On Thursday, Elon Musk addressed Twitter employees for the first time since he bought the social network for $44 Billion.
According to one person who listened, Tesla CEO and billionaire Tesla touched on many topics, including his ideas for improving Twitter’s financial health to its rules about speech to his thoughts about life, the universe, and the existence aliens.
Musk called in from remote to join the meeting which was being streamed live internally. Leslie Berland (chief marketing officer at Twitter) asked a few questions from staff.
Musk stated that he wants a billion people to use Twitter every day when he was asked about his vision for the company. That’s ambitious. Only 229 million people are using Twitter every day right now.
He dodged questions about his plans to become CEO and said he didn’t care about titles but would like to have a lot more input on the direction of the platform. Musk is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
He suggested that Twitter could offer other ways to expand its business than advertising. For example, it could charge people to be “verified” by using those blue checkmarks aEUR as a way to confirm their identity.
Musk and Berland did not address the question of whether Musk was still committed to buying Twitter.
Musk has been doubtful of the deal in recent weeks, tweeting that it was “on Hold” while he investigated the existence of fake accounts on the platform and automated bots. Musk has also suggested that he may try to lower the price he agreed to pay. (Global markets have plummeted since Musk bought Twitter for $54.20 per share. Some observers believe Musk might feel he’s overpaying.
He threatened to leave the country, claiming that Twitter was not providing any information on the matter. Twitter has since granted Musk access to its “firehose”, a stream that contains more than 500,000,000 tweets per day.
Musk stated that bots were a major concern to him aEUR at Thursday’s meeting but did not hint that he would be changing his mind on the purchase.
Some employees have been rattled by Musk’s comments about how he would address the company’s most difficult challenges since he signed his deal to purchase Twitter in April.
Musk has stated that his interest in Twitter is about free speech. Musk has criticized Twitter’s policies against misinformation and legal, but damaging content. He also said that he would reinstate former President Donald Trump (banned by Twitter after the attack on the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, 2017).
Musk, when asked about his opinions on Twitter’s speech regulations, reiterated that Twitter should allow all legal speech “aEUR”. This definition, critics claim, would open the floodgates for hate speech, spam, and propaganda.
Musk acknowledged that moderation was necessary and said that people wouldn’t use Twitter if it is harassing.
He stated that Twitter should not promote hate speech and that users should be able filter their own feeds. He pointed out the popularity of TikTok, which is a short video app, as he said that people want to see “entertaining content”.
Musk said that he is a moderate who voted for Democrats previously when he was asked how his political views could affect his leadership of Twitter. Musk said that he had voted for a Republican this week for the first time in a special election in Texas for a congressional seat. (Mayra Flores was the candidate he voted in, but he has been criticized for using Qanon hashtags on social media, casting doubt on the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to Texas Tribune.
Musk’s leadership has been a major focus. Musk said that layoffs are possible, stating that Twitter’s current costs exceed its revenues. Musk stated that the company must “get well”, and that he would be focusing on employee performance.
He was also asked about the future for remote work at Twitter. This was the first tech company to allow employees to leave the office during the pandemic. Since then, employees have the freedom to choose where they want work “forever”. Musk stated earlier this month that Tesla employees had to return to work full-time or be fired.
Musk stated that Twitter is a completely different company from Tesla. He said that while he prefers in-person work but is open to remote work by “exceptional” employees.
According to the person listening, Musk began a tangent on Twitter’s role as a tool for improving consciousness and civilization near the end of the meeting.
Musk laughed at Berland’s joke about extraterrestrial life and said that he hasn’t seen any evidence that aliens exist.
