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“Important Today”
Twitter – a new playground for Elon Musk
So far, Elon Musk has only been a Twitter user. In the future, the multi-billionaire will own Twitter
© Karl-Josef Hildenbrand / DPA
A few months ago he wanted to end world hunger – now Elon Musk wants to take over Twitter. For $44 billion. Digital journalist Christian Hensen suspects that Twitter will no longer be more than an expensive hobby for Musk.
After days of speculation and regular back and forth, he actually did. Elon Musk, the richest person in the world according to Forbes magazine, has bought a new playground: the short message service Twitter. Above all, Twitter will probably be an expensive hobby for Elon Musk, explains digital expert and journalist Christian Hensen in the 262nd episode of “Today’s Important”. The deal is said to cost Musk a whopping $44 billion, much of which he borrowed from the bank. His wealth consists primarily of stocks and is estimated at $239.6 billion. So instead of the world hunger that Musk wanted to end a few months ago, he’s now buying Twitter.
“Twitter is the only social network Musk really likes”
Why is he buying Twitter? According to digital expert Christian Hensen, Musk should not like Facebook or Instagram. On Twitter, however, he has more than 85 million followers – and says he wants to restore freedom of speech there. This should not explicitly prevent criticism of Musk himself and his companies, which he has repeatedly been accused of in the past. For example, he excluded ZDF, which had previously reported critically about him, from visiting the Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide. After the acquisition was announced, he himself tweeted: “I hope even my harshest critics stay on Twitter, because that too means freedom of speech.”
On the other hand, there is now great concern that Twitter will transform itself into a hate platform through too lax rules. But this concern at least has a legal framework, explains Christian Hensen in the morning podcast: “In the long term, it remains to be seen to what extent Elon Musk will still shape Twitter according to his moral ideas – or may shape it. Because especially in the EU, a platform with absolute freedom of expression must also exist Consistently punish and remove hate speech, disinformation and criminal content. ‘Everything’ will therefore still not be allowed to be said.”
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