Bill Gates doubts Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter

Can Musk help increase the value of Twitter? 3:09 (CNN) — Bill Gates was cautious this week about Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, saying the Tesla CEO “could make things worse,” despite of his solid track record in other companies. Although in his remarks at The Wall Street Journal CEO Summit on Wednesday, Gates did not define precisely what he meant by “worse,” he questioned whether Musk is committed to preventing the rapid spread of public health misinformation and skepticism about vaccines in social networks. “How do you feel about something that says vaccines kill people, or you know, that Bill Gates is tracking people? Is that one of the things that he thinks should be spread around?” Gates asked. “If all you need is money and hiring great engineers, he’s probably as good a person as anyone” to guide Twitter into its next chapter, Gates added, but said he doesn’t expect Musk to replicate the “mind-boggling” performance of Twitter. Tesla and SpaceX. “I doubt that will happen this time, but we have to keep an open mind and never underestimate Elon,” Gates said. Public attention has focused on Gates’ relationship with Musk in recent weeks, after Musk tweeted an unflattering photo of Gates and accused him of shorting Tesla shares. Can Musk help increase the value of Twitter? 3:09 a.m. Wednesday, Gates said Musk’s tweets “don’t bother me” and declined to say whether he has bet against Tesla. “It’s possible that the stock has gone down and whoever shorted it has made money, I don’t know,” Gates said, apparently with a small smile. “Did it go down in the last month? I don’t know. I don’t think the fact that you’re long or short Tesla is a statement about how serious you are about climate change. I’m investing billions of dollars in climate change innovation.” I applaud Tesla’s role in helping climate change.” Gates also characterized misinformation on social media as more than just a technological problem, highlighting how people in positions of trust—from religious leaders in Africa to politicians in the United States—play an important role in helping people adopt vaccines or gravitate instead to “unhealthy” beliefs about unproven alternative therapies. “When there are no trusted leaders talking about vaccines, it is very difficult for the platform [tecnológica] work against that, so I think we have a leadership problem and a platform problem,” Gates said. While Musk may introduce sweeping changes to Twitter’s product, Gates said he is hopeful policymakers develop own changes in “the legal framework, which he will have to follow… hopefully there will be innovation in that in parallel to what he is doing on the engineering side” Bill Gates’ opinion on the controversy of the Court Supreme Court and abortion in the US When asked to expand on his tweet this week criticizing the leak of the Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, Gates called the draft decision “pretty disappointing from my point of view.” “It’s strange to think that the US is going backwards, because mostly what we’re trying to do is get other countries to catch up with the rich countries, where the right to choose has been pretty well was read,” Gates said. “After 50 years, something feels like part of the country’s history and it’s strange to say, ‘No, let’s reverse that,'” he added.