Netflix Co-founder Reed Hastings Asks Users To Give Elon Musk 'A Break'

Billionaire Elon Musk seems to have at least one fan in his corner.

Although celebrities are leaving Twitter left and right over his proposed $8 blue checkmark blue verification fee, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has nothing but praise for the Tesla CEO, who he described as "the bravest, most creative person on the planet."

Although Elon Musk has gotten plenty of heat for the way he is handling Twitter, Netflix co-founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings has nothing but positive things to say about the 51-year-old billionaire.

At the New York Times DealBook conference, Hastings praised Musk's "phenomenal" work in "multiple areas," citing his electric car company, Tesla, to his space tourism company, SpaceX (via Deadline). Hastings said that Musk has a different "style," generating a laugh from the crowd when he said, "I’m trying to be, like, a steady, respectable leader up here and [Musk is] just out there.”

The Tesla CEO sold off a plethora of shares of his electric car company to afford the $44 billion dollar deal to buy Twitter. Hastings said that Musk "could have built a mile-long yacht" with the money. Instead, Hastings claims that the new "Chief Twit" decided to buy the social media company to do "good for the planet."

Hastings praised Musk as “the bravest, most creative person on the planet” and told moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin that the South African-born entrepreneur "believes in free speech and the powers of democracy."

Reed Hastings went on to say that he is “100% convinced that [Elon Musk] is trying to help the world in all of his endeavors," which is why he decided to buy Twitter. Shortly after he took over the company, Musk generated criticism for laying off more than half of Twitter's workforce.

However, Hastings remains "deeply respectful" of Musk's "eccentric" methods, even though many may disagree. "People are so picky on, the blue check mark, and yes he’s making a mess of some things. Can you give the guy a break?" Hastings asked. "This guy just spent all this money trying to make things better for democracy and society, to have a more open platform, and I am sympathetic to that agenda.”

Earlier this week, Elon Musk tweeted, "Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why."

The tweet immediately led to concern that Apple was going to remove Twitter from its App Store, much like it did to Parler, due to concerns about misinformation on Musk's Twitter.

The tweet prompted author Colin Wright to write, "The massive immune response we are seeing from Left-wing media and Big Tech to @elonmusk's commitment to free speech on Twitter should frighten you. It has revealed their rabid obsession for complete narrative control. This is a battle they cannot be allowed to win."

Elon Musk replied, "This is a battle for the future of civilization. If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead."

This is far from the first time Elon Musk has tweeted about free speech. Only one day prior, Musk seemed to imply that free speech was "suppressed" before he took over the company, tweeting, "The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened …"

However, others have started to express concern that Elon Musk generated a lot of controversy over nothing. After visiting the "beautiful" Apple HQ on Wednesday, Musk said that he had a "good conversation" with Apple CEO Tim Cook, adding, "Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so."

Platformer managing editor Zoë Schiffer speculated that the "threat" to pull Twitter from its app store was actually a misunderstanding. “Apple sends apps like Twitter boilerplate emails warning them to clean up their content moderation practices or risk being booted from the App Store,” Schiffer tweeted. “Curious if that’s what happened here.”

However, another user commented, “It’s obvious he made everything up for attention like he always does.”