Musk knocks Trump’s Truth Social: ‘Essentially a rightwing echo chamber’

Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk knocked former President Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, calling it a “rightwing echo chamber.”

During an in-depth interview with the Financial Times published Friday, the tech mogul talked about his reasoning behind making a bid to purchase Twitter, a transaction that, thus far, has been fraught with legal drama.

“I’m not doing Twitter for the money. It’s not like I’m trying to buy some yacht and I can’t afford it,” Musk, a billionaire, said. “I don’t own any boats. But I think it’s important that people have a maximally trusted and inclusive means of exchanging ideas and that it should be as trusted and transparent as possible.”

The other option, he told the Financial Times, is allowing the debate to splinter into different social media apps.

“It [Truth Social] is essentially a rightwing echo chamber. It might as well be called Trumpet,” he said.

Musk and Twitter were embroiled in a legal battle after Musk withdrew his $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform. Following the withdrawal, Twitter sued Musk and Musk countersued, alleging that the tech company had not been forthcoming about the number of bots occupying the platform.

Earlier this week, Musk reversed course and indicated that he was willing to go forward with the $44 billion deal just weeks before a trial that was set to take place in Delaware court over the issue.

On Thursday, the Delaware judge granted Musk’s request to stay the trial and gave him until Oct. 28 to close the deal with Twitter.

Trump, for his part, was banned from Twitter following his posts on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

Should Musk gain control of the platform, there is a possibility that the former president could be reinstated. The billionaire has indicated interest in allowing users who were permanently banned to have their accounts back.

When Musk first announced his bid to buy Twitter, Republicans hailed the move, arguing that the platform would operate under free speech principles under his ownership. Members of the GOP have argued that content moderation policies on platforms like Twitter are unfairly biased against conservative voices.