Beyond Dogecoin: Elon Musk Explains Why He Bought Twitter

Musk wants free speech, but isn't trying to make Twitter a "free-for-all hellscape."

By Andrew Throuvalas

Elon Musk the founder of Tesla. Image: Shutterstock

With just one day to go before officially purchasing Twitter, Elon Musk today dropped a last-minute statement on his motivations for acquiring the social media giant. And the avid Dogecoin fan has much more in mind than just potentially incorporating crypto features on the platform.

“There has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter, and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong,” Musk said on Twitter on Thursday.

Musk said his primary motivation for buying the company is to ensure the “future of civilization.” He said the goal is to preserve a “common digital town square,” where people with wide-ranging beliefs can debate their views without resorting to violence, rather than splintering into “far right-wing and far left-wing echo chambers.”

The billionaire believes traditional media has consistently catered to these extremes in pursuit of profit but created an environment void of dialogue in the process. “That is why I bought Twitter. I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love,” he wrote.

Musk clarified that he has no intention of making Twitter a “free-for-all hellscape” with “no consequences,” and that user experiences will remain customizable for what content they’d like to consume. 

Regarding advertisers, the Tesla CEO will aim for targeted advertising that is as relevant to users as possible. “Low relevancy ads are spam, but high relevancy ads are actually content,” he added.

Cutting down on spam has been one of Musk’s top priorities for Twitter since announcing the buyout deal. Bot spam is especially prevalent in the crypto community, where scammers often adopt the identities of influencers, like Musk, to lure in investors.

Musk has considered implementing blockchain-based solutions to address such issues. In leaked messages revealed last month, the mogul discussed having users pay a tiny amount to register messages on-chain, making spam costly. “There is no throat to choke, so free speech is guaranteed," he wrote at the time.

Dogecoin, Elon Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, has risen 31% over the past two days ahead of the deal, looking especially bullish amid a broader crypto market rally this week. The billionaire is well-known for moving markets with his tweets, even when crypto isn't directly involved.

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