Elon Musk says Twitter's HQ in San Francisco creates 'strong left bias' on platform

SAN FRANCISCO - The billionaire Tesla CEO, Elon Musk is hinting at relocating Twitter's headquarters outside the Bay Area if his offer to buy the company goes through.

Musk spoke Tuesday about Twitter's San Francisco headquarters creating left-leaning bias on the platform, during a live interview at an auto conference hosted in London by the Financial Times. 

"I think Twitter needs to be much more even-handed. It currently has a strong left bias, because it’s based in San Francisco," Musk said, appearing virtually at the Future of the Car Conference. 

"I don’t think people out there necessarily intend, or at least perhaps some of them don’t intend, to have a left bias, just from their perspective it seems moderate, they’re just coming at it from an environment that is very far left," Musk continued. "So, this fails to build trust in the rest of the United States and perhaps other parts of the world." 

"It's conceivable that he [Musk] might move Twitter to Texas, as he did with the headquarters of Tesla," Larry Magid, president and CEO of ConnectSafely.org, a nonprofit internet safety, privacy, and security organization, said in response to Musk's comment. Magid is also on Twitter's Trust and Safety Council, involved in the council's Online Safety and Harassment Prevention group.

"The fact is, wherever it’s going to be, it’s going to be staffed by people. Probably educated people." Magid said. "At the end of the day, it’s how they implement their policies that matters, not how they might think or vote."

Musk also told the Financial Times' Peter Campbell at the Tuesday conference that he would allow former president Donald Trump back on Twitter if he became the social media company's owner.

"It was not correct to ban Donald Trump. I think that was a mistake," Musk said, "because it alienated a large part of our country, and it did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice."

The mistake, Musk said, was implementing a permanent ban, rather than a temporary suspension, following the January 6th insurrection at the United States Capitol.

"Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots, or scam, spam accounts," Musk said.

Musk's offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion was unanimously approved by Twitter's board. Still, the deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval before closing.

Trump told Fox News last month that if given the option, he wouldn't return to Twitter. Instead, he's focused on growing his new online platform, Truth Social, where some on the political far-right are going too. Musk said  Tuesday that this division in online platforms creates a situation that is "frankly worse than having a single forum where everyone can debate."