Tesla founder and the world’s second richest person, Elon Musk has indicated that he is willing to acquire Substack, a San Francisco-based online platform that lets independent writers and podcasters publish directly to their audience and get paid through subscriptions. The suggestion to acquire the platform came from a Twitter user, who caught Musk’s attention.

A Twitter user named ‘Wall Street Silver' suggested that if Twitter buys Substack and "tightly connects the two platforms" it would make sense for the microblogging site. The suggestion was made in a tweet by Musk about the corporate media rushing to defend the state instead of the people.

Musk's initial tweet was a reaction to a freelance reporter, Leighton Woodhouse’s post about Twitter files and the media’s response to it. The journalist said that in his Substack post he has written that Establishment journalists’ response to Twitter files is to protect the state rather than expose it.

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Thus, the Twitter user suggested and wrote, “Twitter plus Substack creates instantly massive competition for obsolete legacy corporate media.”

Musk responded to his suggestion and said, “I'm open to the idea”.

I’m open to the idea

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 28, 2022

Many other users also supported the idea of a Twitter and Substack merger following Musk's interest in buying the company.

What is Substack?

Substack is an online content publishing platform and an email newsletter service based in San Francisco, United States. The platform lets independent writers and podcasters publish directly to their audience and pay them through subscriptions.

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Recently, many content creators and independent journalists have urged followers to sign up for their Substack. Thus, a merger of Substack and Twitter could lead to the creation of a seamlessly independent content publishing platform.

Elon Musk vs Media

Musk recently drew criticism as he abruptly suspended the Twitter accounts of several journalists earlier this month. The suspensions included reporters from CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Musk accused the journalists of breaking Twitter’s rules on violating personal privacy as they reported on the movement of Musk’s private jet.

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Twitter had also shut down an account, ElonJet, which tracked the whereabouts of Musk’s private plane using publicly available flight data.

However, Musk reinstated the Twitter accounts of the journalists following severe criticism from government officials, advocacy groups and media organisations.

(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)