businessman and tycoon Elon Musk said today that his experience at the head of the social network Twitter it was “pretty painful” and “a roller coaster”. In an interview with the British BBC, Musk also reiterated that he would sell the company if the right person came along.
The interview, which was broadcast live from Twitter’s headquarters, also covered the massive layoffs he implemented, the misinformation circulating on the social network, and his work habits.
Musk, who also runs automaker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, bought Twitter for $44 billion last October, defended his management of the company.
Asked if he regretted buying Twitter, the world’s second-richest man said the pain level was extremely high and that “this has not been a party”. He also described his time at the helm of the company as “not boring” and “a roller coaster.”
“It was a really stressful situation in the last few months,” he said, but added that he still feels buying the company was the right thing to do.
“Things are going reasonably well and usage of the site is on the rise and it works,” he said.
He also said that the workload means that he sometimes sleeps in the office and that he has a place on a sofa in a library “where nobody goes.” He also addressed controversial tweets from him, saying that he “tweeted himself in the foot multiple times.”
“I think you shouldn’t tweet after 3am” joked.
Asked about the decision to add a hashtag to the BBC’s main Twitter account describing it as “government-funded media”, Musk said, “I know the BBC are generally not thrilled about being labeled state media.” .
In that sense, after the corporation’s claim at the beginning of the week to solve the problem and affirm that the BBC “is, and always has been, independent” and clarify that it is financed by the British public through a tax they pay all, Musk said Twitter was adjusting the label to “publicly funded.”
“I have a lot of respect for the BBC,” Musk added, saying his unusual interview with a mainstream outlet was “a good opportunity to ask some questions” and “get feedback on what we should do differently.”
Twitter’s financial situation
As for Twitter’s finances, The billionaire said the company is now “balanced” as most of its advertisers have returned, but he did not elaborate.
He also claimed that reducing the workforce from almost 8,000 people at the time he bought the company to around 1,500 had not been easy. He admitted that he didn’t fire everyone in person, saying, “It’s not possible to talk to so many people face to face.”
In the interview, Musk acknowledged that the departure of many engineers from Twitter since he bought the company raised concerns about the platform’s stability.
He also admitted to some glitches with the site, including outages, though he said they haven’t been around for long and it was working fine now.
When asked about misinformation and hate speech on the platform, Musk said there has been less misinformation since the acquisition and that his efforts to remove bots will decrease fake news.
In addition, Musk questioned whether journalists were fair arbiters of the truth, saying he trusted “ordinary people” more.
Lastly, he announced that legacy verified blue ticks on the platform would be removed from accounts by the end of next week.
Source: Ambito
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