Twitter boss Elon Musk said running the social media network has been \u201cquite a rollercoaster\u201d and acknowledged \u201cmany mistakes\u201d along the way, six months after he bought the company for $44 billion.
\nIn a live interview with the BBC after agreeing to a last-minute invitation for the \u201cspontaneity\u201d of it, Musk appeared to tacitly acknowledge that one of those errors was the decision to label the broadcaster\u2019s account \u201cgovernment-funded media\u201d.
\nHe said he would change the designation on the BBC\u2019s Twitter handle after the broadcaster objected.
\n\u201cWe want it as truthful and accurate as possible \u2013- we\u2019re adjusting the label to \u2018publicly funded\u2019,\u201d Musk said.
\nBritain\u2019s national broadcaster is predominantly funded by an annual license fee set by the government but paid by individual households.
\nThe labeling spat follows an earlier controversy over a similar move involving US radio network NPR, which Twitter briefly branded \u201cstate-affiliated\u201d, the same way it styles government-run Chinese and Russian platforms.
\nNPR stopped tweeting in protest.
\nTwitter now tags NPR, which has nearly 9 million followers, \u201cgovernment-funded media\u201d, and applied the same label to the BBC\u2019s account.
\nMusk has expressed deep disdain for news media for years and recently installed an automatic response of a poop emoji to emails sent to the site\u2019s main media address.
\nSpeaking with the BBC late on Tuesday, he also addressed Twitter\u2019s controversial move to strip the New York Times of its blue verified check mark after the company refused to pay to keep it.
\nFrom April 20, any legacy verified accounts on Twitter \u2013 which were verified as authentic under the company\u2019s old ownership \u2013 will have to pay to subscribe to Twitter Blue.
\nOne of the reasons for this, Musk said, was that he does not want Twitter to boost \u201csome anointed class of journalists\u201d who determine what constitutes news.
\n\u201cI\u2019m hopeful that this can be more a case of the public choosing the narrative, as opposed to the media choosing the narrative,\u201d he said.
\nTwitter, he said, would \u201ctreat everyone equally\u201d.
\nMusk, in assessing his time in charge of the social media network since he took over in October, said it had been \u201ca stressful situation over the last several months\u201d.
\n\u201cWere there many mistakes made along the way? Of course,\u201d he said. \u201cBut all\u2019s well that ends well. I feel like we\u2019re headed to a good place.\u201d
\nHe said the company was now \u201croughly breaking even\u201d with the return of advertisers.
\nWhen pushed on who was Twitter\u2019s new CEO after he stepped down in response to a poll on the site, he named his dog, Floki.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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