Elon Musk gives 'serious thought' to building new social media platform after Pune techie’s question

Elon Musk

Billionaire businessman Elon Musk on Sunday said that he is giving serious though to building a new social media platform which would give priority to free speech without propaganda.

Musk was responding to a tweet by Pune engineer Pranay Pathole who has been Twitter friends with the Tesla CEO since 2018.

"Would you consider building a new social media platform, Elon Musk? 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," 23-year-old Pathole tweeted.

To which Musk responded, "Am giving serious thought to this."

Am giving serious thought to this

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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2022

The world's richest man is a self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist" and had in the past refused to block Russian news sources when asked to do so by governments other than Ukraine.

Starlink has been told by some governments (not Ukraine) to block Russian news sources. We will not do so unless at gunpoint. Sorry to be a free speech absolutist. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2022

Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX had shipped Starlink terminals to Ukraine based on a request from the country’s Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, in the wake of Russia’s invasion.

And amid multiple instances of news censorship and possible cyberattacks emerging amid the Russia-Ukraine war, Musk had earlier cautioned that Starlink could be targeted in Ukraine.

Responding to a journalist’s question on whether Starlink was at risk of Russian cyberattacks, Elon Musk had said: “Almost all (of) Viasat (an American company's ) Ukraine user terminals were rendered permanently unusable by a Russian cyberattack on day of invasion, so … yes.”