Elon Musk has revealed that running Twitter has been “quite painful” and “a rollercoaster” in an interview with the BBC. The multi-billionaire entrepreneur also said he would sell the company if the right person came along. The interview, aired live from Twitter HQ, covered the mass lay-offs, misinformation and his work habits.
Mr Musk, who also runs car maker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX, bought Twitter for $44bn (£35.4bn) in October. In the conversation, he defended his running of the company and said the “pain level has been extremely high”. He also said that usage of the site is up and “the site works”.
The workload means that “I sometimes sleep in the office”, he said, 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.”
Mr Musk was also asked about the decision to add a label to the BBC’s main Twitter account describing it as “government funded media”. He said Twitter was adjusting the label for the BBC to “publicly-funded”. “We’re trying to be accurate,” he said.
Discussing Twitter’s finances, Mr 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 Mr 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.
Mr 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 Mr Musk’s takeover.
He 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, Mr Musk said they would be removed from accounts by the end of next week.
Elon Musk has revealed in an interview with the BBC that running Twitter has been an arduous task. The multi-billionaire entrepreneur said he would sell the company if the right person came along and discussed topics such as mass lay-offs, misinformation, and his own work habits.
Mr Musk, who also runs car maker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX, bought Twitter for $44bn (£35.4bn) in October. In the conversation, he defended his running of the company and said that usage of the site is up and “the site works”. The workload means that he sometimes sleeps in the office and has a spot on a couch in a library “that nobody goes to”.
Mr Musk was asked about the decision to add a label to the BBC’s main Twitter account describing it as “government funded media”. He said Twitter was adjusting the label for the BBC to “publicly-funded”. “We’re trying to be accurate,” he said.
Discussing Twitter’s finances, Mr 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.
The exit of many of Twitter’s engineers since Mr 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.
Mr 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.
He 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, Mr Musk said they would be removed from accounts by the end of next week. Former Twitter executive Bruce Daisley suggested that the interview showed Elon Musk was not always consistent in what he says.