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A Rhode Island teacher has come under fire after he bragged about telling several of his classes that Elon Musk’s buyout of social media giant Twitter was ‘the worst thing that could have happened’.
Enrique Sanchez, who teaches at Central High School in Providence but is also running as a leftist candidate to become a Rhode Island State Representative, railed against the founder of SpaceX and Tesla in front of his students.
‘Of course I explained to my students in all five of my classes today why Elon Musk buying off Twitter is the worse thing that could have happened,’ Sanchez tweeted.
‘No individual and especially wealthy elites should be given these types of opportunities to buy off social media platforms.’
He reportedly responded to his own tweet with: ‘The Anti-Capitalist came out today,’ but appeared to have later deleted that post.
Sanchez’ tweets prompted a considerable backlash, with many users explaining that a whole host of social media platforms and media companies are owned by individual billionaires and urging him to keep his political beliefs to himself while in the classroom.
Twitter’s board on Monday unanimously accepted a $44billion bid from Musk to buy out the company and own it outright.
Musk pledged to uphold free speech on the platform so it can fulfil its potential as the world’s ‘digital town square’, while relaxing content restrictions and cracking down on spam posters and bots.
Twitter yesterday accepted a $44billion bid from SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk to buy out the company and own it outright
Enrique Sanchez, who teaches at Central High School in Providence but is also running as a leftist candidate to become a Rhode Island State Representative, railed against the founder of SpaceX and Tesla in front of his students
‘Of course I explained to my students in all five of my classes today why Elon Musk buying off Twitter is the worse thing that could have happened,’ Sanchez tweeted. ‘No individual and especially wealthy elites should be given these types of opportunities to buy off social media platforms.’ He reportedly responded to his own tweet with: ‘The Anti-Capitalist came out today,’ but appeared to have later deleted that post
Sanchez’ twitter bio lists him as a teacher at Central High School in Providence, Rhode Island (pictured)
‘Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,’ Musk said in a statement following the announcement of his takeover.
But news of the buyout prompted many left-leaning users to announce their intentions to leave the platform, while others like Sanchez openly admitted to trying to convince others that Musk’s takeover could only spell disaster.
Many users hit back at Sanchez, criticizing him for allowing his personal political beliefs to interfere with his profession of teaching children, while others accused him of ‘proselytizing’.
‘@EnriqueForRI needs to keep his political beliefs to himself when he’s teaching. Public education will fall if teachers don’t get back to doing their jobs, which is teaching, not proselytizing,’ one user said.
Others pointed out that many other media organizations and social media platforms are owned wholly or partially by wealthy individuals, and questioned why Musk was receiving such a backlash.
‘For anyone with a problem with billionaire Elon Musk buying Twitter… WHERE was your outrage at these other acquisitions?!’ one user tweeted, sharing a graphic displaying Jeff Bezos’ ownership of The Washington Post, and Laurene Powell Jobs’ ownership of The Atlantic.
A second user said: ‘Just to be clear: Facebook – owned/controlled by 1 billionaire. WA Post-owned by 1 Billionaire. The Atlantic – Billionaire. Bloomberg News – yep, another billionaire.’
‘Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,’ Musk said in a statement following the announcement of his Twitter takeover
Musk, who is worth $267 billion, has more than 84million followers on Twitter and tweets several times a day.
The site allows users to post and interact with messages known as ‘tweets’. Registered users can post, like, and retweet tweets, but unregistered users can only read those that are publicly available
He insists his takeover is not motivated by economic reasons, but rather out of a desire to safeguard Twitter as a venue for free speech rather than censorship.
‘Having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization. I don’t care about the economics at all,’ he said in a recent public talk.
The billionaire is a self-professed ‘free speech absolutist’ and believes Twitter has failed to live up to its free speech principles.
He has been critical of its content moderation policies, arguing it has censored some voices, particularly conservative ones.
The business tycoon, who is worth $267 billion, has more than 84million followers on Twitter and tweets several times a day
He slammed the site in a barrage of tweets last month.
‘Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?’ Musk asked via a Twitter poll.
He followed up with a series of tweets a day later, writing: ‘Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?’
Musk’s view that Twitter excessively censors some of its users is popular on the political right, with many conservatives, particularly in the United States, believing they are currently unfairly targeted by social media platforms.
Heavily left-leaning individuals and organisations meanwhile have lashed out at the deal and raised concerns that Musk’s stout defence of free speech will allow ‘hate to flourish’.
