A surprise interview with the BBC and CEO Elon Musk in 90 seconds
Twitter CEO Elon Musk held a surprise interview with the BBC at Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco, California on the 12th (local time).
In the interview, CEO Musk defended his way of running Twitter.
James Clayton, a BBC North American tech reporter, met CEO Musk, who is also the second richest person in the world, and asked questions regarding various topics, including hate speech on Twitter and the last US presidential election, for regarding an hour.
And we looked at 6 things we learned.
1. Musk Says ‘Hate Speech on Twitter Is Spike’ Is Not True
First of all, CEO Musk refuted that it is not true that there has been a surge in hate speech on Twitter since his acquisition.
Earlier this year, some Twitter insiders told the BBC that following the successive layoffs and changes in internal policies since the Musk takeover, Twitter will no longer protect its users from trolling, state-sponsored fake news, and child sexual exploitation. It has been said that it cannot be protected.
Last month, Twitter claimed to be deleting 400,000 accounts a month “to make Twitter more secure.”
In this situation, in order to properly evaluate Musk’s claims, two things are currently lacking.
It’s access to Twitter data before and following Musk’s acquisition, and a clear understanding of how Musk’s CEO defines fake news and hate speech.
Because of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression, there is no comprehensive statutory definition of hate speech in the U.S., and hate speech is much more lenient than other countries.
2. Musk ‘Vote for Biden’
In the last 2020 presidential election, nearly half of Americans voted for then-President Donald Trump, but CEO Musk said, “I didn’t. I voted for Joe Biden,” he said.
Former President Trump received a permanent political ban from his Twitter account in 2021 for inciting violence. Afterwards, CEO Musk restored former President Trump’s account, and during an interview, CEO Musk defended his decision.
3. Musk, ‘Twitter is fighting bots in the war once morest fake news’
Meanwhile, Musk claims that since he took over, the war on bots (automated accounts designed to send out spam, etc.) has reduced fake news on Twitter.
“In my experience, fake news (in Twitter) has decreased rather than increased (following my acquisition),” he explains.
However, some outside experts disagree. According to a study by NewsGuard, an organization that tracks fake news online, and other similar studies, the activity of popular accounts spreading fake news has increased significantly since Musk’s takeover.
For example, in the week immediately following Musk’s takeover, Twitter’s most popular but unreliable accounts saw a nearly 60% increase in likes and retweets.
An independent analysis by the BBC also found that more than 1,000 previously suspended Twitter accounts have been reinstated since Musk’s takeover, and that more than a third of these reinstated accounts were for hate speech or spreading fake news. .
Among the content they spread are false news regarding vaccines, hate speech once morest women and LGBT, and conspiracy theories regarding the 2020 US presidential election results.
4. Musk ‘opposes TikTok ban’
While US authorities are currently reviewing a ban on ‘TikTok’, the most downloaded application in the United States, CEO Musk said he does not use TikTok, but opposes any action to get it out.
US authorities are concerned that TikTok’s parent company is a Chinese company and might threaten national security.
Other countries have also banned the use of the TikTok app on the mobile phones of government officials.
Musk explained that while a ban on TikTok might be good for Twitter because people might be spending more time on Twitter instead, “I’m usually once morest bans on anything.”
5. Musk ‘can refuse 63 trillion won for Twitter’
CEO Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion (regarding 57 trillion won) in October last year.
During the interview, Musk insisted that if someone offered to buy Twitter right now for $44 billion, he would refuse.
He added that if he sold Twitter, it would be more important to value the “truth” than what the other party would pay, “because he doesn’t care regarding money.”
But we shouldn’t forget that CEO Musk has tried desperately to get his hands off the Twitter acquisition in the past.
Musk said Twitter had only been around for a few months when he acquired it, and that it was being run like a non-profit rather than a corporation.
Twitter’s costs were greater than its revenues. In fact, according to Twitter’s last published annual report before Musk took over, total sales were $5 billion as of 2021, but costs reached $5.5 billion.
In fact, since 2012, there have been only two years where Twitter has turned profitable.
CEO Musk explained that Twitter is finally approaching the break-even point.
No wonder. If you lay off 6,500 employees, costs will inevitably come down.
In addition, Musk was also active in seeking ways to increase sales, such as a “blue verification badge” for account identification.
So in conclusion, as CEO Musk said, Twitter may be close to breaking even thanks to drastic cost reductions.
However, it is questionable whether it will be able to maintain a surplus through this method and whether it will be worth $44 billion.
6. Musk ‘backs down from BBC controversy’
Twitter sparked controversy last week when it classified the BBC’s main Twitter account as “government funded” media.
During the interview, Musk said he would turn it into “publicly funded” media. And it actually changed a few hours following the interview.
The BBC emphasized its independence and protested once morest the label of ‘government appearance’. The BBC’s operating funds come primarily from the TV license fees of the British public.
In an interview, Musk said, “Maybe it would be fine if the BBC used the same terms they use to describe themselves.”
As of last year, 71% of the BBC’s total revenue of £5.3 billion (approximately 8.67 trillion won) came from license fees, and the rest was made up of other activities such as revenue, subsidies, royalties and rental income.
In addition, the BBC receives more than 9,000 pounds annually from the British government for the operation of ‘BBC World Service’, but most of ‘BBC World Service’ has viewers outside the UK.
Reporting: BBC Reality Check Team, BBC Monitoring, Correspondent Dearvale Jordan