Billionaire business magnate, Elon Musk may follow in the footsteps of Donald Trump in having his own social media firm.
Trump had in the wake of his ban on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, launched the ‘Truth Social’ app, an offshoot of his Trump Media Group (TMG).
Musk, the wealthiest person in the world according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and the Forbes real-time billionaires list, apart from being the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EV Company, Tesla, is also the founder, CEO, and Chief Engineer at SpaceX.
Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.
The entrepreneur in a tweet on Saturday has now giving a clue of his next major move as he said he is giving “serious thought” to building a new social media platform.
Musk made this known while responding to a Twitter user who probed him on if he would consider building a social media platform that will be laced with an open source algorithm, while prioritizing prioritize free speech with minimal propaganda.
The Tesla CEO, who himself is a Twitter addict, in many cases tweeting cruise musings, amid sensitive ones, has of recent been critical of the microblogging platform.
Musk had criticized Twitter Inc and its policies and posited that the social media giant undermines democracy with its failure to adhere to principles of free speech.
Musk has also few days back created a Twitter poll asking users if they believed Twitter adheres to the principle of free speech, with over 70 percent voting “No”.
In reaction to the poll on Friday, Elon Musk tweeted:
“The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully”.
Musk would be joining a growing portfolio of technology companies that are positioning themselves as champions of free speech and which hope to draw users who are of the opinion that their views are suppressed on platforms such as Twitter, Meta Platform’s Facebook and Alphabet-owned Google’s YouTube, if he goes ahead with creating a new social media platform.
With an estimated net worth of around US$270 billion as of March 2022, while also holding forte as the founder of The Boring Company; and co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI, Elon Musk will be a fierce competitor to established platforms like Alphabet, Meta, Twitter, and Google. The reach and popularity of these social media and tech giants has not been matched in recent years, even with Donald Trump’s “Truth Social” coming to the fore.
Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.
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