Bill Gates thinks Elon Musk's Twitter purchase will make misinformation worse; here's why

Mircosoft co-founder Bill Gates asserted that he is unsure about Elon Musk's motive behind buying Twitter warning that the latter can make misinformation worse. The tech billionaire had closed a deal of buying Twitter for $44 billion last month and vowed to make the platform more inclusive and censor-free. While many believe Musk's Twitter purchase is important for safeguarding free speech, many others, such as Gates, think otherwise. 

Calling Musk's management of Tesla and SpaceX "mind-blowing", Gates stated that he is not sure what changes the billionaire will introduce on the micro-blogging site. Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council Summit on May 4, Gates said "He actually could make it worse" and added, "It's not totally clear what he is going to do”. He even admitted that Musk has assembled a great team of engineers in his car and aerospace company but revealed that he doubts if this will happen with Twitter. 

Notably, Gates's comments on Musk's motives come after a viral spat between the two wherein the latter revealed that Gates has about a $500 million short position against Tesla. A short position basically refers to stock sellers who gain profit when the share price of a company falls. 

Gates questions Musk's idea of free speech

In the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, the severity of the illness and the potency of vaccines have been the biggest targets. In the past, Musk had also drawn flak for his comments over the efficacy and safety of vaccines and claiming that the panic over the coronavirus is "dumb". Based on the Tesla CEO's track record, Gates questioned how would the idea of free speech help if Twitter users say "vaccines kill people’ or that ’Bill Gates is tracking people?"

“What are his goals for what it ends up being? Does that match this idea of less extreme falsehoods spreading so quickly (and) weird conspiracy theories? Does he share that goal or not?", Gates asked, as per CNBC. Moreover, he also reiterated that there's a leadership and platform problem if the trusted leaders are not speaking out about vaccines.

Recently, Musk revealed his plans for the possible changes on Twitter such as making the platform completely free for casual users but charging a fee for commercial and government users.