Elon Musk succeeds in buying Twitter — what happens now?

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So much news today; Elon Musk’s offer to buy Twitter for about US$43 billion is accepted by the board. That’s about $55 billion Canadian, by the way. It’s hard to believe it’s worth that much, economically; but then again, Facebook’s market capitalization is more than $500 billion U.S.

Maybe it’s true then; maybe Twitter really is worth 10% of what Facebook is; it’s about one tenth the size of it.

I was really worried that the board of directors on Twitter valued it not for its commercial potential, or for its free speech potential, but rather the opposite — that it was the biggest censorship device in the world, and that censorship was more valuable that anything else.

It was very revealing when that Saudi prince publicly denounced the offer — and Elon Musk’s reply was spot-on. So I’m excited about this.

Earlier today, before the detail was formally acknowledged, I had a great chat about it with Allum Bokhari, the tech editor at Breitbart—  that’s up in a moment. I’m excited; I don’t know if Elon Musk will be allowed to get away with it — either by the staff of Twitter, who hate their new boss; or by the censorious world who see him as a threat. 

Look at this news that was released just today, by coincidence I’m sure: FX and The New York Times Announce Elon Musk Exposé Documentary.

But of course.

I mean, Elon Musk used to be cool — electric cars, reusable rocket ships, big thinker. But he’s been doing a bit too much thinking, hasn’t he?

Look at this: 

I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022

“I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”

I think he means it. But not a lot of other powerful people do.

I want to show you one more Elon Musk thing — a joke. Billionaires aren’t allowed to joke, are they? It was this tweet: 

in case u need to lose a boner fast pic.twitter.com/fcHiaXKCJi

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022

That’s pretty funny. I don’t know if billionaires are allowed to say “boner” like that. Of course that’s Bill Gates on the left. And on the right, a woke new emoji, an image of a pregnant man. It’s funny in a lot of ways, this tweet.

But look at this exchange. At first I thought this was a hoax, a photoshop, but Elon Musk confirmed it’s real. It’s a text message exchange between him and Bill Gates: 

So apparently Bill Gates hit up @elonmusk to discuss “philanthropy on climate change” but Elon asked if he still had a half billion dollar short position on $TSLA.

Bill said he hasn’t closed it out, so Elon told him to get lost. No idea if this is true lol pic.twitter.com/iuHkDG3bAd

— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) April 22, 2022

Boom.

I like that he’s the boss of twitter. I think he’ll face some internal resistance. But I bet he’ll have some help, for example, from some of the original staff and executives. Maybe he’ll bring back the former CEO Jack Dorsey, who recently said that the board of twitter was a problem, but he was prevented from speaking out about it.

A lot of questions. There will be some tweaks to the app itself.

But what about its politics? Will Donald trump be let back on? Will Trump go back on if he’s permitted — or will he still try to set up a rival company, called Truth Social, as he’s been doing very slowly? How about others that have been banned, including political pundits, some of whom even used to work for Rebel News?

Will Twitter reveal its internal rules — will it become transparent about who it boosts and who it hides? Will it become transparent about which governments ask it to do what?

I think we’ve told you before about foreign countries ordering twitter to ban people, even around the world — the government of Pakistan ordered that some of my tweets be banned. I wonder if we’ll find out what’s going on now — and I wonder if we’ll find out what was going on historically.

I’m excited though. How can you not be, when the richest man in the world solves a big social problem with a big cheque. That’s almost a dream scenario.

Of course the left hate him — they don’t believe in free speech anymore; they don’t believe in debate; half of what’s considered journalism in 2022 is just hounding people who have the wrong point of view and trying to cancel people.

I mean, just for a small example, Pierre Poilievre — he had an event at a rentable event space at a brewery. And the brewery felt the need to denounce Poilievre and distance themselves from him, I’m guessing, because if they didn’t, they themselves would be denounced by a mob. So they joined the mob.

It happened again — Poilievre wansn’t even in a pub, he was just drinking from a beer class with the Oast logo on it, and they felt compelled to denounce him.

Imagine living in a world like that.

But who do we learn such intolerance from? From our leaders — in the media, and from Justin Trudeau who personally denounced and then seized the bank accounts from people he wanted to cancel.

Elon Musk is fighting back. A lot of people have bet against him. So far he’s come out on top. I’m rooting for him.

GUEST: Breitbart tech editor Allum Bokhari (@LibertarianBlue on Twitter)

FINALLY: Your messages to me.