Elon Musk Opens Up, Says 'Many Mistakes' Made Since His Twitter Takeover

Elon Musk has finally broken his silence on Twitter's failures under his leadership, claiming that the company has made "many mistakes" since he took over, adding that the company is "roughly breaking even" at the moment.

It's been about six months since SpaceX and Tesla founder took over Twitter for $44 billion. Now, in conversation with BBC, Musk has acknowledged what a "rollercoaster" this journey has been.

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Why Elon Musk agreed to an interview

The impromptu conversation with BBC occurred after Twitter labelled Britain's national broadcaster's Twitter account "government-funded media." While the network is the country's national broadcaster, it is largely funded by an annual license fee paid by individual households and not the government, AFP reported.

The "state-affiliated" and "government-funded media" labels are largely used for state-run news companies in countries like China and even Russia. It's also no surprise that Elon Musk isn't a big fan of mainstream media. If you send a query to Twitter's press email address, it sends back a poop emoji.

Reuters

Also read: Elon Musk's Vision For Twitter Unfolds As X Corp. Absorbs Twitter Inc. In Merger

Recently, Elon Musk also claimed that all the so-called legacy verified accounts (ones that were verified under Twitter 1.0) would lose their ticks, unless they subscribe to Twitter Blue, a monthly service that costs $11 in the US per month and ?900 per month in India (for mobile as well as web).

In the interview, Musk said that this move on Twitter was done to avoid boosting "some anointed class of journalists" from deciding what is news. "I'm hopeful that this can be more a case of the public choosing the narrative, as opposed to the media choosing the narrative," he added. Even then, most people who get their news on Twitter could now fall for dummy accounts that could be pushing fake news, especially in the case of outlets like The New York Times - a company that no longer has a verified account.

Reuters

Acceptance of errors

In the same chat, Musk made a reference to the mistakes that were made. "Were there many mistakes made along the way? Of course," he said. "But all's well that ends well. I feel like we're headed to a good place."

Reuters

Also read: Twitter Throwdown: Paul Graham Roasts Elon Musk, But Musk Fails To Catch The Burn

According to Musk, the company is now "roughly breaking even" as advertisers begin to return.

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