Elon Musk owns companies that carry people over our highways and ferry them into space. But now he has found a new venture.
On Monday, an SEC filing revealed that Musk is now the largest shareholder in Twitter, which he has repeatedly criticized for its lack of commitment to free speech.
“Oh hi lol,” Musk tweeted Monday after the news became public.
The Associated Press reported that Musk owns roughly 73.5 million shares of Twitter, which are worth nearly $3 billion.
That’s about 9 percent of Twitter’s publicly held stock.
Musk’s aim with the transaction, which occurred in mid-March, was unclear, the AP added. But in recent weeks, Musk has signaled that something may be in the works.
On March 25, he tweeted to his 80 million followers, “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”
More than 70 percent replied no.
The next day, Musk added on Twitter, “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free-speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done? Is a new platform needed?” Musk said last month,
Among those who answered was Christina Pushaw, spokeswoman for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. “Buy this one!!!” Pushaw tweeted.
Musk’s informal poll emerged about a week after The New York Times admitted that the Hunter Biden laptop story it had previously dismissed in 2020, which was buried under a liberal avalanche of “misinformation” claims, was legit.
But that was just one of several recent snafus associated with Twitter, as The Free Press has reported.
Among them were the satire website The Babylon Bee and Turning Point USA who both mocked USA Today for naming Dr. Rachel Levine, a transgender woman, as one of its women of the year.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson was temporarily suspended for simply retweeting the suspension letters received by the Bee and Kirk.
Conservative commentator Matt Walsh was also temporarily booted from Twitter recently for allegedly “transphobic” comments.
Meanwhile, GOP firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and former President Donald Trump are among those who have been permanently banned from Twitter.
Twitter also permanently banned the author Alex Berenson and Dr. Robert Malone, a founder of the mRNA vaccination technique used in COVID shots, for their frequent questioning of the effectiveness of the coronavirus jabs.
On Telegram, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, offered Musk some advice when the news broke.
“Hey Elon,” said Flynn, who was kicked off twitter 15 months ago, “how about letting all of those dropped from twitter for being America First and Pro-Trump back on Twitter!!!”
On Tuesday, Twitter announced it will appoint Tesla CEO Elon Musk to its Board of Directors to serve as a term expiring at the social media company’s 2024 annual meeting of stockholders.
As long as Musk is serving on the board, and for 90 days after, he will not be able to own more than 14.9 percent of Twitter’s stock, according to the filing, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
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