A new report has revealed that billionaire Elon Musk reached out to the Babylon Bee before buying up a substantial number of shares in social media company Twitter, according to the chief executive of the Christian satire website.
Musk is a rather huge fan of the work the Babylon Bee — which is currently suspended by the platform for an article that wisecracked about Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine being “Man of the Year” and was actually featured on the site’s podcast close to the end of last year.
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon stated that the world’s richest man actually consulted with the Babylon Bee before he bought a 9.2 percent stake in the social media company.
“Musk reached out to us before he polled his followers about Twitter’s commitment to free speech,” Dillon went on to say. “He wanted to confirm that we had, in fact, been suspended. He even mused on that call that he might need to buy Twitter. Now he’s the largest shareholder and has a seat on the board.”
Musk reached out to us before he polled his followers about Twitter's commitment to free speech. He wanted to confirm that we had, in fact, been suspended. He even mused on that call that he might need to buy Twitter. Now he's the largest shareholder and has a seat on the board.
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) April 5, 2022
Here are more details on this story from The Daily Wire:
Twitter has thus far refused to revoke its decision to lock The Babylon Bee’s account. According to Dillon, the company wrote: “Our support team has determined that a violation did take place, and therefore we will not overturn our decision.”
Dillon said that the account could be restored 12 hours after the company deleted the tweet linking to the Levine article. Dillon, however, refused to acquiesce. “We’re not deleting anything. Truth is not hate speech,” he wrote. “If the cost of telling the truth is the loss of our Twitter account, then so be it.”
Musk — who now adds the title of “Twitter’s largest shareholder” to his resume — has promised to “make significant improvements to Twitter” in the coming months. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO will also be appointed to Twitter’s board of directors.
Musk started this whole thing off with a poll he posted up for his 80 million followers.
“Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” the 50-year-old went on to ask.
“The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.” The poll then came back to reveal that more than 70 percent of the 2,000,000 respondents answered “No.” Musk initially teased building a new platform of his own and pointed out that Twitter “serves as the de facto public town square,” yet fails to “adhere to free speech principles” — and therefore “fundamentally undermines democracy.”
And he’s absolutely right. Twitter is not simply a private company. They function much like a publisher and are one of the main ways information is disseminated and shared. This makes it imperative that they allow news sources from various perspectives to push out information to ensure all points of view are represented.
“Technology analyst Dan Ives correctly predicted on Monday morning that Musk’s move at Twitter is ‘just the appetizer’ of what’s to come. ‘This is just a starter … Musk is not gonna do this just to take a passive stake,’ Ives told CNBC. ‘He’s gonna ultimately try to either really change Twitter in terms of a more active stake or eventually, could lead to a buyout,’” the report concluded.
This story syndicated with permission from Chad Prather
