Always unpredictable, Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk went from enraging UK public broadcaster the BBC to giving the corporation a warts and all interview within a matter of days. Speaking to the BBC via Twitter Spaces, he said that his colourful six-month ownership had been a rollercoaster, but things were settling down.
Quizzed about the platform’s business fundamentals, Musk acknowledged that the social media platform had lost advertisers but that they were now returning. He told interviewer James Clayton that the platform is now “roughly breaking even”.
Musk said the workload at Twitter is such as he “sometimes sleeps in the office”. He accepted that some his controversial tweets were not always in his best interests: “Have I shot myself in the foot with tweets multiple times? Yes.”
Musk acquired Twitter for $44bn in October 2022 and for a while looked like he was running it into the ground, sacking key staff including engineers. However he told the BBC that things are now going “reasonably well” and that “the site works”. He also claimed that there was less misinformation on Twitter since he took control, and that his efforts to delete bots on the site will reduce instances of fake news.
The surprise interview came after the BBC objected to being described as ‘government funded’ on Twitter, as opposed to ‘publicly funded’. During his conversation with Clayton, Musk confirmed that Twitter will change the label on the BBC’s account.
