- Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter on Thursday in a $43 billion deal.
- Gab CEO Andrew Torba said if Musk wants to protect free speech, Twitter isn't the right place.
- Torba offered Musk a board seat and an unspecified amount of equity in exchange for a $2 billion investment.
The right-wing social media site Gab has made Elon Musk a counterproposal in response to his offer to buy Twitter: If you want to protect free speech, invest in Gab instead.
Gab CEO Andrew Torba said the richest person in the world should drop his "expensive and overpriced Twitter deal" and instead invest $2 billion in Gab in exchange for a seat on its board and an unspecified amount of equity in the company.
"Together we can build infrastructure for a free speech internet," Torba wrote in an open letter to Musk. "I am willing to offer you a Board seat along with equity in the company in exchange for you selling your Twitter position and investing $2B into Gab. My offer is my best and final offer."
Torba said in an accompanying statement that if Musk is interested in protecting free speech, Gab is in a better position than Twitter to do so, arguing it is not dependent on "third-party infrastructure."
For instance, he said because Twitter is in the Apple and Google app stores it has to abide by their policies, while users can download the Gab app from a browser. (Gab has long been banned from the Apple and Google app stores.)
Torba also said that "there is the problem of Twitter's community itself."
"It skews massively left and thus anti-free speech. If you allow free speech on Twitter again, those people are absolutely going to leave because their fragile worldview can't handle the reality that free speech brings," he said.
Musk on Thursday offered to buy Twitter in a $43 billion deal. In the offer letter, Musk wrote: "I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy."
He added: "Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it."
Torba mimicked Musk's comments throughout his offer letter, writing: "Gab has extraordinary potential. Let's unlock it together."
Gab was founded in 2016 and touts itself as a free-speech site that does not moderate content like most mainstream social media platforms. It gained notoriety in 2018 when the shooter of the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh posted anti-Semitic rhetoric on the site prior to carrying out the attack.
Gab received renewed attention in 2021 when conservatives flocked to the site after former President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter.
Tesla did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment from Musk.