Elon Musk says Twitter must be ‘neutral’ as wave of leftwing users quit

World's richest person aims to reassure followers, saying he will not seek to politicise social media network

• Controversy grows after Musk engages with tweets criticising staff

Elon Musk said Twitter must be politically neutral" in a comment posted last night after a wave of account deletions by left-leaning users on the social media network.

In the days since Musk's $44bn (34.5bn) acquisition offer was accepted by Twitter's board, hundreds of thousands of users have closed their accounts on the site, the company confirmed, leading to a dip in follower numbers for left-leaning politicians and celebrities such as Barack and Michelle Obama, Taylor Swift and Jeremy Corbyn.