Elon Musk tells BBC that owning Twitter has been quite painful

Elon Musk has said strolling Twitter has been “pretty painful” and “a rollercoaster”, in an interview with the BBC.

The multi-billionaire entrepreneur also stated he could promote the agency if the proper man or woman came along.

The interview, aired live from Twitter HQ, blanketed the mass lay-offs, misinformation and his work behavior.

Mr Musk, who additionally runs vehicle maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, offered Twitter for $44bn (£35.4bn) in October.

inside the communication – in which Mr Musk tried to do the interviewing as lots as the other way round – Mr Musk defended his going for walks of the company.

requested whether he had any regrets approximately buying Twitter, the world’s 2nd richest man stated the “pain level has been extremely high, this hasn’t been a few type of celebration”.

speakme about his time on the helm up to now, Mr Musk stated: “it’s now not been dull. it is been quite a rollercoaster.”

it’s been “truely pretty a demanding situation during the last numerous months”, he brought, however stated he still felt that buying the organization was the right thing to do.

matters are going “reasonably nicely”, he said, declaring that usage of the web page is up and “the web site works”.

The workload approach that “I occasionally sleep in the workplace”, he said, including that he has a niche on a sofa in a library “that no one goes to”.

And he also addressed his every so often debatable tweets saying: “Have I shot myself within the foot with tweets a couple of instances? sure.”

“I assume I ought to now not tweet after 3am,” he added.

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requested approximately the decision to feature a label to the BBC’s foremost Twitter account describing it as “government funded media”, Mr Musk said: “I know the BBC is typically now not thrilled approximately being labelled nation media.”

in advance this week, the agency contacted the social media giant over the designation on the @BBC account to remedy the problem “as quickly as feasible”.

“The BBC is, and usually has been, unbiased. we’re funded by using the British public via the licence price,” it stated.

Mr Musk stated Twitter became adjusting the label for the BBC to “publicly-funded”. “we are trying to be correct,” he said.

“I virtually do have quite a few respect for the BBC,” Mr Musk brought, declaring that the interview become “a terrific opportunity to invite a few questions” and “to get a few feedback on what we have to be doing distinctive”.

Discussing Twitter’s finances, Mr Musk stated the agency is now “roughly breaking even”, as most of its advertisers have again.

He also said that reducing the personnel from simply under 8,000 at the time he bought the firm to approximately 1,500 had no longer been smooth.

He admitted he did now not fireplace anyone in character, pronouncing: “it is no longer feasible to talk with that many humans face to face.”

The exit of many of Twitter’s engineers in view that Mr Musk bought the business enterprise has raised concerns approximately the stability of the platform.

He acknowledged some system defects, which includes outages on the website however he stated the outages have not been for very long and the website online turned into currently working high-quality.

in the interview – which turned into broadcast live on Twitter areas from San Francisco – Mr Musk was additionally challenged over misinformation and hate speech at the platform.

He claimed there was less misinformation on Twitter because the takeover, and that his efforts to delete bots – automated bills – will lower faux news.

but many outdoor experts disagree. One take a look at – and there are pretty a few others alongside the equal lines – observed engagement with famous incorrect information-spreading accounts spiked after Mr Musk’s takeover.

He repeatedly wondered whether or not reporters were fair arbiters of truth and stated he had greater trust in “regular people”.

On the issue of legacy-verified blue ticks at the platform, Mr Musk stated they could be eliminated from money owed by using the quit of next week.

Former Twitter govt Bruce Daisley – who ran the commercial enterprise in Europe, the middle East and Africa for 8 years – said the interview “gave us some perception into the strange existence of this billionaire”.

“He confessed nowadays that the best cause he went through with buying Twitter changed into due to the fact he believed a decide might force him to undergo with the transaction. he is in no way admitted that until now, so it was a totally whimsical interview.”

Mr Daisley additionally suggested the interview confirmed he became now not usually regular in what he says.

Mr Musk has an anticipated private fortune of virtually $190bn, making him the sector’s second richest individual, according to the Forbes billionaires list.