Musk: “We’ll Let You Say What You Want on Twitter as Long As It’s Not About Me or My Companies”

Elon Musk does not officially own Twitter, not yet anyway.

The Twitter board did accept his offer to buyout the social media behemoth last week, but the deal will still need to get passed regulators. Musk is also not permitted to disparage Twitter at all during the due diligence and regulatory approval timeframe. As the world waits to see if the deal will close, Musk released a statement today laying out what he called a “basic free speech framework” that he intends to use as Twitter’s content moderation policy, when and if the reins of the company are handed to him.

In the statement, Musk assures Twitter’s executives and its user community that he doesn’t want to “upset the apple cart too much,” with new policies. However, he does intend to “let more stuff stay up” once he takes over. In general, Musk says that “pretty much everything will be considered free speech” on his version of Twitter, and he addressed concerns of censorship.

A portion of the statement follows:

I am well aware that some want this website to be more supportive of free speech, and that’s the direction I am taking Twitter. Rest assured — the days of getting in trouble on the platform simply because you fomented an insurrection, or threatened to rape or kill a liberal simply for voting for liberal policies, or spewing toxic anti-transgender hatred are over. In general, my guiding principle will be to let you speak your minds.

Some have asked me what will be considered free speech on Twitter, and what won’t be.  This is actually not a very hard question for me to answer, as some might think. We’ll let you say what you want on Twitter, as long as it’s not about me or my companies. So, you know, free speech.

As a billionaire, of course I would never do anything simply to protect my delicate and fragile ego. So keep in mind that no matter how nonsensical or hypocritical this policy seems to be  — it isn’t. It’s just that you are too poor to see the brilliance of it. If I were to hand you a couple billion dollars — which I totally could afford to do FYI — then you’d instantly see how genius this policy is.

Twitter currently has roughly 200 million daily active users.

Follow James: TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook