A journalist told Elon Musk to buy Twitter in 2017 - now he says exchange continues to 'haunt' him

One journalist has been kicking himself after a tweet from 2017 saw him suggest to Elon Musk that he should buy Twitter.

The comment from Insider’s Dave Smith has since gone viral on the social media platform after the Tesla and SpaceX founder did just that on Monday, purchasing the bird app for the small price of around $44bn.

Resharing the conversation yesterday, Mr Smith wrote: “This exchange continues to haunt me.”

We don’t doubt that for one second, Dave.

In the interaction, Musk can be seen saying “I love Twitter”, to which Mr Smith replied: “You should buy it then.”

Perhaps a sign of what was to come, Musk responded: “How much is it?”

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As if cost was ever an issue for the world’s richest man…

Nevertheless, Twitter users have responded with a mixture of shock, sympathy and frustration that one journalist may have planted the idea for Musk to buy the platform all those years ago:

If approved by shareholders, then the deal – which was “unanimously approved by the Twitter board of directors” – is expected to close sometime this year, the company said in a statement.

Musk added: “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are decided.

“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.

“Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

Musk’s remarks on free speech have raised fears the Twitter profiles of former US president Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene could be reinstated by the businessman.

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