In an interview with the BBC, Musk discussed his ownership of Twitter, including layoffs, misinformation and his work style.
Billionaire Elon Musk has told the BBC that running Twitter has been “quite painful” but that the social media company is now about breaking even after taking it over late last year.
In an interview also live-streamed on Twitter Spaces late Tuesday, Musk discussed his ownership of the online platform, including layoffs, misinformation and his work style.
“It hasn’t been boring. It’s quite a rollercoaster,” he told the British broadcaster at Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco.
It was a rare opportunity for a mainstream news outlet to interview Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX. After the acquisition of Twitter last year for $ 44 billion, Musk made changes, including cutting the company’s communications department.
Reporters who email the company asking for comment will now receive an automated response with a poop emoji.
The interview was tense at times, with Musk challenging the reporter to substantiate claims of increasing hate speech on the platform. At other times, Musk laughed at his own jokes, saying more than once that he wasn’t the CEO, but his dog Floki.
He also revealed that he sometimes slept on a couch in Twitter’s San Francisco office.
Advertisers who shunned the platform in the wake of Musk’s tumultuous takeover have largely returned, the billionaire said, without providing details. Musk predicted that Twitter could become “cash flow positive” in the current quarter “if current trends continue.”
Because Twitter is a private company, financial information cannot be verified.
After acquiring the platform, Musk conducted mass layoffs as part of cost-cutting efforts. He said Twitter’s workforce has been reduced to about 1,500 employees from about 8,000 before, describing it as something that had to be done.
“It’s not fun at all,” Musk said. “The company will go bankrupt if we don’t cut back immediately. This is not a worry-indifferent situation. It’s like the whole ship sinks, then nobody has a job.”
When asked if he regretted buying the company, he said it was something that “had to be done”.
“Twitter’s pain level has been extremely high. This hasn’t been any sort of party,” Musk said.
NPR shuts down
The effect of decisions made under Musk continues to ricochet.
On Wednesday, the United States’ National Public Radio said it would be leaving the platform after Twitter labeled its main account as “state-affiliated media” last week, a move that tarnished its credibility. The label on Twitter is generally applied to government mouthpieces, including in Russia and China, which are often criticized for spreading disinformation.
Since then, Twitter has changed the label to “government-funded media,” implying government control over editorial content and undermining its credibility, according to NPR.
“We believe this label is intended to question our editorial independence and undermine our credibility. If we continued to tweet, every post would carry that misleading label,” the news organization said in a statement.