Elon Musk opens up about ‘painful’ Twitter ownership, blue check updates, BBC-funded label, downsizing, dog CEO and more

In a last-minute interview with the BBC overnight, Twitter owner Elon Musk said his time on the social media platform had been “a roller coaster ride” with “a high level of pain”. He posted updates on some of his more controversial decisions, saying: “Wrong [have been] on the way” but that the social media giant is “heading in the right direction”.

During the live interview at Twitter headquarters late Tuesday night local time, Musk also addressed the controversy over the social media platform, which the BBC described as “state-funded media” and said the distinction would be changed. “We’re changing the label to ‘government funded’ — we’re going to try to be specific,” said Musk, who has “the utmost respect” for the organization.

The BBC said Musk unexpectedly agreed to be interviewed at the last minute. During the lengthy discussion, the billionaire businessman also provided an update on the website’s blue checkmark, admitting that he “shouldn’t tweet after 3am.”

Old verified blue checks will be removed from all accounts next week, Musk noted. He tweeted separately that the end date is April 20. As for such media companies New York Times who refused to pay for a tick, Musk told the BBC: “It’s a small amount so I don’t know what their problem is. We’ll treat everyone equally.”

When asked how his time on Twitter was going, Musk replied: “It hasn’t been boring. It’s been quite a roller coaster ride.” Does he regret buying the social media platform? The pain level was extremely high. It wasn’t some party,” he replied, adding that it was “really quite a stressful situation for the past few months… It was quite painful.” But while “mistakes were made along the way,” he continued. , “I have a feeling we’re headed to a good place.”

Musk said the number of Twitter employees had been reduced from “almost 8,000” to 1,500, calling the layoffs “not fun at all” and sometimes “painful.”

When asked about some of his controversial posts in the past, Musk said: “Have I shot myself in the foot multiple times with tweets? Yeah… I guess I shouldn’t tweet after 3am.”

After initially publishing a series of posts in February showing his dog Floki as CEO of Twitter, Musk reiterated that the Shiba Inu is CEO.

Musk, who is CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, was also asked if Twitter was properly monitored for “hateful content”. He replied, “Who is to say what is right and what is wrong?” and said the BBC reporter’s accusation that the site is not as secure as it used to be must be “wrong”.

“I’m asking for a single example and you can’t provide one,” Musk said. He added that Twitter’s goal is to be the “most accurate” platform it can be.

When asked about steps to ban TikTok, Musk said he does not use the Chinese app for security reasons.

“I think it will help Twitter if TikTok is banned because then people will spend more time on Twitter and less time on TikTok. But while it would help Twitter, I would be against banning things in general,” Musk said.