Wealth manager Ross Gerber has a much more positive view of the takeover.
Gerber, an investor in Tesla described as close to Elon Musk, told the Today programme that Musk wants to protect the ‘integrity’ of Twitter for the sake of society.
This is really about control of a critically important asset for society.
The manipulation of social media is one of the most detrimental things to have happened to society in the last five or seven years, Gerber says, leading to elections in the US, UK and elsewhere being deliberately manipulated by foreign actors such as Saudi Arabia (a Twitter investor) and Russia.
The reason Elon’s getting involved isn’t per se free speech, it’s about protecting our democracy, it’s a bigger issue.
I couldn’t be happier to see twitter taken over by Elon. Huge blow to Russia and Saudi Arabia and their collusion to destroy and manipulate American democracy. This was always much bigger… $twtr $tsla
— Ross Gerber (@GerberKawasaki) April 25, 2022
Gerber says cleaning up Twitter of bots, as Musk has pledged, will address this issue, and that it’s misguided to think Musk will now be in charge of moderation at Twitter.
What he really cares about is transparency on the platform to what is being decided.
Gerber also argues that Musk’s critics should “give the guy a chance”, claiming Twitter’s current management are doing a “horrendous job” on moderation and social manipulation.
Gerber, who bought more Twitter shares after Musk made his…
