Musk compares Twitter users to merchandise – 04/13/2023 – Market

For Elon Musk, Twitter users are like merchandise in a warehouse. Some of them, however, do not fit, are broken. During the negotiations to buy the social network, the big question was: what is the proportion of this damage?

In a rare interview aired this Wednesday (12), the billionaire founder of SpaceX and Tesla spoke about various aspects of managing the platform after the conclusion of the purchase agreement, in October 2022.

“The analogy is a good one. There is a warehouse, full of goods [goods, em inglês]. You are told that less than 5% of what is in the warehouse is broken. You enter the warehouse and see that it’s 25%. So you can buy what is in the warehouse, but at a lower price, and not buy things [stuffs] that are broken,” he said.

The businessman admitted that he went ahead with the purchase of the social network for US$ 44 billion because he believed that he would lose the legal process to try to give it up – for a moment, the billionaire withdrew from the agreement because he did not know exactly the proportion of fake users, robots.

To the BBC, Musk also commented on issues such as content moderation on the platform, the company’s financial health and the discussion about the banning of TikTok in the United States.

Elon Musk said Twitter is doing great, thank you, and he would turn down a proposal to sell it for the same $44 billion he paid for the social network six months ago — unless he can find someone who “pursues the truth as rigorously” how much he. Today, the social network is valued at $20 billion.

According to the billionaire, the social network was close to bankruptcy at the end of last year, but it could be in the blue in a matter of months. Advertisers who had left the platform are almost all back, he says.

“If Disney is comfortable advertising their kids’ movies and Apple is comfortable advertising iPhones, that indicates that Twitter is a good place to advertise,” Musk said.

Regarding moderation of content on the social network, Musk says that it is not Twitter’s role to judge what is true or not. “I believe there is less [desinformação] today because we eliminated many of the bots that were posting scams and spam,” he said.

He reinforces the idea of ​​the social network as a digital public square that promotes freedom of expression, and cites as an example the return of former US President Donald Trump to the platform.

However, the idyllic scenario described by the billionaire in the interview contrasts with the experience of users and experts on the platform in recent months. Erratic changes, slowness, bugs, lack of content moderation and an expensive subscription system with few benefits have marred the platform’s public image since the acquisition.

In addition, the transition to Musk’s command involved the dismissal of about 80% of the company’s employees, many of them by email and without prior notice. From around 8,000, the workforce has dropped to 1,500 employees.

While on the one hand Musk jokes that the social network is managed by his dog, on the other the social network turns a blind eye to violent and pornographic content.

This week, for example, Twitter refused to remove content that advocates violence in Brazilian schools on the grounds that the terms of use of the platform allow the dissemination of material. The company’s position caused discomfort in a meeting promoted by the Ministry of Justice this Monday (10).

The autoresponder given by the email [email protected], aimed at communicating with the press, is a poop emoji.

See the main topics of Elon Musk’s BBC interview.

Twitter Management

Elon Musk has said that owning Twitter has been “very painful” and “a roller coaster ride”. He further admitted that he went ahead with the purchase for $44 billion because he believed he would lose the legal process to try to give it up.

“The pain level has been extremely high, it hasn’t been any kind of party,” he said.

dismissals

Today there are about 1,500 employees at Twitter, up from “just under 8,000” when Musk took over. In the interview, he defended the massive layoffs and said the company was four months away from going bankrupt.

“I wouldn’t say it was indifferent. If the whole ship sank, nobody would have a job,” he said.

Financial health

“We could be profitable or, to be more precise, cash flow positive this quarter if things keep going well,” Musk said. He added that almost all advertisers have returned or said they will return to the platform.

Hate speech and freedom of expression on the platform

Elon Musk has hit back at claims that there has been an increase in hate speech on the platform since taking over the company. He said his mission is to make Twitter as accurate as possible and that the number of bots on the platform has dropped, without citing numbers.

One of the changes adopted by Twitter, for example, created difficulties for researchers extracting and analyzing data from the platform. In addition, in the last week the social network began to target posts related to its rival Substack.

Earlier this year, Twitter further reduced its global content moderation team. Workers on teams dealing with disinformation policy, global affairs and state media on the platform were also cut, according to a Bloomberg report.

TikTok

The billionaire said he doesn’t have “strong opinions” about banning TikTok in the US. However, he said that while blocking could help Twitter increase user numbers and engagement, it is generally “against banning things”.

controversial tweets

Elon Musk said he needs to stop tweeting after 3 am. “Have I shot myself in the foot enough times? Yes,” he said.