In a recent interview with Financial Times Editor Roula Khalaf, Tesla CEO Elon Musk talked about his use of Twitter and why free speech plays an important role in it.
While showing Khalaf around Gigafactory Texas, Musk described his use of the social media platform as “vaguely therapeutic,” with a lighthearted aura surrounding the topic.
“Aren’t you entertained?” Musk said through laughter. “I play the fool on Twitter and often shoot myself in the foot and cause myself all sorts of trouble . . . I don’t know, I find it vaguely therapeutic to express myself on Twitter. It’s a way to get messages out to the public.”
Elon Musk Text Messages from Twitter Pre-Trial in Easy-to-Read Format https://t.co/l0JEC7MrNm
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) October 6, 2022
The quote comes as Musk prepares to purchase Twitter for $44 billion, after a lot of back and forth throughout the summer. Over dinner, Khalaf asked about Musk’s original offer and if it had been a joke, to which Musk responded saying that he wasn’t in it for the money on this one — but for the product.
“I’m not doing Twitter for the money. It’s not like I’m trying to buy some yacht and I can’t afford it. I don’t own any boats. But I think it’s important that people have a maximally trusted and inclusive means of exchanging ideas and that it should be as trusted and transparent as possible.”
Past rumors held that Musk could purchase former U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social, but Musk denied this.
“[Truth Social] is essentially a rightwing echo chamber. It might as well be called Trumpet.”
Other topics discussed include Musk’s children, Mars, Starlink in China, President Joe Biden and more. You can read the full interview with Musk over here at the Financial Times.
