Elon Musk Faces Backlash For Buying Twitter Rather Than Addressing World Hunger

It seems like everyone around the world has had something to say about Elon Musk's humungous $44 billion takeover of Twitter.

Some have called it a massive win for free speech, while others fear it will make the social media site a worse-off place.

Discussions about what will happen to Twitter will likely go on for days or even weeks, however people on Twitter have pointed out a depressing reality of the huge takeover.

Musk was called last year on to spend a fraction of his wealth to address world hunger.

The director of the United Nations World Food Programme revealed how just 2 per cent of the Tesla's wealth at the time could feed millions of vulnerable people around the world.

Speaking to CNN, David Beasley called on Musk and Jeff Bezos (the second richest person on the planet) to reconsider where they are putting their money.

He said: "$6 billion to help 42 million people that are literally going to die if we don't reach them. It's not complicated."

At the time, Musk hit back at the assertion and wanted to see the fine print before sending over the cash.

He wrote: "If WFP can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it."

He added: "But it must be open source accounting, so the public sees precisely how the money is spent."

Now that his $44 billion takeover bid has been accepted by the Twitter board, many are questioning why he was prepared to pay that enormous sum of money for a company, when he could have addressed world hunger seven times over.

When he was put under scrutiny for his claims, David Beasley admitted that $6 billion wouldn't fix world hunger in its entirety.

But he did declare it would have addressed the most pressing issues for some of the most vulnerable people who need food.

"$6B will not solve world hunger, but it WILL prevent geopolitical instability, mass migration and save 42 million people on the brink of starvation," Beasley said on Twitter.

He explained how a $6.6 billion investment would provide those 42 million people in need with one meal every day for a year, which is fairly impressive.

While there were plenty of people who criticised Musk for spending tens of billions of dollars on buying Twitter, others thought it was perfectly reasonable.

His supporters said the Tesla CEO is free to spend money in the way he sees fit.

Featured Image Credit: Trevor Cokley/Alamy. REUTERS/Babu

Topics: Elon Musk

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Senior Journalist at LADbible. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign. He is in charge of the LADbible Australia editorial content and social presence.

@stewartperrie