Twitter CEO Elon Musk just revealed that his definition of “freedom of speech” has a cost and that he’s willing to pay it if it means he gets to say whatever he wants. For a guy who’s worried about Twitter’s declining profits, this tech entrepreneur seems to care only about ensuring his opinions can be published to as wide an audience as possible rather than the reputation of the company.
In an interview with CNBC, Musk defended his own tweets after he criticized Hungarian-American billionaire businessman George Soros for dumping his Tesla shares, comparing him to Thanos. It didn’t help when he claimed that Soros “wants to erode the very fabric of civilization” and “hates humanity,” which could be added to a long list of temper tantrums Musk has made over the past few months.
Musk was asked about his tweets by CNBC’s David Faber. He claimed that the reason he tweets what others described as “conspiracy theories” was because some of them “were true,” such as the Hunter Biden laptop story, as well as his stance against the suppression of information. When asked why he’d want to share his options with his millions of followers, knowing that it’s going to affect his business, Musk responds with a simple answer, “It’s freedom of speech.”
“It’s freedom of speech. I’m allowed to say whatever I want.”
He was later asked if he was aware of the consequences of his actions, that his tweets could be the cause of Twitter not getting advertisers or Tesla stock owners dropping out due to conflicting views. Musk was silent when asked about this, which lasted for 10 whole seconds. He then began to reference The Princess Bride, quoting a scene and using it as a launch point to say that he doesn’t care about the consequences.
“There is a scene in The Princess Bride, great movie, where he confronts the person who kills his father. And he says “offer me money, offer me power, I don’t care.”
“I’ll say what I want, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.”
When Musk took over Twitter, he argued that the changes he’s made have been to promote “freedom of speech” and that the paid verified system was a way to remove the divide between celebrities and average joes. Unfortunately, since his takeover of the company, it has been reported that Twitter dropped nearly half its value. At the same time, his threat to remove the verified legacy badges of celebrities backfired since none of them were willing to pay Twitter $8.
At least Musk is aware that his actions have consequences, but based on his responses, he doesn’t seem to care if it means risking his and his companies’ reputations.