In an interview with the BBC, Musk mentioned his possession of Twitter, together with layoffs, misinformation and his work type.
Billionaire Elon Musk has instructed the BBC that working Twitter has been “fairly painful” however that the social media firm is now roughly breaking even after he acquired it late final yr.
In an interview additionally streamed reside late on Tuesday on Twitter Areas, Musk mentioned his possession of the net platform, together with layoffs, misinformation and his work type.
“It’s not been boring. It’s fairly a rollercoaster,” he instructed the UK broadcaster at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.
It was a uncommon probability for a mainstream information outlet to interview Musk, who additionally owns Tesla and SpaceX. After shopping for Twitter for $44bn final yr, Musk’s modifications included eliminating the corporate’s communications division.
Reporters who e-mail the corporate to hunt remark now obtain an auto-reply with a poop emoji.
The interview was generally tense, with Musk difficult the reporter to again up assertions about rising ranges of hate speech on the platform. At different occasions, Musk laughed at his personal jokes, mentioning greater than as soon as that he was not the CEO however his canine Floki was.
He additionally revealed that he generally slept on a sofa at Twitter’s San Francisco workplace.
Advertisers who shunned the platform within the wake of Musk’s tumultuous acquisition have largely returned, the billionaire mentioned, with out offering particulars. Musk predicted that Twitter might develop into “cash-flow optimistic” within the present quarter “if present developments proceed”.
As a result of Twitter is a personal firm, details about its funds can’t be verified.
After buying the platform, Musk carried out mass layoffs as a part of cost-cutting efforts. He mentioned Twitter’s workforce has been slashed to about 1,500 workers from about 8,000 beforehand, describing it as one thing that needed to be accomplished.
“It’s not enjoyable in any respect,” Musk mentioned. “The corporate’s going to go bankrupt if we don’t lower prices instantly. This isn’t a caring-uncaring state of affairs. It’s like if the entire ship sinks, then no one’s obtained a job.”
Requested if he regretted shopping for the corporate, he mentioned it was one thing that “wanted to be accomplished”.
“The ache degree of Twitter has been extraordinarily excessive. This hasn’t been some type of occasion,” Musk mentioned.
NPR quits
The impact of choices made below Musk has continued to ricochet.
On Wednesday, the US’s Nationwide Public Radio mentioned it was quitting the platform after Twitter final week labelled its essential account as “state-affiliated media“, a transfer that affected its credibility. The label on Twitter is mostly utilized to authorities mouthpieces, in Russia and China, amongst others, which can be typically criticised for spreading disinformation.
Since then, Twitter has modified the label to “government-funded media”, which, says NPR, implies authorities management over editorial content material and undermines its credibility.
“We consider this label is meant to name in query our editorial independence and undermine our credibility. If we continued tweeting, each put up would carry that deceptive label,” the information organisation mentioned in an announcement.