By Catherine McFee
According to YouGov.co.uk up to 40% of Britons have an unfavourable view of Elon Musk personally, although 37% don’t know enough about him to give an opinion either way. He is also unpopular with Twitter users, with 49% holding a negative opinion of him compared to 27% with a positive view.
The vast majority of Twitter users 90% are aware if the ongoing sale, and 30% to 14% users believe this will be a bad rather than good thing for the platform (32% vs 14% among those who use the platform on a daily basis.)
A quarter of those who use the platform (24%) don’t think it would make much difference either way.
When it comes to Musk’s promises to facilitate more free speech, his ideas do not necessarily align with what the British public, or British Twitter users, want. Only 11% of the public and 14% of Twitter users think the site currently doesn’t give people enough freedom to post what they want. By contrast, more than twice as many people (32% of Britons and 37% of Twitter users) think that Twitter already gives too much freedom, allowing too much harmful and offensive content. One in six Britons (17%) and one in four users (27%) think the platform has the balance about right.
Looking across the pond, the takeover is being viewed slightly more positively in America than it is in the UK. As news of the sale was breaking, 30% of the US public thought it would be good for Twitter compared to 24% saying it would be bad. Elon Musk himself is also far more popular in the United States, with 49% holding a favourable view of him compared to 31% an unfavourable one.
Twitter said it has agreed to sell itself to Elon Musk in a roughly $44 billion deal that has the potential to expand the billionaire’s business empire and put the worlds richest man in charge of one of the worlds most influential social networks.
The deal, which will take the company private, caps off a whirlwind period in which the Telsa and SpaceX CEO became one of Twitters largest shareholders, was offered and turned down a seat on its board and bid to buy the company- all in less than a month.
“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.” Mr. Musk said in a statement announcing the deal.
“Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
The deal, which has been unanimously approved by Twitter’s board, is expected to close this year, subject to a vote of Twitter shareholders and certain regulatory approvals.
“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans,” he added.
For further information visit YouGov.co.uk
