Elon Musk is known for engaging in interesting conversations with his followers on Twitter. Sometimes he shares his space ventures, comments on the latest videos games, and shake up stock markets. Recently he was brainstorming ideas for a new Social Media Company that could include those things that mainstream ones lack. For the past few days, he expressed his disappointment with Twitter in a series of tweets, suggesting that the bird app was not democratic enough.
Social Media Company That Adheres to Free Speech
Musk started by letting out yet another poll asking his followers if Twitter adhered to the principle that “Free Speech is essential to a functioning democracy”. He also reiterated that the consequences of this poll would be important, so vote carefully. Out of nearly 2 million votes, more than 70% of his followers voted “No”, agreeing with Musk’s idea about Twitter.
He further commented that Twitter had become a town square for the public, but it failed to stick to free speech rules, undermining democracy. It refers to how the popular Social Media Company bans certain users and posts from the platform.
Is There a Need for Another Platform?
Twitter has banned several users, including the most notable example, Donald Trump. The ex-POTUS was infamous for posting tweets that incited violence during the 2021 US Capitol riots. Twitter has also started to delete some illegal pornographic content and hateful posts targeting a specific group.
Trump responded to his censorship by creating his own social network named Truth Social, which is not doing so great. However, it might not be the case with Musk if he ever decided to create a Social Media Company. Given his following, the project could be more successful than Truth Social.
Some users have already expressed their trust in Musk. One of the users asked him if he could create an open-source network, unlike the mainstream ones. They wanted a new platform that would respect free speech no matter what it was, but it also had to be free of propaganda. Musk replied that he was seriously giving thought to that.
Is Elon Musk Serious?
It is not clear if the boss of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, OpenAI, and The Boring Company would like to add another business under his belt. Even though he had previously worked in software companies like PayPal, a Social Media Company slightly differs from what he typically does. However, it doesn’t mean that the world’s richest man cannot pull this off. After observing the history, one can be certain that Musk indeed takes his polls seriously. In November 2021, he asked his followers in a Twitter poll about selling Tesla stocks to pay off the US government’s billionaire’s income tax. 57% of the poll said yes, and by December 2021, Musk sold 13.5 million shares worth 14.1 billion USD. Therefore, according to that pattern, Musk could be serious about creating a new Social Media Company to compete with Twitter and Facebook.
