Elon Musk Says He’s Sleeping On a Couch At Twitter & His Dog Is in Charge

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who bought Twitter for $44 billion last October, revealed in an impromptu interview with the BBC on Tuesday that he has been sleeping on a couch in the seventh-floor library of the company's San Francisco headquarters. According to Musk, his dog Floki is in charge and is Twitter's current CEO.

During the interview, Musk addressed several topics, including allegations that misinformation has increased on the platform since he took over, rumors of a family-owned emerald mine (which he denied), and his frequent Twitter controversies. He also reflected on lessons learned during his first six months in charge, which included cutting costs aggressively and laying off two-thirds of the staff. Despite admitting to making mistakes along the way, Musk said he believed the changes were necessary.

Under Musk's leadership, Twitter has undergone significant transformation, with a focus on maximizing “free speech” and introducing experimental changes that disregard potential negative consequences. The platform has also embraced a subscription model that allows users to pay $8 for a blue check mark verifying their identity, while eliminating safeguards designed to detect impersonators and accounts promoting misinformation.

Elon Musk defended the changes he has made to Twitter, including the layoffs of two-thirds of the staff, which he said were necessary to keep the company from going bankrupt. Musk revealed that Twitter now has about 1,500 staffers, down from more than 7,000 before he bought the company. He acknowledged that there have been some problems, such as the shutdown of a data center in December, which caused issues with the site's servers.

However, he also highlighted Twitter's decision to open source its recommendation algorithm, which brings transparency to how the site determines what appears in a user's feed, as well as its emphasis on video. Musk stated that Twitter is financially breaking even, advertisers are returning to the site, and usage and growth are satisfactory. He dismissed predictions that Twitter would cease to function and stated, “We're literally on Twitter now.”

During his interview with the BBC on Twitter Spaces, Elon Musk revealed that Twitter had reconsidered its decision to label accounts like the BBC and NPR as “state-affiliated media.” The traditional use of the label has been to describe government-run propaganda outlets such as Russia's Sputnik and RT and the Chinese Communist Party's People's Daily. Instead, Twitter has relabeled the accounts of BBC and NPR as “government funded.”

When the interviewer asked Musk about the rise of misinformation and hate speech on Twitter, he grew agitated and demanded that the journalist provide an example. Musk argued that the journalist had lied when claiming that there was more hateful content on Twitter but was unable to name a specific instance.

The Washington Post has reported that Twitter experienced an increase in racist tweets following Musk's takeover. Additionally, the Post analyzed Twitter's “For You” page and found that it recommended hate-promoting tweets to users who followed accounts designated as “extremist” or “extremist-associated.”

The topic of the interview then shifted to COVID-19, which Musk declared was “no longer an issue.” Throughout the interview, Musk made several jokes, including one about his dog becoming CEO.

Musk received criticism in December after launching a Twitter poll asking whether he should step down as CEO in response to backlash over Twitter's policy banning the promotion of certain outside social media platforms. The majority of those voting said yes, and Musk said he would abide by the decision.

Elon Musk fulfilled his pledge to appoint a new CEO for Twitter in his interview on Tuesday night, claiming that his dog is now the CEO. This came after Musk faced criticism for his own tweeting habits and Twitter's recent restrictions on engagement with Substack.

During the interview, Musk acknowledged that his late-night tweets were probably a bad idea and joked that he needed bulletproof shoes to protect himself from the consequences of his tweets. Musk also confirmed a news report that Twitter was pursuing generative artificial intelligence, which has developed language models such as ChatGPT.

Musk denied using Twitter's platform to make decisions benefiting himself, such as the ban on a Twitter account that tracked his private jet and several reporters' accounts. He also responded to critics who predicted the demise of Twitter, stating that they were wrong.

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