Agencies-Gaza post
Saudi Arabia, and Turkey react to Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition
Billionaire Elon Musk got a deal to buy Twitter yesterday for $ 44 billion in cash. Much of Musk’s plans for the social media platform apply to reform Twitter’s content restraint policies, which have been criticized as restricting free speech.
The acquisition sparked a strong reaction in some Middle Eastern circles, mainly in Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Saudi Arabia
Musk has a history with Saudi Arabia. In 2018 he had a feud with the Saudi sovereign fund about his plans to make his Tesla electric car company private.
More recently, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of Twitter’s largest shareholders, publicly berated Musk’s offer to buy the company, saying Twitter was worth more. Musk did not respond well, tweeting to the prince about Saudi Arabia lack of free means of communication in response.
“How much of Twitter owns the Kingdom, directly and indirectly? What are the Kingdom’s views on journalistic freedom of speech? ” Musk asked Talal.
Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Twitter users of any country in the Middle East, with approximately 25 million Saudis using the platform. Many Saudis commented in response to the news, with some comparing it to his Tweet in 2015 criticizing then US presidential candidate Donald Trump.
According to a Saudi analyst, many Saudi users were happy with Musk’s purchase of Twitter. Jamal AlTamimi told Al-Monitor: “The Saudis as a whole are very happy with the deal because [believe] The Twitter administration is against it and they think Musk will be fairer. ”
Tamimi added that the Saudi government is not particularly interested in who owns Twitter “as long as its citizens use it successfully”.
Turkey
Musk also has a history with Turkey, most notably with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Last year, Musk and Erdogan talked about space exploration and a rocket from Musk’s SpaceX brought Turkey’s Turksat 5B satellite into orbit. Musk met Erdogan in Turkey in 2017.
Some pro-government Turkish media have praised Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. Writing in the Daily Sabah days before the deal was announced, Melih Altinok mocked Musk’s critics and criticized Trump’s suspension and Roberto Malone whose’s criticisms of COVID-19 vaccines are controversial.
“They must think that an uncontrolled libertarian like Musk, who has already said he would open algorithms and prevent censorship, shouldn’t run Twitter. God forbid he can also unlock Trump’s account then! wrote Altinok.
After the deal was reached, Turkish social media commentator Emir Cagdas Pekcetin told Yeni Safak that Musk has a “serious attitude towards a truthful news feed. ”
“His positive ties with our president will ensure a cleaner social media news flow in our country,” he said, arguing that Musk will block accounts associated with Turkey’s outlawed Gulenist movement.
Turkey has a history of lobbying for censorship on Twitter. In 2020, Turkey led the whole world with court orders sent to Twitter followed by Russia.
Some Turkish Twitter users Musk begged to prevent Twitter from doing this and narrow the accounts of some Turkish journalists.
