Per my earlier reporting, multiple news outlets, including Bloomberg, Reuters, and The Wall Street Journal, all announced that Twitter and Musk were nearing an imminent deal on Monday morning, with a possible announcement happening as early as Monday afternoon. That came as a surprise after many assumed that the deal was on life-support following the Twitter board’s execution of a poison pill to keep Musk from gaining a majority stake.

But with the news of a deal being in the home stretch, Musk just put this out on Twitter.

I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022

I don’t think Musk would be extending this olive branch to those who have proclaimed they are going to leave the platform if he wasn’t sure this thing is in the bag. After all, the entire point of the supposed exodus is him taking control. Why try to convince them to not go over the cliff if the thing they were running off the cliff over isn’t a done deal? I think you guys are tracking with me here.

By the way, none of the people saying they are going to leave Twitter are actually going to do so. Why? Because influence is addictive. It’s also very lucrative for certain individuals and outlets. All the lefty blue checkmarks are not going anywhere. They may virtue signal for a few days, but they will be back. In the meantime, we can all get a good laugh at how dramatic they are as they wail and gnash their teeth in response to the possibility of there being less political censorship on the internet.

Really, think about how stupid that is. Musk is not saying he will lift all moderation and turn Twitter into Gab. On the contrary, you can expect a practical TOS to remain in place.

But the left is used to having its monopoly on the flow of information. They love that Twitter has previously banned true stories from right-leaning outlets. They love that Twitter has special deals with leftwing “fact-checkers” to suppress embarrassing information on Democrats. They love that rules on harassment and doxxing only apply to one side of the political aisle. Under Musk, all that goes away and the playing field is leveled, and there’s nothing the left hates more than having to fight fair.

Anyway, let’s hope I’m not misreading this. If I am, you can hold it against me forever.

UPDATE:

This dropped within minutes of this piece being set to publish. Per The Wall Street Journal, the deal is done and will be announced shortly. Of course, this isn’t “official, official,” but it’s as close as we are going to get until someone puts out a press release. RedState will have a full story on that when it occurs.

#BREAKING: WSJ: Twitter and Elon Musk reach deal on buyout, to be announced shortly

— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) April 25, 2022