A few months proved to be enough for Elon Musk as the CEO of Twitter and now he is thinking about stepping down and appointing someone else. Musk spoke about the thinking behind the acquisition versus building his own social media company.
“I thought about creating something from scratch, but I thought Twitter would perhaps accelerate progress versus creating something from scratch by three to five years,” Musk said. “And I think we are seeing just a tremendous technology acceleration that three to five years is actually worth a lot.”
Musk spoke about his motivations for the Twitter buyout, saying he was “a little worried about the direction and the effect of social media on the world, and especially Twitter.”
“I thought it was essential for there to be a maximally trusted sort of digital public square, where people within countries and internationally could communicate with the least amount of censorship allowed by law. Obviously, that varies a lot by jurisdiction.”
In December, Musk polled his 128.9 million Twitter followers about whether or not he should step down as CEO, to which 57.5% of respondents voted yes.
I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 21, 2022
Musk’s reliance on using polls to make major company decisions has been criticized while major companies are pulling advertising dollars from the platform.
Recent data seen by CNN earlier this week shows that since Musk’s takeover of the social media platform, over half of Twitter’s top 1,000 advertisers have stopped advertising (as of January). Musk has not publicly indicated who a potential successor to his position might be.
Musk said on Wednesday, however, that social media companies “should adhere to the laws of other countries and not try to put a thumb on the scale beyond the laws of countries.” He accused Twitter of imposing the “values” of San Francisco and the nearby University of California, Berkeley, which he described as a “niche ideology,” in the way it ran its business.
“I thought it was important, kind of, for the future of civilization to try to correct that thumb on the scale,” Musk said, describing his motivations behind buying Twitter.
Musk has faced criticism for, on the one hand, advocating free speech while also complying with censorship laws in countries, a fine line he is trying to walk, as reflected in his comments.
The latest controversy centered around a BBC documentary critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Indian government last month ordered internet platforms and social media companies, including Twitter, to block links and videos of the documentary. Twitter appeared to comply with the order, according to NBC News.
Musk replied to a user in January asking if it was confirmed that Twitter complied with the Indian government’s orders.
“First I’ve heard. It is not possible for me to fix every aspect of Twitter as CEO worldwide overnight, while still running Tesla and SpaceX, among other things,” Musk replied.
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