“As Twitter operates as the city’s de facto public square, failure to uphold the principles of freedom of speech fundamentally undermines democracy,” Musk wrote on Twitter on Friday. “What needs to be done?” He then asked if he needed a new platform. A 2018 deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission requires Musk to obtain pre-approval from other Tesla executives before posting tweets about the company. After Musk asked his Twitter followers in November if he should sell 10% of his stake in Tesla, the electric vehicle company received a call from the SEC because the poll question caused stock discounts – which the CEO described as “harassment”. ». . Earlier this week, in response to a dispute over Musk’s summons, an SEC regulator urged a federal judge to allow his tweets to continue to be scrutinized. “Musk’s proposal to cancel is procedurally flawed and virtually meaningless,” the SEC said. If he sets up his own platform, Musk will join a growing list of public figures and tech companies abandoning established social media networks and setting up their own platforms, often defending “freedom of speech”. Former President Donald Trump, who has been banned from Twitter since January 2021, launched Truth Social in February as part of the Media and Technology Trump Group. Rumble, Parler, Gettr and other services have also been created as alternatives to major social networks. Parler walked away from the Apple App Store amid allegations that the Jan. 6 rioters used the platform to incite violence. It was restored in April following improvements made by the company to better detect and curb hate speech. – Reuters and CNN’s Brian Fung contributed to this report
