South African-born billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has officially bought the social media platform, Twitter.
Musk, who has American citizenship first showed an interest to buy Twitter in April after he invested in the company.
Musk, who is the world’s richest person, sealed the $44 billion (R800-billion) deal on Friday. Musk released a report, stating his reasons for buying Twitter. He said he bought Twitter because it is important for the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.
He said his core focus would be improving the dangers that the platform is believed to have brought as well as advertising.
“There 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. In the relentless pursuit of clicks, much oof traditional media has fueled and catered to those polarized extremes, as they believe that is what brings in the money, but in doing so, the opportunity for dialogue is lost. That is why I bought Twitter,” read the statement.
“I also very much believe that advertising, when done right can delight, entertain and inform you, it can show you a service or product or medical treatment that you never knew existed but is right for you. To everyone who has partnered with us, I thank you. Let us build something extraordinary together.”
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