeted on Thursday that, “Biden’s mistake is that he thinks he was elected to transform the country, but actually everyone just wanted less drama.”
Musk’s critique may be a reference to the Biden administration’s mission to transfer America’s oil dependency overseas as gas prices continue to reach record highs.
Just this week the Biden Administration canceled three pending oil and gas drilling leases in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico amid rising energy prices. It seems that the driving force behind every policy decision of the Biden Administration is its commitment to combat climate change, at any cost to hard working Americans.
Biden’s mistake is that he thinks he was elected to transform the country, but actually everyone just wanted less drama
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2022
Despite the fact that Musk runs several companies dedicated to transforming how energy is used, he had previously blasted the Biden administration’s energy policies as consumers got slammed from high prices:
Hate to say it, but we need to increase oil & gas output immediately.
Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2022
On Friday, news broke that Musk’s deal to purchase Twitter for $44 billion is on hold while a more accurate count of spam accounts is collected.
In the original deal, Twitter reported that 5% of accounts are fake, but some estimates say it’s as high as 30%. The news caused Twitter stock to take a slight dive until Musk tweeted that he is “still committed to the acquisition.”
Still committed to acquisition
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2022
Musk explained that he plans to do a test of 100 random Twitter users to gauge how many of their followers are legit and how many are spambots. When asked why he didn’t consider this issue before making the deal, he replied that he “relied on Twitter’s public filings.”
He then joked that, “the bots are angry about being counted.”
The bots are angry at being counted 🤣
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 14, 2022
Nina Jankowicz, the director of the controversial new Disinformation Governance Board in the Department of Homeland Security, has her own ideas to improve Twitter. She is advocating for a feature on Twitter where verified users – “blue checks” – could edit other people’s Tweets in a similar way to Wikipedia.
“If President [Donald] Trump were still on Twitter and tweeted a claim about voter fraud, someone could add context from one of the 60 lawsuits that went through the court or something that an election official said…so that people have a fuller picture rather than just an individual claim on a tweet,” she said in a recent Zoom chat.
This suggestion falls in with the narrative that many conservatives feel Twitter is a place where the mainstream media censors certain stories. Many of these were true stories, such as the Hunter Biden laptop story that earned the New York Post a temporary ban from Twitter.
Users want a new Twitter experience with fewer spambots and fake followers, and more freedom to share ideas on all sides of the political spectrum.
“When Elon Musk agreed to buy Twitter, I think it really exposed this fundamental free speech divide in this country where conservatives now want less political censorship from Big Tech,” FCC commissioner Brendan Carr told the Ruthless Podcast.
Of the left’s view, Carr said, “They’ve been very afraid about this because they want to continue to drive the political narrative, forcing all sorts of reactions. They’ve even come to the FCC asking us to block the [Twitter] transaction.”