Yahoo Finance Jeff Bezos questions China’s influence over Elon Musk’s Twitter
Jeff Bezos has questioned whether China will lean on Elon Musk’s Tesla business to quell criticism of the country on Twitter.
The world’s second richest man posted a tweet raising concerns over potential Beijing influence on Twitter several hours after the Tesla CEO, and current holder of the number one wealth spot, reached a $44bn deal with the Twitter board to buy the influential social media platform.
Bezos quoted a post from a New York Times reporter that listed the importance of China to Tesla’s business, including the fact that it is the electric car maker’s second largest market. The tweet said China may now have a way of holding leverage over Twitter.
Bezos responded with: “Interesting question. Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square?” Musk called Twitter the “digital town square” after striking a deal on Monday and has made his belief in open debate a central purpose for the acquisition.
The agreed takeover has triggered debate over the implications of a powerful and wealthy individual, with multiple business interests, owning a platform used by 217 million people that plays a key role in shaping the political and media agenda in the US and elsewhere.
Interesting question. Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square? https://t.co/jTiEnabP6T
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 25, 2022
Bezos, the founder and executive chair of Amazon, clarified his comments in subsequent tweets and said any Chinese pressure was unlikely to result in censorship. “My own answer to this question is probably not. The more likely outcome in this regard is complexity in China for Tesla, rather than censorship at Twitter.”
He added: “But we’ll see. Musk is extremely good at navigating this kind of complexity.”
The Musk takeover has been unexpected and controversial among Twitter employees. Speaking at an all-hands meeting on Monday following news of the deal, Parag Agrawal, the CEO of Twitter, told employees that the future direction of the social network was uncertain.
“Once the deal closes, we don’t know which direction the platform will go,” Agrawal said. Musk will join Twitter staff for a question-and-answer session at a later date, the company told employees.
