> How is this conducive to free speech?

He couldn't possibly be any worse than what we already have.

People were censored for saying the Hunter Biden laptop was real in 2020. People were censored for covid "misinformation" that turned out to be true.

Twitter is very much an anti-free speech platform at the moment. He's a free speech absolutist. How is the purchase of a wildly biased and censorial platform by a free speech absolutist not conducive to free speech?

Well there is wide speculation that Elon could open up the rules of twitter a bit - perhaps allow Trump back on, widen what type of Covid-19 discourse can posted without repercussions, etc.

Fewer people think Elon has any predilection to locking down what can be said on Twitter.

(I don't know what will happen ultimately, but that's how it could be related.)

That has nothing to do with free speech though.

That has to do with changing the TOS for users of a private (after buyout) company.

So we have an unelected multi-hundred-billionaire deciding the rules, which may or may not be less restrictive when it comes to certain types of discourse of his choosing.

I still fail to see where the "freedom" part enters into all this.