Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk dropped more subtle hints about his incoming plans for running Twitter Tuesday, saying he opposes "censorship that goes far beyond the law."
Earlier in the day, Musk initially tweeted, "The extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all."
Roughly an hour later, Musk — otherwise known as the World's Richest Man — then tweeted:
"By 'free speech,' I simply mean that which matches the law.
"I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.
"If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect.
"Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people."
What led to the vague texts?
Prior to the above posts, Musk tweeted that, "Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate."
The quick inference here: Musk might have been condemning Twitter for locking out the New York Post's account back in October 2020, after the paper published its findings about Hunter Biden's now-infamous laptop, which had been seized by federal officials from a Delaware computer repair shop three years ago.
Musk's note prompted the tweet reaction of someone who apparently works as a Twitter engineer.
The engineer replied in a since-deleted tweet: "That's not what happened. Twitter had a policy about hacked documents. We applied this policy equally. The merits of that policy are debatable but it wasn't targeted censorship."
And therein lies another issue related to Twitter's outgoing regime: Biden's laptop was never hacked.
As such, Twitter likely didn't have a valid reason for blocking the New York Post's account — just weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
Twitter Universe is still gripping with the news of Musk purchasing Twitter for $44 billion, which covers all outstanding stock at a reported value of $54.20 per share.
On Monday, while celebrating his staggering purchase of one of the world's most visible social platforms, Musk said in a statement, "Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated."
A few weeks ago, during his initial courtship of Twitter, Musk publicly brainstormed a number of changes for the actual product and company policies, from relaxing content restrictions — such as the rules which led to the permanent suspension of former President Donald Trump's account — to eliminating all fake and automated accounts.
There's even been speculation of shifting away from Twitter's current advertising-based revenue model.
Shares of Twitter Inc. rose 6% Monday to $52 per share.