Tech billionaire and new Twitter owner Elon Musk has come under fire for failing to end world hunger by buying the social media site.
Musk purchased Twitter on Monday (April 25) for more than £40 billion after previously acquiring a 9% share in the company.
In a tweet after the deal's announcement, he informed his 85.3 million followers of his plans to improve the website by adding new features and human authentication, with an emphasis on maintaining users' right to free speech.
The billionaire wrote: “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”
But his purchase has been attacked by certain sections of the site.
One user, posting under the new @SaeedDiCaprio, wrote: “dudes (Elon Musk) will literally buy a free app for $43 billion dollars before they end world hunger.”
And Brian Tyler Cohen, host of the No Lie podcast, tweeted: “Elon Musk told the United Nations he would give them $6 billion to end world hunger if they should him a detailed plan of how they would use the money.
“They called his bluff and gave him their plan – and then they never got the money.
“Now he's buying Twitter for $43 billion.”
Political commentator Ash Sarkar wrote: “I just don't think Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Rupert Murdoch being able to buy up swathes of our information infrastructure in between divorces and bong rips is an ideal foundation for a democracy.”
Elon Musk did actually give around £5 billion to charity shortly after the United Nations world hunger challenge he laid out to them, but it wasn't to the UN.
Twitter user Greg Price wrote: “'Elon Musk could end world hunger with $6 billion'.
“Well, Elon paid $11 billion in federal taxes last year which coincidently is the same amount of money America gave to the UN.
“Why hasn't the UN ended world hunger yet?”
And the Libertarian Party of Ohio tweeted: “My brother in Christ the US federal government's budget was almost $7 trillion last year.
“You should be asking them to end world hunger and a second season to firefly.”
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- Elon Musk
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