Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Thursday he made an offer to buy Twitter because he believes "it's very important for there to be an inclusive arena for free speech."

In an interview at the TED Conference in Vancouver, Musk said he believes Twitter's algorithm should be open-source and suggested the code behind Twitter should be available on Github, a Microsoft-owned platform for sharing code for software development.

"Having a public platform that is massively trusted, and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization," Musk said during the interview with Chris Anderson, Ted Conferences curator and a former editor of Wired.

Musk spoke hours after launching a bid to take Twitter private for an estimated $43 billion after rebuffing an offer to join the board of directors earlier in the week.

Asked if he had the financing to do the deal, Musk said: "I have sufficient assets. I can do it if possible." He did not offer details.