Elon Musk signals that he was told to 'play nice and not speak freely' by Twitter board

Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk liked a tweet that speculatively outlines his vision for Twitter, after the announcement yesterday by Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal that the billionaire Musk, who recently became the largest shareholder at the tech giant, would not be joining the board of directors despite the board's invitation.

The tweet, by TankTDS, says that Elon became the largest shareholder for "Free Speech."

"Elon was told to play nice and not speak freely," the tweet, liked by Musk, says.

Musk declined the offer, as he would have been constrained to just 14.9 percent stock had he accepted, and would only have 1/12 of a vote at board meetings, joining the other 11 members on the board.

Musk's purchase of Twitter stock has been cheered by free speech absolutists, though it ruffled the feathers of establishment media, such as The Washington Post, who wrote that Musk's vision of free speech would be "bad for Twitter."

"Musk has been open about his preference that Twitter do less to restrict speech that many see as hateful, abusive or dangerous. Given his new influence, the way he himself has used the platform bodes ill for its future," Ellen K. Pao wrote for the outlet.

Pro-Musk voices such as Bill Maher, however, say that the Tesla CEO will "fix Twitter."

"We live in a different age where Twitter is the public square now," Maher said on his show Real Time. "If you deny someone's right to speak on Twitter, you're basically saying you don't have free speech rights."

"I think that's what Elon Musk wants to fix at Twitter,"