Musk has criticized Twitter over platform’s commitment to uphold free speech

Elon Musk tweeted his first words since news broke on Monday that he purchased a 9.2% stake in the social media company.

The Tesla CEO owns 73,486,938 shares of Twitter, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, valued at $2.89 billion based on Friday’s closing price.

Musk’s purchase, which caused shares to spike by 25% in premarket trade, comes shortly after he criticized the social media platform for not upholding free speech.

Musk posted a Twitter poll in March questioning whether the platform allows users to speak freely.

“Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” he wrote.

More than 70% of respondents said Twitter lacked a commitment to free speech, leading Musk to ask his more than 80 million followers, “What should be done?”

He also said in another tweet last month that he is giving “serious thought” to creating a new social media platform.

Twitter has come under fire in recent years for repeatedly censoring conservative viewpoints. The company locked the conservative satire site The Babylon Bee out of its Twitter account in March for jokingly awarding Biden administration official Dr. Rachel Levine a “Man of the Year” award. Levine is a transgender woman.

Twitter also blocked the sharing of links to a New York Post article revealing the contents of a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden. While critics derided the story as Russian disinformation at the time, both the New York Times and Washington Post have since acknowledged that the story was accurate.

Source: FOX Business’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.