Elon Musk’s Texts Show Free Speech Was Priority in Twitter Acquisition

Newly public text messages offer insight into Elon Musk’s decision to acquire Twitter.

A series of text exchanges were released on Thursday as part of legal proceedings over Twitter’s lawsuit against Musk for ending his merger agreement, revealing Musk’s discussions with an assortment of public figures about his April decision to acquire Twitter. Musk spoke with a variety of colleagues and friends, including podcaster Joe Rogan, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and several other public figures in the political and tech business, according to the Washington Post. The texts unveil additional details about Musk’s intentions for beginning his initial investment and buying the company, including a fixation on the platform’s content moderation practices.

“Are you going to liberate Twitter from the censorship happy mob?” Rogan asked Musk on April 4, the day his investment into Twitter went public. Musk merely said he would “advise” the company, although he was unsure if it would listen.

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The texts suggest Musk’s priorities relate to free speech rather than making the company profitable. Most discussions he had in the texts, including dialogues with investor Antonio Gracias on March 5, focused on allowing free speech on the platform while Musk was investing in Twitter stock. Musk discussed this necessity with Gracias after the European Union passed a law banning Russian news sources from social platforms.

“We should allow it precisely bc we hate it,” Gracias texted. “that is the ping of the American constitution.” Musk immediately agreed, noting that “free speech matters most when it’s someone you hate spouting what you think is bullshit.”

Musk had discussed taking Twitter private as early as March, according to texts sent to Dorsey. Dorsey recommended making a “new platform” out of Twitter and using an “open source protocol” to manage Twitter rather than operating it as a private company. Dorsey said the company should have always been a protocol and that making it a private company was the “original sin.”

Musk’s tweets criticizing Twitter were also a source of tension. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal slammed Musk on April 9 after the billionaire tweeted a poll asking, “Is Twitter dying?”

“It’s my responsibility to tell you it’s not helping me make Twitter better in the current context,” Agrawal told Musk. Musk immediately responded by declining the company’s offer to join the board and stating that he would make an offer to take the company private.

Musk’s initial offer to acquire Twitter on April 25 was praised by several friends, including investor Jason Calacanis and Dorsey. “Hell yeah!!” Musk texted Calacanis. “It will take a few months for the deal to complete before I’m actually in control.” Ellison also praised the deal and would later offer a billion dollars to assist in the purchase.

The deal was affected heavily by the Ukraine war. “It won’t make sense to buy Twitter if we’re heading into WW3,” Musk texted a banker at Morgan Stanley on May 8.

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Musk’s texts arise after a week of difficult proceedings for the billionaire’s legal team to justify ending the merger agreement with Twitter. Musk was scheduled to appear before the court alongside Agrawal for a deposition but had it postponed until Oct. 6. Musk has also struggled to find sufficient data to support claims that he was ending the deal due to there being too many bots on the platform. Twitter’s legal team also accused Musk of withholding his texts from legal proceedings.

It remains unclear if the texts affect Musk’s case, although they do confirm elements of Musk’s argument that were previously revealed in earlier proceedings.

Twitter’s and Musk’s legal teams will appear before the Delaware Court of Chancery between Oct. 17 and Oct. 21.