LILLEY: Musk’s Twitter offer shows American progressives prefer a Saudi prince to an immigrant success story

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Elon Musk’s $43-billion US play to protect free speech on social media was done in true tech titan style. He put up a simple tweet that said, “I made an offer.” The tweet contained a link to his filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission to buy all outstanding shares of the company for $54.20 cash.

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Make no mistake about it, Musk’s bid for full control of Twitter is about allowing free speech to flourish once again, and that has some people worried.

Normally, this sort of corporate takeover would be relegated to the business pages and most people wouldn’t pay attention. But Twitter is no ordinary business and Musk is no ordinary tycoon.

Born in South Africa to a Canadian mother, Musk was raised in privilege in and around Pretoria but moved to Canada in 1989 working odd jobs in Saskatchewan where his mother’s family was based before studying at Queen’s University in Kingston. He moved to the United States in the early ’90s, graduating from the University of Pennsylvania.

He made his fortune in a number of internet startups including what would become Zip2 and PayPal as well as SpaceX and investing in Tesla.

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American progressives furious at Musk move

You might think an immigrant success story like this would be welcomed and celebrated, especially among America’s Democrats, but when Musk announced his $43-billion bid for Twitter you would have thought there was an invading army at the doors of the American republic.

“Musk’s hostile takeover of Twitter isn’t about freedom. It’s about power: his power to determine what people can say, especially about him. No oligarch should have this much power over our democracy,” Robert Reich said.

Reich is a professor at Berkeley and the former labour secretary under Bill Clinton. He’s a regular media pundit on cable news and publishes op-eds espousing the Democratic party point of view on a regular basis in all sorts of newspapers.

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“I am frightened by the impact on society and politics if Elon Musk acquires Twitter,” said Washington Post columnist Max Boot. “For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.”

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Musk backs free speech

Musk, though, takes a different view and says that while he doesn’t have all the answers right now on what should be allowed to be posted and what shouldn’t, he wants to err on the side of caution.

“A good sign as to whether there is free speech, is someone you don’t like allowed to say something you don’t like? If that is the case, then we have free speech,” Musk said Thursday at a TED Talk conference in Vancouver.

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Musk has been both an active Twitter user and critic, feeling that the company has gone too far in censoring political speech some of its employees didn’t agree with, mainly conservative speech. Yet his bid is also about a business play as well.

“Twitter has extraordinary potential,” Musk said in a filing. “I will unlock it.”

Twitter shares closed down 1.7% on Thursday at $45.08 US per share, despite Musk’s offer of $52.40 per share. The largest shareholder of Twitter is Alwaleed bin Talal, a Saudi prince, and his Kingdom Holding Company.

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Alwaleed rejected Musk’s offer, saying Twitter was worth more and the board is said to be considering a poison pill to stop Musk’s offer. The prince’s investment in Twitter has never generated the same outrage as Musk’s 9% share and his attempted takeover.

Seems America’s progressive movement is more comfortable with a Saudi prince who represents a regime that kills journalists, oppresses its own people and funds a bloody war in Yemen than they are with an African immigrant who has done well and created countless jobs while promising to promote free speech.

I’ll take my chances with Musk over the guy fronting for the oppressive regime.

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