People in Berlin see Musk's Twitter takeover with mixed feelings

Record ID: 1694876

  • Title: People in Berlin see Musk's Twitter takeover with mixed feelings
  • Date: 28th October 2022
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (OCTOBER 28, 2022) (REUTERS) STREET IN BERLIN WITH BERLIN TV TOWER IN THE BACKGROUND BERLIN TV TOWER SUBWAY SIGN "MORITZPLATZ" (SOUNDBITE) (German) PASSER-BY TILL CONRAD, SAYING: "I'm of the opinion that Elon Musk will handle this quite well, I think, or he should just kind of let it go, as he thinks. There should be a lot more people who should just kind o
  • Embargoed: 11th November 2022 12:44
  • Keywords: elon musk freedom of opinion social media takeover twitter
  • Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
  • City: BERLIN, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Europe,Economic Events
  • Reuters ID: LVA001537228102022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Opinions about Elon Musk's takeover of the social media platform Twitter were mixed in Berlin. Frank Syvret, a Twitter user, told to Reuters TV on Friday (October 28), that he is concerned about the move.
    "And I think maybe we should perhaps all learn a lesson from this that if a big part of sort of the public forum for debate is controlled by potentially so few people or so, so few big companies, then we're putting a lot of our democracy and our future in their hands," he said.
    Another person, Ilad Weizmann, was more hopeful that Musk would listen to the public. "I mean he's not always just go with his own ideas like a blockhead. He's a little bit more liberal, I want to believe. So we'll see what he will do with this and how he will use it," he said.
    Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of the influential social media platform on Thursday and signalled his desire to see the company have fewer limits on content that can be posted.
    The chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Inc TSLA.O and self-described free speech absolutist has, however, also said he wants to prevent the platform from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division.
    The German government will consider whether it still wants to have a presence on Twitter following the takeover by the world's richest man Elon Musk, a spokesperson said on Friday. Twitter is of particular importance because of its impact on the German public, the government spokesperson said.
    (Production: Oliver Ellrodt, Ulrike Heil, Anna Dittrich)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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