Elon Musk’s BBC Takedown
Musk had an interview with the BBC, which was clearly planned as a weaponised attack on Musk but it failed miserably.
@elonmusk turned the tables and exposed the BBC. /1
(a thread)
The BBC objected to the "government funded media" on their Twitter account.
Musk graciously said that he believed the BBC was one of the "least biased" outlets.
He did say he'd change the label to “ "publicly funded" as he wants to be “as truthful and accurate as possible.” /2
Musk mentioned the first 6 months of Twitter have been a rollercoaster.
They have seen an all time high usage: 8 billion user minutes per day.
Growth is good
The site works well with minor glitches. /3
The BBC claimed that Twitter was on fire. Elon hits back that their sources were disgruntled ex-employees
1) Musk responded that there's some outages but they have a good handle of the situation
2) They are doing this with 2 out of 3 data centers as they shut down one of them
3) In some cases they improved the core algorithm by 80%
4) System is more responsive
5) Long form Tweets
6) 2 hours videos
7) Subscriber Program
8) They have open sourced the Twitter Algorithm. /4
Musk originally pulled out of buying twitter as it was full of bots.
Publicly stated users were significantly in excess of the real users.
He then purchases Twitter because he knew the court would have forced him to anyway. /5
1) Twitter was on track to lose $3bn a year with $1bn in the bank
2) It had $4.5bn revenue, $4.5bn in costs and $1.5bn in debt serving, but then had a drop of ⅓ in ad revenue.
3) This was partly cyclical and partly political
4) They then had $3bn revenue and $6.5bn costs
5)… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Sacking twitter employees was haphazard but was not uncaring.
Musk said if the whole ship sank everyone would drown. He argued that it was an extreme situation but there was nothing else they could do.
Ex-employees were given 3 months severance, some were given more.
Staff… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Trump may or may not come back
But twitter should be a digital town square which gives equal voice to all political leanings anywhere in the world.
It should not be based on partisan politics
But twitter was a mega phone for niche left wing politics.
“Free speech is… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
People such as @Cobratate were brought back.
Who is the arbitrator of what is misinformation?
BBC has at times published information that is misinformation.
If people in a country are against an issue they should talk to their elected representatives about it. /9
There is less misinformation because
Significant reduction in bots
Community notes. /10
This was the masterful takedown. The BBC reporter claimed that he had seen hate speech increase.
But when pressed, he could not name one example.
He attempted to backtrack but he was exposed. /11
Musk said that it was the BBC who was peddling misinformation about Covid, such as mask efficacy and vaccination risks.
Musk also pointed out the BBC was put under pressure by the British Government to change the editorial policy. /12
Musk was unsure if Modi had asked for content to be taken down at the behest of the Indian government.
Indian rules on what can appear on social media are strict
Twitter cannot go beyond the laws of the country. /13
Elon said he did not have an opinion on the TikTok ban.
People who spend time on TikTok regret it.
Even though the banning of TikTok would benefit Twitter, he is generally against it being banned. /14
Tesla and SpaceX have activities around the world and sometimes they can come into conflict.
Twitter doesn’t operate in China as it is banned. Elon has not received any communication from the Chinese government about Twitter. /15
Almost all advertisers have either come back or indicated that they will be coming back to Twitter.
Notably, Disney and Apple have returned. /16
Twitter is roughly breaking even.
Based on current trends it will be profitable or cash flow positive by this quarter. /17
Musk said he has a love-hate relationship with the media.
But the fact that the media can attack anyone in the UK/USA makes it different to other places where you cannot say things to people in power. /18
Musk made the following comments about the verification badges:
1. Delighted in removing verification badge from the New York Times
2. Media provides misinformation
3. Average citizen knows better than journalists
4. Articles he reads get a lot wrong
5. They write articles… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Verification badges:
1. Are not a major revenue stream
2. Are there to raise the cost of misinformation and bots
3. Unverified media companies will be overwhelmed by bots
4. There will no longer be an anointed class of verified accounts above others
5. Public should choose the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Musk would only sell twitter for $44bn (same price he purchased it) or even for free if there was a person who also vigorously sought the truth.
He wants some form of truth he can count on in real time and allow it to get more accurate over time through user engagement. /21
Musk is not thinking about moving from San Francisco.
He wants something done to help the homeless and decrease crime.
He has a building he wants to give to the homeless to use but the building owner will not allow it. /22
The BBC reporter came unprepared and failed miserably.
The hit piece backfired on BBC and showed Elon’s side of a narrative dominated by mainstream media. /23
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