Following the Twitter acquisition, Elon Musk has been all over the news of late. Right from Vijaya Gadde to Parag Agarwal and Ned Segal, Musk first fired top executives. Right after that, it was reported that he planned to reverse lifetime suspensions on Twitter users.
At press time, however, Vitalik Buterin managed to steal the limelight. Replying to one of Noah Smith’s tweet about how Elon should move Twitter’s headquarters to Oakland, the Ethereum founder opined,
“I always thought it should be moved to Switzerland.“
Also Read: Twitter’s top execs fired post Elon Musk’s big takeover
Other users were quick to voice out their contrasting opinions. One user felt Singapore might be the best choice.
While another felt that small distant islands or innovative economies were the go-to pick.
Also Read: Elon Musk Twitter’s new CEO? Lifetime suspension reversal on the cards
Why Switzerland?
It’s a known fact that Elon Musk is a proponent of free speech. Towards the end of April, the executive outrightly contended on Twitter that he was “against” censorship. Alongside, he previously also stated that he wanted “civilization to have a common digital town square” and said that he planned to clean up spam accounts and preserve the platform as a venue for free speech.
In fact, right after the deal was sealed, the executive tweeted that the bird had been “freed.”
Users on Twitter were quick to point out that Buterin perhaps chose Switzerland because of its neutrality and privacy protection laws.
The world press freedom index is an indicator that’s used to gauge the freedom of speech. Twitter’s current headquarters is currently located in San Francisco, US. Switzerland, when compared to the US, is ranked much higher on the said index.
With a score of 87.72, the former occupied the 14th position. The latter, however, stood at 42, with a shrunk down score of 72.74. And perhaps, that’s why the Ethereum founder picked Switzerland over any other place.
| 14 | Switzerland | 82.72 |
| 42 | United States | 72.74 |