Musk, who said Twitter needed to be politically neutral, endorses Republicans in midterms

Just days after taking control of powerful social media giant Twitter Inc, billionaire Elon Musk on Monday recommended that voters pick Republican candidates for Congress in Tuesday's U.S. midterm election.

Musk, who is also Tesla CEO, has faced criticism from some groups over his absolutist stance on free speech. They expect his position to increase the volume of misinformation and hate speech on the platform.

His tweet on Monday represented the first time the head of a major social media platform explicitly endorsed a U.S. political party.

Musk directed his Twitter message to what he called "independent-minded voters," writing: "Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a Republican Congress, given that the presidency is Democratic."

President Joe Biden's Democrats face a steep battle to retain control of Congress in Tuesday's vote.

Nonpartisan election forecasters and polls suggest Republicans have a very strong chance of winning a majority in the House of Representatives, with control of the Senate likely to be more closely fought.

"Hardcore Democrats or Republicans never vote for the other side, so independent voters are the ones who actually decide who's in charge!," Musk added on Twitter, which he purchased late last month.

In April, Musk said that for "Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally."

Political commentary

Unlike Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and previous Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Musk frequently comments on U.S. politics. This year, he replied to a Twitter user that he was leaning toward supporting Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis for president in 2024 and that former president Donald Trump was too old to serve as president again.

Musk has previously said he would vote for Republicans but says he backs moderates on both sides of the aisle. However, he has frequently expressed agreement with multiple posts from far-right activist Tom Fitton, who, according to the House committee examining the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack, advised White House aides that Trump needed to declare victory on election night 2020 before all the votes were counted.

As well, in the wake of the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband at the couple's San Francisco residence, Musk tweeted a link to a conspiracy theory about the incident, deleting it hours later.

Musk, who was born in South Africa and spent time growing up in Canada, became a U.S. citizen in 2002.