Elon Musk mentioned he purchased Twitter as a result of it was the “proper factor to do” however admitted that it has been “painful” and “nerve-racking”.

The billionaire additionally mentioned that the social media firm is “roughly breaking even” as advertisers have began to come back again.

He made the feedback in an interview with the BBC which was broadcast reside on Twitter Areas and attracted greater than three million listeners.

When requested if he had any regrets about shopping for Twitter, Musk mentioned the “ache stage has been extraordinarily excessive, this hasn’t been some sort of get together”.

“Have been there many errors made an extended the best way? After all,” he mentioned. “However all’s nicely that ends nicely, I really feel like we’re headed to an excellent place.”

Twitter has been hit by an enormous decline in promoting since Musk acquired the corporate for $44 billion in October. Musk had mentioned that was as a result of cyclical nature of spending on promoting and a few of which was “political” however most of its advertisers have returned.

He mentioned firing 1000’s of employees was “not enjoyable in any respect”. There are actually 1,500 Twitter employees in contrast with practically 8,000 when he purchased it.

Issues over Twitter’s stability have been widespread for the reason that Musk deal.

Musk, 51, additionally runs Tesla, the electrical carmaker, and SpaceX, the rockets and satellites group. He’s the world’s second richest particular person, in response to Bloomberg, with a $181 billion fortune largely derived from stakes within the two corporations.

When requested if he would promote Twitter if he was provided the value he paid for it, he mentioned no. He then clarified that saying he would however provided that he might make certain that the customer was as dedicated to telling the reality.

On tweets, he mentioned: “Have I shot myself within the foot with tweets a number of occasions? Sure. I feel I shouldn’t tweet after 3am.”

At one stage within the interview, Musk stopped the BBC correspondent James Clayton to remind him that he’s “now not the CEO of Twitter”. When requested who was, Musk named his pet canine Floki, a Shiba Inu.

He added that Twitter would replace the BBC’s “government-funded media” tag after the broadcaster objected to the label connected to the principle @BBC account.

Musk mentioned he has the “utmost respect” for the organisation. “We wish [the tag] as truthful and correct as doable — we’re adjusting the label to [the BBC being] publicly funded — we’ll attempt to be correct,” he mentioned.

He beforehand described the BBC as “among the many least biased” information organisations.

The broadcaster mentioned in an announcement after the label was launched: “The BBC is, and at all times has been, unbiased. We’re funded by the British public by means of the licence price.”

On the difficulty of legacy verified blue ticks on Twitter, Musk mentioned they’d be all be faraway from accounts by subsequent week.

He admitted he had an “odd” relationship with the media, describing it as “love-hate, maybe extra hate”.

“The media is ready to trash me frequently within the US and the UK,” he mentioned, including that in some nations “the media can’t say imply issues about highly effective folks”. Though he feels that it’s good to have a free press, during which he and different “highly effective folks” might be criticised.