Twitter CEO Elon Musk told The Free Press journalist Bari Weiss about “the future of civilization” as his motive for spending $44 billion to buy the company.
Musk expressed his worries for the future, saying “birth rates are plummeting, the thought police are gaining power, and even having an opinion is enough to be shunned. We are trending in a bad direction,” Weiss reported.
A bit about our reporting at Twitter: https://t.co/Wj00G5LrzT
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 15, 2022
“We have a goal here, which is to clear the decks of any prior wrongdoing and move forward with a clean slate,” Musk said. “I’m sleeping at Twitter HQ for a reason. This is a code-red situation,” Musk added. He has been sleeping on a sofa in Twitter HQ with his son nearby, Weiss shared.
An estimated 80% of Twitter employees have been let go since Musk took over. He’s instituted an “extremely hardcore” work culture, with engineers working 18-hour shifts over the past month, according to Weiss. (RELATED: Biden Regulator Fires Warning Shot At Musk’s Twitter, Tech Companies)
The company was “fundamentally an activist organization” before he took over, Musk stated to Weiss. It was a “non-profit” engaged in “social influence” with a focus on breaking even rather than increasing earnings, Musk said.
Musk compared his changes at Twitter to the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission in his native South Africa, according to Weiss. He is trying to rebuild Twitter’s trust and make the platform into a digital town square, Weiss said.
Weiss had numerous conversations with Musk at company headquarters while combing through the “Twitter Files” with a team of journalists. The only condition Musk gave to her and other journalists who accessed the files was to Tweet them out first, Weiss disclosed.