Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
29-04-2022
Bureau Report + Agencies
BEIJING/ NEW DELHI: Elon Musk’s $44bn bid to buy Twitter puts the world’s richest man in the crosshairs of censorship-prone governments such as China and India, raising questions about how the Tesla CEO might respond to demands to stifle dissent in countries where he does business.
For Musk, with his diverse assets ranging from SpaceX to his signature company Tesla, controlling the levels of information that governments would like suppressed carries the risk of significant blowback for his brands.
With one-quarter of its global sales in China, as well as about half of its production and a major battery factory at Tesla Giga Shanghai, the electric vehicle company is seen as likely to come under pressure from Beijing once Musk takes the reins at Twitter.
Human rights activists fear that pressure could come in the form of demands to censor activity by dissidents and activists on Twitter, hand over information about anonymous accounts, or remove the “state-affiliated media” tag attached to Chinese media.
“I think people are worried mostly because Musk has Tesla business in China,” Yaqiu Wang, a senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera. “So people worry that the government can leverage the business in China to try to silence, or influence Twitter.”
Tesla’s ties with China have resulted in blowback in the past.
During the Tesla Model 3’s rollout in Hong Kong in mid-2019 at the height of China’s suppression 
of anti-government protests in the city, Tesla attracted criticism from activists who questioned the timing of the launch given the firm’s significant production operations in mainland China.
More recently, the company sparked outrage in January when it opened a showroom in China’s Xinjiang region, where rights groups estimate more than one million ethnic minority Uighurs are being detained in so-called “re-education” camps.
“The China question is a potential issue which needs to be raised,” Dexter Thillien, lead technology and telecoms analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, told Al Jazeera.
The potential risks have some questioning whether the deal will go through by the October 24 deadline. Antitrust reviews in the United States could delay that takeover even longer. On Tuesday, Tesla’s share value declined 12 percent, or approximately $21bn, and any further slides could put the deal in jeopardy.
“Tesla risks being caught in the middle of a geopolitical crossfire that could be very hard to escape,” John Engle, president at investment group Almington Capital and an analyst of the EV market, told Al Jazeera. “If anything, Tesla’s [and Musk’s] massive public profile, in both China and the US, could end up putting a target on the company’s back.”
Engle said the Biden administration’s firm stance on China could become tougher still if geopolitical tensions rise, leaving Tesla as a political pawn in a larger game.
“Musk’s planned acquisition of Twitter could add to these tensions, especially if influencers in the US adopt the position that Musk’s ownership of the platform could expose it to undue influence from China’s government,” he said.
US companies ranging from the NBA and Hollywood studios to Apple have bowed to Chinese pressure over perceived slights on numerous occasions in the past.
Last year, professional wrestler-turned-actor John Cena apologized in Mandarin for calling self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province, a country in 2019.
