In December 2022, Elon Musk announced that he was about to step down as CEO of Twitter. Four months later, Elon Musk says he kept his promise by naming his dog Floki in his place.
Between humor and mockery, the border is sometimes small. The BBC, which was able to interview Elon Musk during a Twitter Space on the night of April 11 to 12, is not likely to say the opposite. At approximately 1h30, Elon Musk put on the show… Dubious puns between the name of the BBC and a pornographic term attempt to destabilize the journalist, anti-Covid positions… Elon Musk, who all the same confided in several important topics (Twitter outages, layoffs, etc.), often used humor to not respond. The first conclusion of this interview: Elon Musk does not intend to leave his post as CEO.
Elon Musk kept his promise by naming his dog
Initially, Elon Musk was rather collaborative. The Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter boss initially said he had “a lot of respect for the BBC”, which prompted him to accept this interview. From the start, Elon Musk seemed rather relaxed. The billionaire chained jokes and laughter, just to make it clear that he hadn’t really come here to be serious.
If there is a lot to say about this interview (Elon Musk explained that it was not easy to fire so many people but says he is happy to see that Twitter is still working so well), the billionaire is back for the first time on his promise to leave the management of Twitter in December 2022. After having chained several scandals (including his decision to ban the sharing of Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube links), Elon Musk organized a poll to propose his resignation. Poll that he lost before contesting the results, then finally accepted. Elon Musk then announced his intention to leave Twitter and hand over the controls to someone close to him, which created a lot of speculation.
Four months later, Elon Musk has completely stopped talking about this subject (as often with him, his centers of attention change abruptly). Asked about his resignation by the BBC (from the 40th minute), Elon Musk affirmed that it had already passed: “I withdrew” affirms Elon Musk. “I said I will appoint a new CEO and I did, he’s my dog.”
As crazy as it sounds, Elon Musk is referring to a real event. In February 2023, Elon Musk actually tweeted photos of his dog Floki dressed as a CEO. If Floki is obviously not the legal boss of Twitter, we now know that what looked like a joke a few months ago was actually a way for Elon Musk to turn the page. No, he’s not planning to quit Twitter.
Sometimes tense debates
What else can you learn from this interview? If Elon Musk makes fun of the BBC and his name quite actively at the end of the interview, his community shares an excerpt in a loop in which the boss of Twitter manhandles the journalist by asking him to prove that hatred has progressed on the platform since his arrival, which the journalist fails to do.
This very tense excerpt gives the impression that Elon Musk is humiliating the BBC, which is very pleasing to his fans (the isolated excerpt, taken out of context, does not reflect the true nature of the conversation: Elon Musk does was not as tense). Then Elon Musk returned to a more normal tone.
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