Following his purchase of Twitter for $44 billion, Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased buying more iconic American companies in order to ostensibly restore them – even suggesting that he might buy Coca-Cola in order to reintroduce cocaine into the ingredients of the soft drink.
“Next I’m buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in,” Musk quipped in a late-night tweet Wednesday.
A Twitter user responded by sharing a photo of the first publicly-sold bottle from 1894 – a product that contained 3.5 grams of cocaine. “Bring it back,” the user added.
Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, stands in the foundry of the Tesla Gigafactory during a press event. (Photo by Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Musk replied that full-cocaine Coca-Cola “Kicks Red Bull’s ass!”
Billy Markus, the co-creator of Dogecoin who uses the Twitter name “Shibetoshi Nakamoto” (a reference to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym used by the inventors of Bitcoin), asked Musk, “can you buy fox I want another season of ‘firefly’.” “Firefly” (2002-2003) became a cult classic, despite getting canceled after only one season.
“Some sci-fi that actually features sci-fi would be great,” Musk replied.
Coca-Cola bottles sit in a delivery truck in Mexico City, Mexico, on Thursday, Sept. 5, 2013. Coca-Cola Femsa SAB, a bottler and distributor of Coca-Cola products in Mexico, agreed to buy Brazils Spaipa SA Industria Brasileira de Bebidas in a cash de (Photographer: Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The Tesla CEO even shared what appears to be a doctored photo of him promising on Twitter, “Now I’m going to buy McDonald’s and fix all of the ice cream machines…”
“Listen, I can’t do miracles ok,” Musk quipped in response to the suggestion.
Twitter accepted Musk’s $44 billion offer to buy the company earlier this week. Musk, who has criticized Twitter for failing to embrace free speech, hailed the platform as “the digital town square” and pledged to increase free speech on the platform.
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“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 debated,” Musk said. “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 added.
Twitter headquarters is seen in San Francisco, California, United States on October 27, 2021. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Critics have suggested that dialing back content moderation may endanger users and allow misinformation to spread.
As for critics, Musk tweeted, “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”
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John Stith Pemberton invented Coca-Cola in the late 1800s and marketed it as a temperance drink intended as a patent medicine. The name refers to two of its original ingredients: coca leaves, from which cocaine is derived; and kola nuts, a source of caffeine. Coca-Cola once contained an estimated nine milligrams of cocaine per glass (for comparison, a typical dose of cocaine is 50-75 milligrams). The company removed the cocaine in 1903.