According to his own statements, Elon Musk is apparently seriously considering his own social media platform. The Tesla CEO recently announced this via Twitter. We explain the background.
Multi-billionaire Elon Musk responded to a follower’s tweet last Saturday. User Pranay Pathole asked the Tesla CEO there whether he would consider creating his own social media platform. “I’m seriously thinking about it,” Musk responded.
Pathole also specified his question. He wrote that a platform was needed that consisted of an open-source algorithm and that gave the highest priority to free expression and adherence to it. This should keep propaganda very low, he said.
New social media service to guarantee freedom of expression
Elon Musk himself had increasingly criticized the social media platform Twitter and its guidelines recently. This was reported by the Reuters news agency. In his view, the platform undermines democracy by Twitter does not comply with the principles of free speech.
Back on Friday, March 25, 2022, Elon Musk asked his followers in a Twitter poll whether they believed the social media platform adhered to the principle of free speech. More than 70 percent of the users voted “no.”
Additionally, Musk wrote under the tweet that the consequences of this poll would become important. He also urged his followers to vote carefully.
Elon Musk: a notorious Twitter user
Time and again, SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk attracts public attention with his tweets. Last February, for example, he responded to a request from Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
The latter asked Musk to supply Ukraine with satellites of his broadband Internet service Starlink. Musk responded promptly and activated Starlink in Ukraine.
The Tesla CEO also asked his followers if he should sell 10 percent of his shares to pay taxes, to which the general response was “yes.” Musk also uses the social media service to express his opinion on the Corona pandemic.
In doing so, he wrote in a March 6, 2020 tweet that the Corona virus was stupid. At the end of April 2020, he called for America to be freed in another tweet. With his own social media channel, Elon Musk would not be the first to participate in the presumed competition for free speech.
Other platforms such as Gettr and Parler had already previously tried to topple social media giants such as Twitter, Facebook and Google from their thrones – but so far without success. The networks are also considered popular, especially among extremists and right-wing extremists.
