Bill Gates questions Elon Musk's purpose of buying Twitter. He said he was worried Twitter could get worse after Musk bought it for $44 billion.
Speaking at the CEO Summit hosted by the Wall Street Journal, Gates acknowledged that Musk's track record while leading SpaceX and Tesla was impressive. Gates believes Musk has assembled a top-notch team of engineers at both companies.
"I kind of doubt it's going to happen again right now, but we have to have an open mind and never underestimate Musk," Gates said, as quoted by CNBC, Friday (6/5/2022).
Gates' comments come shortly after Musk accused him of shorting Tesla shares last month. Musk also tweeted some mockery of Gates. But the Microsoft co-founder admitted the ridicule didn't bother him.
Gates later questioned what Musk's purpose in buying Twitter was and whether his mission of upholding free speech was the right approach.
"How does it feel to see something [on Twitter] that says 'vaccines kill people' or 'Bill Gates is tracking people?'" Gates asked.
"What's the end goal? Is that the same as the idea of not so extreme false information spreading very quickly and strange conspiracy theories? Does he have that goal or not?" he added.
Musk himself has revealed several of his missions to make Twitter better, apart from prioritizing free speech. For one, Musk indicated he would charge commercial and government users for using Twitter.
In addition to discussing Musk's role, Gates also insinuated how social media such as Twitter is being used to spread misinformation about vaccines and COVID-19.
Gates has also been the target of conspiracy theories circulating on the internet and accused of using a COVID-19 vaccine to implant 5G chips into multiple people to track their location.
"It was so unexpected and so weird. Now I'm back in the physical world ... people are coming and screaming and protesting," Gates said.