Ice Cube and many more took to social media to congratulate Elon Musk, 50, over his new deal to buy Twitter for about $44 billion on Monday April 25. Many celebrities seemed excited about the new potential that the app may have under Elon’s new leadership. “Free at last! [Elon Musk] take off my shadow ban homie,” the 52-year-old rapper tweeted.
Free at last! @elonmusk take off my shadow ban homie…
— Ice Cube (@icecube) April 25, 2022
https://twitter.com/foodgod/status/1518665611555004417
Despite many calling out Elon, a few did express their excitement that the tech entrepreneur now owns Twitter, with many congratulating him on the deal. Jonathan Cheban, better known by his pseudonym “Foodgod,” seemed happy for the change. “Twitter about to pop the F*%# off,” he wrote. Ice Cube also seemed excited that he would no longer be “shadow-banned” (i.e. have his tweets be hidden from some of his followers’ feeds). It’s worth noting that there’s not a way to verify whether or not the rapper had indeed been shadow-banned.
Will we now get the edit tweet option?
— kevin jonas (@kevinjonas) April 25, 2022
While the reaction was expected to be polarizing, some people couldn’t help but make a few jokes. Kevin Jonas joked about a long-awaited editing option on Twitter.
Elon’s purchase came about three weeks after he became a majority shareholder for the company. The billionaire purchased 9.2 percent of the companies shares on April 4, per The New York Times. It was later announced that he would not be joining Twitter’s board. “I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” he said as he filed his purchase.
I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022
Prior to buying the social platform, Elon had teased his plans for the app in tweets, including efforts to ban bots from the app and authenticate human users. Most of all, the Tesla CEO has shown that he’s most concerned with promoting free speech. He even countered those who had spoken out against him buying it, shortly before the deal went through. “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,” he wrote.