Chinese govt gaining?: Amazon's Jeff Bezos questions Elon Musk's Twitter takeover
By Team Newsable | First Published Apr 26, 2022, 10:44 AM ISTJeff Bezos highlighted Musk's company's close ties with China, the globe's largest electric vehicle market and the first place where Tesla established an overseas factory.
Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, replied to the billionaire Elon Musk's $44 billion purchase of Twitter, questioning the leverage the Chinese government may or may not get now due to Musk's takeover of Twitter.
Unleashed a series of tweets, Jeff Bezos, on Tuesday morning, highlighted Elon Musk's company's close ties with China, the globe's largest electric vehicle market and the first place where Tesla established an overseas factory.
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Retweeting the New York Times reporter Mike Forsythe, Bezos highlighted Tesla's giant market in China and the electric vehicle giant's reliance on Chinese suppliers for EV batteries. The reporter also stressed that China's ban on Twitter since 20009 had previously ensured the Chinese government had no virtual control over the microblogging site, which may have changed, resulting in looming ownership change.
Bezos replied to Forsyth's observation in his new report by offering his own two cents on potential future conflicts of interest, tweeting an interesting question, suspecting, is the Chinese government gaining ground in the town square?
Interesting question. Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square? https://t.co/jTiEnabP6T
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos)Bezos' comment about Twitter being a town square susceptible to inappropriate influence is a retort to Musk's own statement soon after the deal was announced. Musk stated that free speech is the foundation of functional democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where important issues affecting humanity's future are argued.
In the comments, Bezos expresses his scepticism towards his own question as he contemplates China's role would play in both Tesla and Twitter. Bezos stated that his own response to this question is most probably no. Complexity in China for Tesla, rather than Twitter restriction, is the most likely conclusion, in this case, he added.
My own answer to this question is probably not. The more likely outcome in this regard is complexity in China for Tesla, rather than censorship at Twitter.
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos)Bezos further added that they'd have to wait and see. As Musk is a master in navigating this level of complexity, a quick nod to Musk, with whom he has a legendary public Twitter feud. The Musk-Bezos spat is mainly remembered as Musk's tweeted a second-place medal in response to Bezos after the Amazon founder lauded the company's global success.
Also read: Takeover Timeline: How Elon Musk won Twitter in just 31 days
Also read: Explained: What will happen to shareholders of Twitter now that Elon Musk takes over
Also read: 'This is the right path': Jack Dorsey thanks Elon Musk and Parag Agrawal for saving Twitter
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