Elon Musk is "giving serious thought" to the idea of launching his on social media platform.
The 50-year-old Tesla founder took to Twitter on Friday (25.03.22) where he put up a poll asking his 79.2 million followers to vote whether they believe Twitter adheres to the principle of free speech.
He wrote: "Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle? consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully."
Over the course of 24 hours, 2 million votes were cast with 70% of them claiming that Twitter does not adhere to the principle of free speech, prompting the multi-billionaire businessman to ask what could be done as he hinted at setting up a rival platform.
In a tweet, he wrote: "Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done? Is a new platform needed?”
Friend and IT professional Pranay Pathole seemed to agree with Elon and asked directly whether his intention was to launch his own site.
Pranay wrote: "Would you consider building a new social media platform, @elonmusk? One that would consist an open source algorithm, one where free speech and adhering to free speech is given top priority, one where propaganda is very minimal. I think that kind of a platform is needed."
Elon replied: "I'm seriously considering it."
The 23-year-old software developer- who struck up a Twitter-based friendship with Elon back in 2018 after complaining about Tesla's windscreen wipers - later screenshotted the conversation to his own Twitter feed, captioning the post with "DO IT, Elon!"