Bezos throws shade on Musk’s Twitter pursuit

World #2 in the rich list questions the morality of world #1. Jealous much?   

The family China  

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know by now that Elon Musk is buying Twitter. Part of the shtick is his desire to promote free speech on the platform, something which, according to Elon, it doesn’t adequately do. 

His free speech mission was put to the test almost immediately when, just after the $44 million deal for Twitter went through, Jeff Bezos chimed in. After Musk’s ranting about Twitter being the proverbial town square, Bezos questioned whether the deal would give the Chinese government some leverage. This round goes to Jeff.   

Friendly at the top table 

So, is there any credence to the Bezos shade? Last year, China became Tesla’s largest production market, and likely its second-biggest source of sales. So, it would make sense that Elon might want to keep the Chinese sweet, or face some troublesome times for Tesla’s production.  

But despite the initial jab, Bezos quickly rolled back on the question of leverage. Instead, he said, “The more likely outcome in this regard is complexity in China for Tesla, rather than censorship at Twitter”. Bezos also added that Musk was “extremely good at navigating this kind of complexity”. So, all seems cordial among the world’s richest. But will Bezos further test Musk’s obsession with free speech? That depends if he wants to keep his Twitter account.