A recent thread to one of his tweets prompted Elon Musk to consider launching a new social media platform where he would ensure undisrupted freedom of speech.
Musk’s tweets have been under the Securities and Exchange Commission scrutiny since 2018, meaning that he must obtain prior consent from the remaining Tesla management members to tweet any company-related information.
Last November, Musk tweeted a poll discussing whether he should sell a portion of his stake in Tesla, which resulted in a stock sell-off and prompted the SEC to issue a subpoena to the company. As a response, the Tesla CEO called Twitter out for preventing freedom of speech, maintaining that the platform acts against democratic principles.
The richest entrepreneur in the world as of March is not alone in his idea — unbridled freedom of speech motivated numerous celebrities and business magnates to create new social networks where they could express their opinions freely. A recent example is ex-president Donald Trump and his platform Truth Social, released after Twitter banned him in January 2021.
Other alternatives, such as Rumble, Parler, or Gettr, have risen in opposition to the well-established social media platforms. However, Parler was temporarily unavailable in Apple’s app store as it was believed the US Capitol rioters used it to rally support.
