What are the political views of Elon Musk, who wants to buy Twitter?

Opinions emerged, 280 characters at a time, on whether Elon Musk’s offer to buy Twitter for $43 billion and make it private was good or bad.

Each person’s politics usually dictated how they felt: Conservatives (in the United States, they are associated with the ideals of the Republican Party and generally advocate less state intervention and less social protection) cheered as a victory for free speech . Liberals (in the United States, they are associated with Democratic Party ideals and generally advocate more state intervention and more social protection) feared that disinformation would spread rampant if Musk followed through with his plan to change the way the network is used. social monitors the content.

But what no one seemed to be able to say for sure was what kind of political philosophy the enigmatic billionaire believes in.

That’s because Musk, 50, who was born in South Africa and only became a US citizen in 2002, expresses views that don’t fit neatly into the US binary left-right political structure.

He is often described as a libertarian, though that label fails to capture how paradoxical and random his politics can be. He has no shortage of opinions on the most pertinent and divisive issues of the day, from Covid-19 lockdowns (he called them “fascists”) to immigration restrictions (“I strongly disagree”).

There isn’t much consistency in the smorgasbord of his public statements or his profuse Twitter comments — except that they often align with his business interests. And despite intense partisan backlash to his unsolicited offer to buy Twitter, his opaque politics make it hard to say whether the euphoria and fear over how he would run the company is justified.

He has criticized federal subsidies, but his companies have benefited from billions of dollars in tax and other incentives from federal, state and local governments. He vehemently opposed unionization, criticizing the Biden administration for proposing a tax credit for electric vehicles produced by unionized workers.

He is the co-founder of an electric car maker, Tesla, which left former President Donald Trump’s business boards after the government withdrew from the Paris climate accord. But he has recently run afoul of environmentalists for calling for an immediate increase in domestic oil and gas production, even though that was not helpful for his electric car and solar business.

He is a self-confessed First Amendment enthusiast. But he tried to force a journalist to testify in a defamation suit against him, and he often overreacted to criticism. Four years ago, he launched a plan to create a website to assess the credibility of reporters, calling it Pravda, in an odd nod to Soviet propaganda publishing. (It didn’t go over too well.) And one venture capitalist wrote at length about Musk canceling his order for a new Tesla after the investor complained about a Tesla event.

Musk said he was a registered independent voter when he lived in California, a state he famously and loudly left for Texas because he said its business climate had become too inhospitable. He described himself as “politically moderate” but added: “It doesn’t mean that I am moderate on every issue.” Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

Their concerns about the way Twitter censors content echo those of activists and conservative politicians who argue that social media companies are poor arbiters of truth and should not act to police speech. A person who worked closely with Musk said the businessman firmly believes that, in a functioning democracy, it’s everyone’s right to say “whatever stupid thing they want.” That person, who spoke anonymously so as not to violate Musk’s trust, added drily, “Which he occasionally does.”

Few issues have raised his ire as much as the coronavirus restrictions, which have hampered Tesla’s manufacturing operations in California and brought him closer to his decision last year to move the company’s headquarters to Texas. This move, however, was very symbolic, as Tesla still has its main factory in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Fremont, California, and a large office in Palo Alto.

Over the course of the pandemic, Musk’s outbursts escalated dramatically as he lashed out at state and local governments for restraining orders. He initially defied local regulations that closed his Tesla factory in Fremont. He described the lockdowns as “forcibly imprisoning people in their homes” and posted a libertarian-toned rallying cry on Twitter: “Free America now.” He threatened to sue Alameda County over the shutdowns, but backed out.

In a fall 2020 interview with The New York Times opinion columnist Kara Swisher, Musk expressed dismay at his belief that the pandemic had aroused irrational fears in many Americans. “It diminished my faith in humanity, this whole thing,” he said.

At the same time, as the country’s nerves frayed for six months in an outbreak with no end in sight, social media companies were pressured to take more proactive steps to limit the spread of false information about Covid-19 and the presidential election. on their platforms.
And when new content moderation policies after the 2020 election began to affect Twitter users — where Musk has 82 million followers — he sided with many conservatives and allies of the former president who accused the social network of arbitrary censorship.

Many accounts that spread misinformation about Covid-19, vaccines and voter fraud have been suspended or closed. People like Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist who denied the Sandy Hook High School massacre, and Trump, who used Twitter to urge his followers to attack the Capitol on January 6, were banned. Twitter. Texas Republican congressman Troy Nehls tweeted: “Make Twitter great again.” For his part, Trump, who is promoting his own social media venture, “Truth Social,” said last week that he doesn’t think he will return.

“Twitter has become very boring. They got rid of a lot of their good voices,” he complained in an interview with Americano Media, a Spanish-language network.

But given Musk’s largely non-denominational political philosophy, some on the right were less optimistic. Ann Coulter, a frequent Twitter presence, said the billionaire businessman struck her as “mostly apolitical” and “mostly self-promoting”.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves