San Francisco - on May 5, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates commented on Tesla CEO Elon Musk's acquisition of twitter when attending an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday local time, saying it might make twitter worse.
Gates said at the time: "In fact, Musk's acquisition may make twitter worse, which is not in line with his previous record. I mean, musk has made admirable achievements in Tesla and SpaceX, and he has formed a great team of engineers to make people working in these fields truly realize their aspirations in a less daring way. However, I'm a little skeptical about whether this will happen again on twitter, but we We should have an open mind and never underestimate musk. "
Last week, twitter accepted a $44 billion takeover offer from musk. The deal is expected to be completed within this year and is currently awaiting approval from shareholders and regulators. "If all you need is money and hiring great engineers, then he (MuSK) may be the best person," Gates said
However, Gates expressed concern about how musk might deal with misinformation on social media platforms, especially given his emphasis on promoting "freedom of speech". Musk previously said that his definition of freedom of speech was "freedom of speech in accordance with the law". "How does musk feel about claiming that vaccines can kill people or that Gates is tracking people? Is this what he thinks should be spread?" Gates asked
Earlier, some experts predicted that Musk's attitude towards freedom of speech may lead to the further dissemination of misinformation and hate speech on twitter. Gates said: "the digital field has promoted the rapid spread of many interesting but wrong ideas. We need innovation to make the digital field more a positive factor in revealing the truth and helping people identify true and false information."
As for Musk's belief that he can improve twitter, gates added: "I don't know what musk will do, but there are opportunities. We need to innovate in this field."
Gates usually makes few tough comments on other technology billionaires, but his latest statement on Musk's acquisition of Twitter is not surprising, especially given that their recent relationship seems a little tense. In April, musk seemed to laugh at gates with the emoticons of a pregnant man. He also confirmed that Gates was shorting Tesla's shares and rejected Gates's proposal to participate in charities.
In an interview, Gates also commented on the exchange with musk and said he was not disturbed by Musk's obvious attack on twitter. "I don't think shorting Tesla shows your position on climate change. I appreciate Tesla's role in addressing climate change and have only positive comments on musk. But if he makes twitter worse, I'll point it out," Gates said (small)