The President of the National Urban League has shared his opinion about the Twitter acquisition by Elon Musk. Marc Morial said that Twitter’s board should consider rejecting Elon Musk’s bid for the company as owning the company could mean causing damage to the safety of Twitter users.
As seen in a letter he sent to Bret Taylor, the Chairman of Twitter’s board on Monday, Marc Morial said that Elon Musk’s views surrounding social media and Twitter to be exact raise a lot of concerns. According to him, Elon Musk’s views are in contrast to principles such as creating a safe online community, protecting marginalized groups, and the democracy of the nation, which guide social media companies like Twitter.
In his letter, he went on urge Twitter’s board to consult with the civil rights community before embarking on a decision to either sell or not sell to Elon Musk. Let’s look at his concerns…
“Without key protections and safeguards, much of the concerning activities that we see on Twitter, including white supremacist propaganda, racial and religious hatred, voter suppression through election disinformation, algorithmic bias and discrimination, and the hardening of our national discourse are likely to proliferate under Musk’s ownership. The potential to negatively impact millions directly and our nation’s culture and democracy indirectly are exponential and should be part of your analysis in reviewing this — or any other — offer of purchase,” he wrote.
Elon Musk is offering to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, the same as $43 billion in total. Twitter’s board has, however, blocked this acquisition with a “poison pill” set to expire on the 14th of April, 2023. Elon Musk seems to have a plan up his sleeves irrespective.
Elon Musk currently owns 9.2 percent of Twitter and has been acquiring these shares daily from January 31st to earlier this month. He should have been a part of the company’s board, which seemed to be his plan all along, but he declined the offer and subsequently declared his intention to buy Twitter and make it a private company. “I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy. However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company,” Elon Musk wrote in a letter sent to Taylor and disclosed in a securities filing.
Twitter’s former CEO Jack Dorsey seems to be in support of Twitter being sold. “As a public company, Twitter has always been ‘for sale.’ That’s the real issue,” one of his tweets from last week reads.
as a public company, twitter has always been "for sale." that's the real issue.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
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