Marvel star Simu Liu divides fans after criticising Musk’s $44bn Twitter acquisition: ‘It’s not your money’
Marvel star Simu Liu’s fans were divided over his criticism of Elon Musk’s attempt to spend $44bn (£34.5bn) to buy Twitter on Monday (25 April).
After a day of negotiations, Twitter’s board agreed to sell the micro-blogging company to Musk, with the tech mogul seemingly set to pay around $54 per share for the San Francisco-based company.
Musk has previously said his interest in acquiring Twitter stems from the realisation that “having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilisation”.
Describing himself as a “free speech absolutist”, Musk has also said he believes that Twitter should only be regulated by the laws of the country it operates in.
However, it has been suggested that this would make room for much more hate speech, as well as scams, if implemented.
Reacting to the news that the Tesla titan had bought Twitter on Monday, Liu tweeted: “Was there nothing better to do with 44 billion dollars?”
The Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings actor’s tweet drew mixed reactions from his followers.
In agreement with Liu, YouTuber Matt Mcmuscles commented under his post: “Solving world hunger several times over would have been nice”, referencing Musk’s tweet on 1 November 2021 about selling Tesla stock to “solve world hunger”.
Worl hunger, vaccine for 3rd world nations should I go on?? I know it's his money I guess he's not an "us and we" its an "me and i".
— Francesca (@LittleRedRomano) April 25, 2022
Musk’s full tweet read: “If [the UN] World Food Programme can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6bn (£4.7bn) will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it.”
He was responding to an allegedly “erroneous” claim from the WFP chief David Beasly, as published by CNN in October, which read: “2 per cent of Elon Musk’s wealth could solve world hunger”.
Beasly replied: “Headline not accurate. $6bn will not solve world hunger, but it WILL prevent geopolitical instability, mass migration and save 42 million people on the brink of starvation.
“A perfect storm due to Covid/conflict/climate crises.”
He's a man who makes a lot of money who decided to buy something. Really not all that different from some average dude like me deciding to buy a booster pack or a new video game with my spending money. His spending money is just much larger than ours.
— Cyn Fledermaus (@CynFledermaus) April 26, 2022
Others replying to Liu suggested that Musk’s money would be better spent on “building homes for the homeless” and addressing “pressing global problems like hunger and climate chaos” on Liu’s post from Monday.
At the same time, a separate group of Twitter users criticised the actor for questioning how Musk chooses to spend his fortune.
“Do you have anything better to do with your millions, or should I stay out of your financial decisions?” one person wrote.
“Considering one has hidden 1000 times more wealth in tax avoidance schemes than the other has altogether, and that the former will affect the future of the app the latter used to make this very tweet, I think it’s fair to talk about,” another fan said in defence of Liu.
Since the news broke on Monday night, other celebrities have also reacted strongly to Musk buying Twitter.
The Good Place actor Jameela Jamil announced she will be leaving the platform due to fears of how the environment will change under Musk’s ownership.
