Musk says Twitter is roughly breaking even, has 1,500 employees
Billionaire Elon Musk on Wednesday said Twitter is “roughly breaking even” in a wide-ranging, often combative conversation with a BBC reporter in which the mogu🐠l quipped his dog Floki i🌊s running the social media platform..
In the interview , Musk touted progress in his sweeping overh♏aul of the company’s business despite ongoing criticism of his leadership.
Musk has pared Twitter’s workforce to roughly 1,500 from the “j𒅌ust under 8,000 staff members” before he bought the firm last October, he said.
He described the lay🅷offs as a “drasti🌸c action” that was necessary to avert a complete collapse at Twitter, which had a “$3 billᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚion negative cash flow situation” per year and was roughly “🌟four months to death” prior to the mass layoffs he ordered.
“We could be cash-flow positive this quarter if things go well,” Musk said during the broadcast.
The billionaire added that the company was being run like a “nonprofit” prior to his takeover. Under Musk’s leadership, T🍃witter has hit an all-time high in user numbers, he claimed.
He also asserted that many of the adv𝐆ertisers who initially fled Twitter after his takeover due to concerns about his approach to content modera💧tion have since returned to the platform.
The interview took a bizarre turn when BBC reporter James Clayton pressed Musk for answers about his potential successor as CEO of Twitter. Musk has pledged to step down as the 🐓company’s leader as soon as he finds a suitable candidate.
“I’m not the CEO of Twitter. My dog is the CEO of Twitter. He’s a great dog, very alert, and it’s hard to get anything by him,” Musk joked in response.
Musk had previously referred to his dog’s leadership role in a Feb. 14 tweet, when he shared a photo of the Japanese-breed Shib𒀰a Inu with the caption, “the new CEO of Twitter is amazing.”
The interview turned heated as Clayton atte🍒mpted to confront Musk regarding allegations that he has fallen short in efforts to combat a rise in hate speech on Twitter.
“What hate speech are you talk𓄧ing about?” Musk asked. “I mean, you use Twitter. Do you see a ris🐼e in hate speech? Just a personal anecdote? I don’t.”
Musk pressed Clayton to give a specific example of hate spee🦩ch he had seen on the site, but the journalist struggled to provide an answer.
“I’m asking for one example and you can’t give a single one. Then I say, sir, that you don’t know what you are talking ab🐎out,” Musk said.
“You cannot give me a single example of hateful content, not even one tweet,” he added. “And yet you claimed that hate🌃ful content was high. That is false, you just lied.”
The lengthy interview occurred during a period of ongoing scruꦗtiny over Musk’s handlinꦆg of the company.
Musk has recently clashed with National Public Radio after Twitter added a “state-affiliated media” label on NPR’s main acc𓂃ount — the same designation it applies to government-run accounts such as Russia Today and China’s Xinhua news agency.
Twitter later softeneඣd the label to “government-funded me🌺dia” – the same label he gave to the BBC.
On Wednesday, NPR indicated it would s♊top using the platform entirely.
“NPR’s organizational accounts will no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by fals🐭ely implying that we are not editorially independen🅘t,” NPR said in a statement to The Post.
“We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility and the p𝐆ublic’s understanding of our editorial independence,” the statement added.
With Post wires