Musk says Twitter needs to be politically neutral, will endorse Republicans in midterm elections

Just days after taking control of powerful social media giant Twitter Inc, billionaire Elon Musk on Monday encouraged voters to choose the Republican candidate in Tuesday’s US midterm elections.

Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla, has been criticized by some groups for his absolutist stance on free speech. They hope his position will increase the amount of misinformation and hate speech on the platform.

His tweet on Monday marked the first time the head of a major social media platform explicitly endorsed a political party in the United States.

Sending a message to what he calls “independence-minded voters” on Twitter, Musk said, “By sharing power, we can curb the worst excesses of both parties. Given one thing, I recommend that you vote for the Republican Congress.”

President Joe Biden’s Democrats face an uphill battle to retain control of Congress in Tuesday’s vote.

Independent election forecasters and polls suggest that Republicans are very likely to win a majority in the House, and control of the Senate is likely to be more closely contested.

“A hardcore Democrat or Republican will never vote against you, so it’s independent voters who really decide who’s in charge!”

“For Twitter to be worthy of society’s trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means rocking the far right and the far left alike,” Musk said in April.

political commentary

Unlike Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Musk frequently comments on US politics. Earlier this year, he told a Twitter user that he was leaning toward endorsing Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in the 2024 presidential election, and that former President Donald Trump was too old to run for president again. answered.

Musk has previously said he will vote Republican but said he supports moderates on both sides of the aisle. Trump advised White House aides that he should declare victory the night before the 2020 election, according to a House committee investigating the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attacks. All votes were counted.

Similarly, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband was attacked at his San Francisco mansion, Musk tweeted a link to a conspiracy theory about the incident, which he deleted hours later.

Born in South Africa and raised in Canada, Musk became a US citizen in 2002.