Jamie Dimon Bats for Musk’s Twitter Takeover: ‘I Hope Musk Cleans Up Twitter’

JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon speaks during the Business Roundtable CEO Innovation Summit in Washington, on Dec. 6, 2018. Jim Waton/AFP via Getty Images

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, hopes Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter would be for the good, and is looking toward more flexibility on the platform.

“I hope Musk cleans up Twitter,” Dimon said in an interview with CNBC, while adding that the Tesla founder should look into wiping out anonymous accounts from the network. The JPMorgan Chase CEO echoed Musk’s concerns about spam accounts on the platform. In April, Musk revealed that he wanted to defeat the “spam bot” and authenticate “all real humans” on the platform while ensuring that free speech is protected on the network.

Dimon also wants the company to provide its users with more control over recommendation algorithms. Musk has indicated that he wants to make Twitter’s ranking algorithm open source.

“Why can’t Twitter know who you are when you come on board, so they can eliminate all those people in the public square who are robots and emails and stuff like that?” Dimon said. “Why can’t they give you a choice of algorithms? As opposed to one that just jazzes you up.”

Musk had announced his intent to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share in April. But in July, Musk tried to back out from the deal due to concerns about bots and fake accounts. Twitter sued Musk, and the case was supposed to go to trial on Oct. 17.

However, Musk confirmed that he intends to buy Twitter in an Oct. 3 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Tesla founder also sent a message to Twitter management indicating that he intends to buy the platform for the previously agreed price of $54.20 per share.

Twitter Censorship, Deal’s Future

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Jeffrey McCall, a professor of communications at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, points out that even though Twitter positions itself as a “so-called public forum,” it has tried to manipulate that forum for ideological purposes.

The platform has not been very transparent about its procedures. Due to the “apparent bias and suppression” of free speech, Twitter’s credibility has taken a hit. Twitter has been highly biased and inconsistent in how it applies its vaguely articulated protocols, he argues.

“There are several noteworthy examples of Twitter trying to alter the rhetorical sphere, with the New York Post Hunter Biden story being a key one, along with sanctions on Trump, all the while allowing Twitter activity from a wide range of international extremists,” McCall said, alluding to the platform’s decision to allow North Korea’s communist dictatorship to open an account.

Meanwhile, Twitter has confirmed that it has received Musk’s new buyout proposal. If an agreement between the two sides is reached, both parties could avert going to trial.

Adam Badawi, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, believes that Twitter will be extra careful with the deal this time, according to Breitbart.

“They thought they had a deal before,” he said. “So to actually accept something from him, it’s going to have to be as ironclad as it possibly can.”

Michael Washburn contributed to the report.