Business & Economy

Musk says Twitter should aid “civilization and consciousness”

New York, Jun 16 (EFE).- Twitter should contribute to “civilization and consciousness,” Elon Musk said Thursday in a virtual town hall with more than 7,500 employees eager to learn his plans if he completes his planned $44 billion purchase of the firm.

The world’s richest person reaffirmed his position that Twitter should permit “lawful but awful” content while simultaneously striving to ensure that users will be “comfortable.”

“I think it’s essential to have free speech and for people to be able to communicate freely,” Musk said. “But that doesn’t mean that needs to be promoted to millions of people. So I think people should be allowed to say pretty outrageous things that are in the bounds of the law but that don’t get amplified and don’t get a ton of reach.”

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO spent about an hour outlining his vision for Twitter and responding to questions submitted in advance by employees.

Musk said that he would like to see Twitter’s daily active user base, now around 230 million, expand to “at least a billion people.”

While Twitter currently gives employees almost complete latitude to work remotely or in the office, Musk recently required Tesla executives to return to the office, though he appeared to indicate some flexibility during Thursday’s session.

“Even if someone is working remotely, they’ve got to come in sometimes so they recognize their colleagues,” the South African-born magnate said. “The bias for me may be strongly toward working in person, but if somebody is exceptional then remote work can be OK.”

He did not rule out the possibility of layoffs at Twitter.

“Right now, costs exceed the revenue, so that’s not a great situation to be in. But anyone who’s obviously like a significant contributor should have nothing to worry about,” Musk said.

Musk and the Twitter board agreed on the acquisition in April, yet the billionaire threatened again last week to abandon the transaction if the firm does not provide him with further information on spam and fake accounts.

Twitter, which estimates the proportion of bogus accounts at no more than 5 percent, says that it is moving forward with the deal. EFE

syr/dr

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