Elon Musk's Hand-Picked Twitter Investors Confirm Some of His Critics' Worst Fears

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has corralled a group of 19 billionaires, firms, and funds to invest more than $7 billion to finance his takeover of Twitter, which he’s said he pursuing in the name of “free speech.” Musk is on the hook for $44 billion to buy the platform, which he won’t be able to afford unless he pledges his Tesla shares for a loan. With these new investors, though, he’ll only have to personally put up half that amount.

Musk’s purchase has been cheered by figures on the right and far-right and who insist that Twitter persecutes them out of political bias, and Musk—whose politics aren’t entirely clear-cut—hasn’t dissuaded the notion, even been criticizing the left for being too extreme. At the same time, his bid has worried researchers and users who’d prefer that Twitter not roll back efforts to keep the worst of the worst—Nazis, QAnon boosters, extreme anti-vaxxers—off the platform. Musk hasn’t gotten into many specifics about alter he’d change about the company’s policies. He also may not be able to dramatically change how moderation works on Twitter given restrictions like the European Union’s forthcoming Digital Services Act, which will require social media sites to more forcefully regulate content.

But his choices of co-owners may be telling. In addition to a fairly typical assortment of Silicon Valley venture-capital firms and heavyweight foreign investors, there are a number of prominent Donald Trump supporters as well as advocates for looser moderation policies on social media and a major crypto exchange, who are surely thrilled to be in businesses with the planet’s most prominent booster of Dogecoin. Maybe they’re all there to make a buck: Musk pitched these investors on ambitious plans to grow Twitter by cutting down on costs and monetizing tweets. Just as likely, they want to make Twitter the social network they’d like to see in the world. Here’s a guide to the investors who may soon own a piece of Twitter.

Lawrence J. Ellison Revocable Trust

Larry Ellison—the multibillionaire founder of Oracle and Donald Trump supporter —pledged to invest $1 billion in Musk’s purchase. Ellison claims to be a close friend of Musk’s and joined Tesla’s board in 2018. Ellison’s Oracle almost got to take over part of TikTok’s U.S. operations in what appeared to be a sweetheart deal during the Trump administration. It withered after Trump lost re-election, but now Ellison may get another bite at the social-media apple.

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/savingandinvesting/elon-musks-hand-picked-twitter-investors-confirm-some-of-his-critics-worst-fears/ar-AAX022f

Bipartisan members who serve on state and county boards of canvassers in Michigan have an important job: certifying the results of elections, making them official.

In 2020, Former President Trump and his allies urged them not to certify as part of his campaign to undermine and overturn the presidential election, even though Joe Biden won Michigan by more than 154,000 votes.

Since then, local GOP leaders have replaced many of the canvassers who upheld their oaths and voted to certify the results for Biden — even canvassers who are members of their own party.

Michelle Voorheis, a Republican canvasser in Genessee County until last year, is one of them. She says she wasn't re-nominated because she pushed back against false allegations of election fraud...

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/04/1096641003/republicans-in-michigan-have-replaced-election-officials-who-certified-bidens-wi

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Vote
Episode aired Nov 7, 2016
TV-14


On election day, someone tries to create turmoil in the U.S. presidential election, and Team Scorpion is called to investigate.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6028682/?ref_=ttep_ep7