SAN FRANCISCO 鈥� Elon Musk is telling Twitter advertisers he is buying the platform to 鈥渉elp humanity鈥� and doesn鈥檛 want it to become a 鈥渇ree-for-all hellscape鈥� where anything can be said with no consequences.
The message to advertisers came a day before Musk鈥檚 deadline for closing his $44 billion deal to buy the social-media company and take it private.
鈥淭he reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,鈥� Musk wrote, in an unusually-long message for the billionaire Tesla CEO who typically projects his thoughts in one-line tweets.
He continued: 鈥淭here is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.鈥�
The message reflects concerns among advertisers -- Twitter鈥檚 chief source of revenue -- that Musk鈥檚 plans to promote free speech by cutting back on moderating content will open the floodgates to more online toxicity and drive away users.
Matt O'brien, The Associated Press
