No free speech? Elon Musk barred from disparaging Twitter

Elon Musk isn’t allowed to post tweets about his deal to buy Twitter Inc. if they “disparage the company or any of its representatives,” according to a new securities filing following Monday’s $44 billion takeover agreement.

The stipulation was part of a filing Tuesday with details of the transaction, including a section on “public announcements” that had a limitation on what Musk can tweet. The billionaire is a prolific user of Twitter and has continued to post dozens of tweets during the buildup and aftermath to his buyout deal.

Musk, Tesla Inc.’s chief executive officer and the world’s richest person, is still allowed to discuss the deal on Twitter, according to the filing. But he has to be nice.

“The equity investor shall be permitted to issue tweets about the merger or the transactions contemplated hereby so long as such tweets do not disparage the company or any of its representatives,” according to the filing. It’s unclear what would happen if Musk violates the agreement.

It wouldn’t typically be necessary to prohibit someone who is spending $44 billion to buy a company from bashing that business publicly, but Musk has sent a number of tweets over the past month criticizing Twitter’s product and leadership.

On Tuesday, he sent a tweet critical of Twitter’s top lawyer, Vijaya Gadde, for a decision the company made in 2020 to block a New York Post story about Hunter Biden. He called the move “incredibly inappropriate.”

The Post story alleged that Biden, son of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, had improper connections to an executive at a Ukrainian energy firm. Twitter later reversed the move, but not before it was accused of censoring information that could have hurt a Democratic candidate.

Musk’s tweet was a response to a Politico article, published Tuesday, that said Gadde cried during a meeting in which she voiced concern about the company’s possible direction under its new owner.