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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32050 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 31, 2022

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Related to the Twitter-Musk saga, Elon tweeted:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1587129795732770824

"If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if Trump is coming back on this platform, Twitter would be minting money!"

Then the obvious question is, if Musk owns the site, why can't he just bring Trump back? What or who is stopping him?

As it turns out, Prince Alwaleed has a large interest in Twitter and helped finance the deal:

Senate Democrat wants national security investigation of Saudi Arabia’s role in Elon Musk-Twitter deal

Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal helped Musk finance the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter (TWTR) by rolling over his existing $1.9 billion stake in the social media company. The move makes Saudi entities the second-largest shareholder in Twitter – behind only Musk himself.

Alwaleed and Trump are not on good terms https://www.thewrap.com/saudi-prince-fires-back-at-donald-trump-over-alleged-photoshopped-picture/

And others helped too: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/05/oracle-co-founder-ellison-to-give-1-billion-to-fund-musks-purchase-of-twitter.html

Musk's $33.5 billion equity commitment included his 9.6% Twitter stake, which is worth $4 billion, and the $7.1 billion he had secured from equity investors, including Oracle Corp co-founder Larry Ellison and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

and https://nypost.com/2022/10/25/elon-musk-may-close-44b-twitter-deal-by-friday-report/

Banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, have committed to provide $13 billion of debt financing to support the deal.

So this is unfortunate. It could mean that Musk cannot unban him for fear of Alwaleed selling his stake, or some agreement between Musk and his financial backers to keep Trump banned.

What or who is stopping him?

Could that be…Donald Trump?

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-to-stay-on-his-truth-social-amid-elon-musk-twitter-takeover

Who is invested in a Twitter clone that is trying to go public?

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/28/truth-social-merger-partner-stock-falls-after-trump-lauds-elon-musk-twitter-deal.html

Unbanning the account would be a major symbolic gesture. Trump does not have to use it.

If Musk unbans Trump, but Trumps ignores Twitter, that will reduce Musk's and Twitter's status.

If Musk unbans Trump, but Trumps ignores Twitter, that will reduce Musk's and Twitter's status.

What status? What is the fallout for Elon Musk if he says, “We’ve got Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on here, I’m lifting the ban on the 45th Potus,” and then Trump just stays on Truth social?

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