Microsoft founder, Bill Gates has warned that his billionaire rival Elon Musk could potentially make Twitter a worse platform.
On Wednesday May 4, Gates spoke at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit and was asked about Musk’s potential impact on Twitter following his $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform last month.
According to the Tesla CEO, his purchase of Twitter was motivated primarily by a wish to restore the app as a place for the free exchange of ideas and he has repeatedly said he wants to move away from ‘censorship’ and err on the side of free speech.
Gates said that while Musk has a good track record, he could make misinformation on the platform worse.
‘He actually could make it worse,’ Gates said. ‘That’s not his track record. His track record with Tesla and Space X is pretty mind-blowing at putting together a great team of engineers and taking people who work in those fields in a less bold way and really showing them up. I kind of doubt that’ll happen this time but we should have an open mind and never underestimate Elon.’
Gates further questioned Musk’s intentions with the app after buying it.
‘You know, what’s his goal?’ Gates asked. ‘When he talks about the openness, how does he feel about something such as “vaccines kill people” or that “Bill Gates is tracking people” is that one of the things he feels should be spread? so It’s not totally clear what he is going to do.’
‘Are his goals for what it ends up being, does it match this idea of less extreme falsehoods spreading so quickly, weird conspiracy theories, does he share that goal or not?’ Gates pondered.
Gates also added that he has not taken Musk’s recent tweets about him personally.
Last month Musk dissed Gates’ gut on Twitter posting a photo of the Microsoft mogul alongside Apple’s controversial pregnant man emoji ‘in case you need to kill a boner.’
Gates also refused to say whether or not he personally shorted Tesla, saying that climate change was a focus of the Gates Foundation.
‘It’s possible the stock went down and whoever shorted the stock made money, I don’t know,’ he said.
‘I don’t think whether one’s short or long Tesla is a statement about your seriousness about climate change,’ he added ‘I applaud Tesla’s role in helping with climate change. I have nothing but positive things to say about Elon, if he makes Twitter worse, fine, I’ll speak out about that, but I wouldn’t assume that’s what’s going to happen,’
Gates, the world’s third-richest man after Musk and Jeff Bezos, took a shot earlier this year at the Tesla CEO after the electric vehicle maker announced taking a $1.5 billion stake in Bitcoin.
‘Elon has tons of money and he’s very sophisticated, so I don’t worry that his Bitcoin will sort of randomly go up or down,’ Gates told Bloomberg.
‘I do think people get bought into these manias who may not have as much money to spare, so I’m not bullish on Bitcoin. My general thought would be that if you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out,’ he said.
