Prominent Republicans including Marjorie Taylor Greene seem happy with Elon Musk's Twitter deal

• Top Republicans have hailed Elon Musk's $43 billion deal to take Twitter private.

• Many claim Twitter and other social-media platforms censor conservative speech.

• Musk has described himself as a "free speech absolutist."

Prominent Republicans including Marjorie Taylor Greene seem happy with Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion.

"This is a great day to be conservative on Twitter," Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn tweeted, adding: "Elon Musk buying Twitter terrifies the left because they don't want their power to censor conservatives threatened."

Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert tweeted: "Elon Musk now literally owns the libs."

Republicans have been openly supportive of the deal, believing Musk will put an end to what they see as anti-conservative bias on the social-media platform.

Musk has described himself as a "free speech absolutist" and in a regulatory filing, stated he wanted to buy Twitter to preserve free speech on the platform.

Georgia Rep. Taylor Greene's personal Twitter account was permanently suspended in January for "repeated violations" of Twitter's COVID-19 misinformation policy. She continues to tweet from her government account.

After Musk's deal was announced Monday, Taylor Greene posted a series of screenshots detailing tweets that Twitter had classified as violating its policy. "My personal freedom of speech was violated on this platform along with an unknown number of Americans, and I want my personal account back," she tweeted.

Just before the deal was announced, when news reports indicated an announcement was imminent, Taylor Greene tweeted from her government account: "Prepare for blue check mark full scale meltdown after @elonmusk seals the deal and I should get my personal Twitter account restored."

It isn't clear whether Musk will force Twitter to reinstate suspended accounts.

At an all-hands meeting after the deal announcement, Twitter employees asked whether Musk's ownership might result in the reversal of former president Donald Trump's permanent ban. CEO Parag Agrawal answered: "We don't know what direction the platform will go."

Trump told Fox News he would not go back to Twitter even if his suspension were lifted, preferring to stay on his own social-media platform Truth Social. But advisers close to Trump told The Washington Post they were skeptical of his claim.

Rep. Jim Jordan tweeted after the Musk deal was announced that "free speech is making a comeback." Prior to that, Jordan led a group of GOP lawmakers in writing to Twitter's board asking it to preserve all communications around Musk's bid.

Blackburn also said on Twitter: "Today is an encouraging day for freedom of speech. I am hopeful that Elon Musk will help rein in Big Tech's history of censoring users that have a different viewpoint."

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