Twitter boss Elon Musk said that running the social media network has been “quite a rollercoaster” and acknowledged “many mistakes” along the way, six months after he bought the company for $44 billion. He described the period as “a stressful situation over the last several months,” adding, “Were there many mistakes made along the way? Of course… but all’s well that ends well. I feel like we’re headed to a good place.” Musk also claimed the company is now “roughly breaking even” with the return of advertisers.
In a live interview with the BBC, which he accepted at the last minute for its “spontaneity,” Musk appeared to tacitly admit that labeling the broadcaster’s account “government‑funded media” was one of those errors. After the BBC objected, he said the label would be changed to “publicly funded,” noting that Britain’s national broadcaster is primarily funded by an annual licence fee set by the government but paid by individual households. The labeling dispute follows a similar controversy involving the U.S. radio network NPR, which Twitter briefly branded “state‑affiliated” before changing it to “government‑funded media.” NPR stopped tweeting in protest.
Musk, who has long expressed disdain for news media, recently installed an automatic poop‑emoji response to emails sent to Twitter’s main media address. He also addressed Twitter’s controversial decision to strip the New York Times of its blue verified check mark after the paper refused to pay to keep it. Starting April 20, any legacy verified accounts—those verified under the previous ownership—must subscribe to Twitter Blue to retain verification. Musk said this move was intended to prevent Twitter from boosting “some anointed class of journalists” who decide what constitutes news. “I’m hopeful that this can be more a case of the public choosing the narrative, as opposed to the media choosing the narrative,” he said, adding that Twitter would “treat everyone equally.”
When asked who had taken over as Twitter’s CEO after he stepped down in response to a poll on the site, Musk jokingly named his dog, Floki.
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