In an exclusive live group chat on Twitter, Elon Musk addresses why he thought it was so vital to buy the company and defend free speech.

In the wake of the #TwitterFiles drop (which showed that pre-Musk Twitter execs suppressed a story about Hunter Biden for dubious reasons), Elon Musk explained what he saw happening and why it was so important to do something to stop what he saw as a descent into a world where free speech was no longer protected.

Musk explains, “It really had been building for some time,” and that it wasn’t about, say, Babylon Bee getting banned – he adds, “that would be crazy.”

Musk says, “there started to be this more and more groupthink amongst the media, more and more sort of towing the line amongst digital social media companies, and basically just we’re traveling the path more and more of suppression of free speech. And this was just getting me concerned.”

The new Twitter owner continues to explain that he saw trends that concerned him, adding he was starting to worry that “Unless something was done to reverse the trend against free speech, maybe everything will just get cut off, and unless you’re in agreement with whatever the groupthink is, you’re just gonna be ostracized, and your voice will be shut off.”

Musk’s assertion that he spent $44B in defense of free speech is not a new one, but the explanation gives insight into what spurred such a dramatic business deal.