In a recent interview with the BBC, multi-billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk revealed that owning Twitter has been “quite painful,” and that he would be willing to sell the company if the right person came along. Musk, who also runs carmaker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX, bought Twitter for $44bn in October 2022. The interview, which was broadcast live from Twitter’s headquarters, covered topics such as mass layoffs, misinformation, and Musk’s work habits.
During the conversation, Musk tried to interview the interviewer as much as the other way around. He defended his running of the company and said the pain level has been extremely high. He added that his time at the helm so far has been “quite a rollercoaster,” and that it has been a stressful situation over the last several months. However, he still feels that buying the company was the right thing to do, and things are going “reasonably well.” Usage of the site is up, and the site works, he said.
Musk acknowledged that the workload means he sometimes sleeps in the office, adding that he has a spot on a couch in a library “that nobody goes to.” He also addressed his sometimes controversial tweets, saying, “Have I shot myself in the foot with tweets multiple times? Yes.” He added that he thinks he should not tweet after 3 am.
When asked about the decision to add a label to the BBC’s main Twitter account describing it as “government-funded media,” Musk said, “I know the BBC is generally not thrilled about being labeled state media.” Earlier this week, the corporation contacted the social media giant over the designation on the @BBC account to resolve the issue “as soon as possible.” “The BBC is, and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the license fee,” it said. Musk said Twitter was adjusting the label for the BBC to “publicly-funded.” “We’re trying to be accurate,” he said.
Discussing Twitter’s finances, Musk said the company is now “roughly breaking even,” as most of its advertisers have returned. He also said that cutting the workforce from just under 8,000 at the time he bought the firm to about 1,500 had not been easy. He admitted he did not fire everybody in person, saying, “It’s not possible to talk with that many people face to face.”
The exit of many of Twitter’s engineers since Musk bought the company has raised concerns about the stability of the platform. He acknowledged some glitches, including outages on the site, but he said the outages have not been for very long, and the site was currently working fine.
In the interview, which was broadcast live on Twitter Spaces from San Francisco, Musk was also challenged over misinformation and hate speech on the platform. He claimed there was less misinformation on Twitter since the takeover and that his efforts to delete bots, automated accounts, will decrease fake news. But many outside experts disagree. One study found engagement with popular misinformation-spreading accounts spiked after Musk’s takeover.
Musk repeatedly questioned whether journalists were fair arbiters of truth and said he had more trust in “ordinary people.” On the issue of legacy-verified blue ticks on the platform, Musk said they would be removed from accounts by the end of next week.
Former Twitter executive Bruce Daisley, who ran the business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for eight years, said the interview “gave us some insight into the strange life of this billionaire.” He added, “He confessed today that the only reason he went through with buying Twitter was that he believed a judge would force him to go through with the transaction. He’s never admitted that till now, so it was a very whimsical interview.” Daisley also suggested the interview showed Musk
Picture Credit: The Wrap
