Elon Musk shares cryptic tweet about 'free speech' amid deadlock over Twitter buyout

Amid reports over investors being worried about his recent Twitter deal, Multi-billionaire Elon Musk on Friday said that ‘Tesla is on his mind 24/7’. The Tesla CEO, who recently announced his move to buy out microblogging giant Twitter, said that he was not distracted by the deal. Meanwhile, the Tesla CEO also took on the ‘attacks’ against him amid the 'free speech' battle over Twitter. 

The Tesla CEO on Thursday slammed the ‘attacks’ against him and said that he focussed on his path of providing “free speech” as he had promised during the Twitter deal. “The attacks against me should be viewed through a political lens – this is their standard (despicable) playbook – but nothing will deter me from fighting for a good future and your right to free speech,” he said in a tweet. This comes amid his continued argument with the Twitter executives and CEO Parag Agrawal over the spam accounts in the social media platform.  

Musk also made a tweet regarding talks over him being more focussed on the Twitter deal than Tesla. The billionaire posted a long-running meme where a woman (Tesla) is seen shocked by her boyfriend (Elon) looking at another woman (Twitter) walking by. Sharing the meme on his account, the Tesla CEO said that the situation which seems like the one in the picture was false. He further added that he was spending only a marginal amount of his time on the Twitter deal. “To be clear, I’m spending <5% (but actually) of my time on the Twitter acquisition. It ain’t rocket science!” Musk said in his tweet.

“Yesterday was Giga Texas, today is Starbase. Tesla is on my mind 24/7. So may seem like below, but not true,” he further added. This came as a calming down method for the investors of the company, who were reportedly worried about him focussing more on Twitter as the electric car manufacturing company’s stock price dropped.

Musk Twitter acquisition

It is pertinent to note that the Twitter management and Musk have been going back and forth regarding the buyout deal due to different reasons. The two parties are currently locked in an argument over the number of spam accounts on the social media network. According to Musk, accounts as high as 20 per cent are spam. Estimates had earlier suggested that Twitter has more than 300 million active monthly users.

However, according to Bloomberg, Twitter executives have told their staff that the USD 44-billion price tag agreed in the deal was renegotiable. Meanwhile, Musk on Wednesday also slammed a Twitter executive saying that he was mocking people with Asperger's disease. Identified as Alex Martinez, a lead client partner of Twitter was secretly recorded by an undercover journalist from Project Veritas, where he claimed that Musk "literally special needs ... So I can't even take what you are saying seriously."

Martinez further went on to draw parallels between Musk and the animated show Looney Tunes. Following this, Musk took a jibe at the executive in a short and witty tweet and said entered the “work culture” conversation about Twitter. "Twitter exec trashing free speech and mocking people with Asperger's," Musk wrote in his reply. This came only days after his heated banter with incumbent Twitter boss Parag Agrawal over the spam accounts on the microblogging site.

Image: AP