Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in cash. Jeff Bezos also commented on this and brought up the Chinese government. How come?
It was Jeff Bezos on Monday who questioned whether his billionaire partner Elon Musk could make Twitter vulnerable to pressure from China. Moreover, Musk's business activities are quite extensive in Asia, especially China.
"Interesting question. Has the Chinese government recently gained a bit of influence over Town Square?" mused Bezos who in 2013 bought The Washington Post with the aim of protecting free speech and supporting journalism.
Bezos, who is the boss of Blue Origin and Founder of Amazon, commented on a retweet from a New York Times journalist who noted Musk's Tesla was highly exposed in China. China is Tesla's second largest market, and their manufacturer supplies battery parts for Musk's company.
Bezos spoke hours after Elon Musk sealed a $44 billion deal to take over Twitter. Musk has even vowed that he wants to keep the platform as a place of free speech.
Bezos' concerns may have culminated in possible censorship of China's criticism on the Twitter platform -- even though Twitter is also banned in the communist country. However, Bezos was not convinced by his own statements about Chinese influence.
While answering his own question, he also gave praise to Elon Musk.
"My own answer to this question is probably no. The more likely outcome in this case is complexity in China for Tesla, rather than censorship on Twitter. But we'll see. Musk is very good at navigating this kind of complexity," he tweeted.
Bezos and Musk are best known for their rivalry in space. Both of them dedicated most of their wealth to space exploration. Thus launched the Daily Mail.
