Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has been called by the British lawmakers to give testimony in the UK Parliament about his planned $44 billion purchase of the social media giant Twitter, asking him to share his vision for the platform.
The UK’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s chair, MP Julian Knight, has made the request public early on Wednesday morning, noting that in a letter dated April 29, he said that by appearing in the UK Parliament, Musk would get a chance to discuss in more depth his plans for the platform.
It also notes that the committee is aware of Musk’s expressed wish that critics remain on Twitter, which may present an opportunity to address any critiques in public.
The letter that Knight sent said that the committee is interested in the developments Musk proposes for the social media giant he bought and is keen to learn more about how he will balance the clear commitment to free speech with new obligations to protect Twitter’s users from online harms.
The UK government plans to pass the Online Safety Bill, a set of new laws aimed at imposing a duty of care on online platforms to tackle harmful and illegal content, allowing users to verify their identities and providing them the choice of avoiding interactions with unverified accounts.
The law would allow Ofcom – the British media watchdog – to levy fines of up to 10% of a company’s worldwide annual revenue for violations. It also envisages jail term for the tech executives for repeated failure to cooperate with regulators.
While he said he is honored by the invitation, Elon Musk believes it’s too early to accept it at this time given that Twitter’s shareholders have not yet approved the multi-billion-dollar purchase deal.
The same parliamentary committee issued a similar invite in 2018 to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to answer questions regarding fake news online, but he refused to show up.
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