(RightIsRight.co) – Netflix chief Reed Hastings has piled praise on the world’s richest person Elon Musk for his purchase of Twitter to defend free speech and democracy.
“Give the guy a break,” the Netflix founder and Co-CEO said on Wednesday at The New York Times DealBook Summit in New York City.
He rebuffed left-wing criticism of Musk, whose $44 billion buyout of Twitter in October allowed him to crack down on the platform’s long-standing censorship of conservative views and coverage.
“[I am] 100% convinced that he (Musk) is trying to help the world in all of his endeavors…because he believes in free speech and its power for democracy,” Hastings declared, as cited by The Business Insider and Newsmax.
“He just spent all this money to try to make [Twitter] much better for democracy and society—to have a more open platform, and I am sympathetic to that agenda,” the Netflix chief added.
Hastings even described the world’s richest person as “the bravest, most creative person on the planet.”
“Wow, thank you for the kind words,” Elon Musk reacted to the praise in a brief tweet.
Despite Hasting’s lauding of Musk, there have been tensions between the two business heavyweights.
The Netflix Co-CEO said he strived to be a “steady, respectable” business leader while describing Musk’s management style as “out there.”
Earlier this year, Musk was among some critics who slammed Netflix for pushing the woke agenda.
“The woke mind virus is making Netflix unwatchable,” the Tesla and SpaceX CEO wrote at the time.
California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House Minority Leader who is likely to become the next Speaker of the House of Representatives, earlier this week also made comments supporting Musk’s pro-free speech policies on Twitter.
McCarthy also warned President Joe Biden’s administration over its “offensive” anti-Musk stance of going “after someone who wants to have free speech.”
Biden and other top Democrat officials have suggested they wanted to probe the Twitter deal because of its foreign shareholders – the royal families of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who have been shareholders for years and have only agreed to roll over their shares.
“What do they have to look at Twitter about? Do they want to go after the American public about whether they can have an opinion on something?” McCarthy asked.
“I think the American public has spoken on this: I think our First Amendment stands up—and I think they should just stop picking on Elon Musk,” he stated.
Lauding Elon Musk’s $44 billion purchase of social media giant Twitter as a step forward for free speech and democracy, Netflix founder and Co-CEO Reed Hastings urges people, “Give the guy a break.” https://t.co/RDPVFAaLwv
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) December 1, 2022
