Alphabet Inc CEO Sundar Pichai wants Twitter to get better under Elon Musk, pointing to the important role that the microblogging platform played in a democracy.
Tech billionaire Musk has been the toast of the town since announcing his acquisition of Twitter in a $44-billion deal. The Tesla CEO has now put the deal on a temporary hold while citing details in support of calculation that fake and spam accounts represented less than 5% of users.
While some users have expressed dismay over the change in ownership, others expressed faith in Musk and his leadership to steer the company through testing times.
Speaking in an interview, Pichai said he was an avid Twitter user. He added that it was an important product for the world and he had also got a lot out of it.
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Pichai said he thought there was value in investing for the long term — an important step because of its role in a democratic society.
Talking about free speech being balanced with content moderation, Pichai said free speech was foundational and that they took down content only when it was violating the law. Pichai harped back on his Indian roots and said he grew up in a large democracy and thought that the importance of free speech and giving people a voice was foundational.
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Pichai is not the first tech executive to share his views on Twitter’s acquisition by the maverick SpaceX CEO. Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently voiced concern on how the platform would change under Musk. Gates said while Musk had a mind-blowing track record at other companies, he was unsure if the Tesla boss would be able to pull it off again. However, he also suggested having an open mind and not underestimate the tech billionaire.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, however, backed Musk for being extremely good at navigating difficult situations.