Elon Musk: Tesla boss slams critics who ‘fear free speech’ after $44bn Twitter bid accepted

Some high-profile users have annouced they are leaving the platform after the sale

Elon Musk has slammed those critics who “fear free speech” after having his $44bn Twitter bid accepted by the social media company.

The Tesla CEO took to Twitter after staying off the platform for almost 24 hours in the wake of his staggering takeover of the platform being announced on Monday.

“The extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all,” he tweeted.

Within two hours, Mr Musk had tweeted a clarification of his post.

“By ‘free speech’, I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law,” he tweeted.

“If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.”

It was the first tweet since he celebrated news that Twitter had decided to self itself to him, with a post reading “Yes!!!”, surrounded by red hearts, shooting stars and rocket ship emojis, above his statement on the deal.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Mr Musk said in the company statement announcing the deal on Monday.

“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.

The company had announced on Monday hat it had accepted the Tesla CEO’s offer of $54.20 cash per share for the San Francisco-based platform, which will now be taken private.

The board reached a deal with Mr Musk, which it said represented a 38 per cent premium from Twitter’s closing price on 1 April, the day before the world’s richest person made his move for the company by announcing his nine per cent stake.