Musk’s Twitter doubts remain as deal teeters amid setbacks

Twitter buyer Elon Musk’s public probe of the social media giant’s accounts continues amid speculation the deal is treading water.

Musk’s Twitter deal is teetering amid more account management setbacks for the social media giant. Picture: AFP

Even the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, wanted to know: did the Biden administration pressure social media giant Twitter to censor political dissent?

“Can you say more about this,” asked Mr Musk, himself in the midst of a tortuous acquisition of Twitter that’s looking increasingly doubtful, on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) after high profile American journalist Alex Berenson unexpectedly reappeared on Twitter after being permanently suspended last year for questioning the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines.

Mr Berenson, 49, a former New York Times journalist and novelist, sued Twitter in December last year over his permanent suspension, claiming it violated his freedom of speech and had applied its own terms of service capriciously toward him.

Mr Berenson was erased from the platform for tweeting in August 2021 that the Covid-19 vaccines “didn’t stop infection or transmission”. “Don’t think of it as a vaccine. Think of it - at best - as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile,” he tweeted. “And we want to mandate it? Insanity”.

The judge tossed out Mr Berenson’s free speech claims but agreed the company hadn’t misapplied its own terms of service, which including removing accounts that tweets that question the efficacy of vaccines, masks, mandates, and lockdowns.

“Upon further review, Twitter acknowledges Mr Berenson’s tweets should not have led to his suspension at that time,“ a Twitter spokesman told Fox News.

“The settlement does not end my investigation into the pressures that the government may have placed on Twitter to suspend my account, I will have more to say on that issue in the near future,” Mr Berenson, who has amassed over 380,000 followers since his return, said, prompting Mr Musk’s enquiry.

Twitter has succeeded in dismissing multiple separate lawsuits, including from Donald Trump, accusing the company of violating free speech rights or doing the government’s bidding after a series of public statements by Biden administration officials that the government would hold social media platforms “accountable” if they didn’t censor “misinformation”.

The reinstatement is another setback for Twitter, whose share price has fallen 44 per cent in the last 12 months, to US$38, below their value when the company began to trade publicly in 2013.

Twitter announced it had sacked almost a third of its Talent Acquisition Team on Thursday, or up to 100 staff, according to the Wall Street Journal, which comes amid a standoff with Mr Musk, who in May said his US$44 billion bid to buy the company was “on hold” after a dispute over the number of ‘bot accounts’ on the platform.

Twitter claims such accounts make up 5 per cent of the total, Ms Musk is under the impression it’s nearer to 20 per cent, a disagreement seen as putting the deal in jeopardy, notwithstanding a potential US$1 billion penalty for Mr Musk and a massive legal battle if he fails to follow through.

Mr Musk, among the richest men in the world owing to his Tesla holdings, made a bid for Twitter in April at US$54.20 a share, more than 42 per cent above its current valuation, after repeatedly slamming the company for censoring individuals such as Mr Berenson and promising to make the social media platform more politically neutral.

The sell off in stocks since April has eroded Mr Musk’s own net wealth – Tesla’s share price has fallen 35 per cent since April – fuelling speculation Mr Musk is trying to find a way to lower his bid price and still secure hold of the company.