Elon Musk's meeting with Twitter staff: five things we learnt

Job cuts, freedom of speech and alien civilisations were on the agenda

Mr Musk unveils a new all-wheel-drive version of the Model S car in Hawthorne, California, in 2014. Reuters

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Getty Images

Mr Musk with music producer Quincy Jones. AFP

The wealthiest person in the world with a worth of $274.3 billion, Mr Musk was named 'Person of the Year' by 'Time' magazine in 2021. Getty Images

Focus on Mr Musk's taxes grew last year as Tesla achieved a rarefied $1 trillion in market value. Reuters

The billionaire has hit back, saying he does not draw a salary from either SpaceX or Tesla, and pays an effective tax rate of 53 per cent on stock options he exercises. AFP

Then US president Barack Obama speaks to Mr Musk on a tour of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2010. Reuters

Mr Musk during a television interview after Tesla's initial public offering at the Nasdaq market in New York, in 2010. Reuters

With former wife Talulah Riley at the 2011 Orange British Academy Film Awards in London. Getty Images

With Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe after a test drive of the Tesla Model S P85D in Palo Alto, California, in 2015. Reuters

Mr Musk during the 67th International Astronautics Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2016. EPA

From left: SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk, Corning chief executive Wendell Weeks, then US president Donald Trump and Johnson & Johnson chief executive Alex Gorsky during a meeting at the White House. AFP

Mr Musk and former wife Grimes at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, in 2018. AFP

Mr Musk leaves a court in New York City, in 2019, after a hearing in a lawsuit brought against him by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Getty Images

A prototype of SpaceX's Starship spacecraft is seen before Mr Musk gives an update on the company's Mars rocket Starship in Boca Chica, Texas, in 2019. Reuters

Mr Musk at the construction site of the Tesla Gigafactory in Gruenheide, near Berlin, Germany, last year. EPA

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Mikey Day as a lawyer, Cecily Strong as a judge, and host Elon Musk as Wario during the "Wario" sketch on NBC's 'Saturday Night Live', in May. Getty Images

Mr Musk with Armin Laschet, CDU party federal chairman and prime minister of Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia, talk during a tour of the plant of the future foundry of the Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide, near Berlin, Germany. Getty Images

Elon Musk's first open discussion with staff at Twitter, following his signing of a $44 billion deal to take over the social media company, hinted at potential changes to come under his management.

A video recording of the meeting, in which the billionaire businessman appeared to be hosting the link from a kitchen, has been posted across the internet.

Here are five of the main things that he touched upon:

Views on freedom of speech

Mr Musk has already said he will reverse Twitter’s permanent ban on former US president Donald Trump if his acquisition of the social media platform is successfully completed.

Banning Mr Trump from the platform last year was a “mistake” and a “morally bad decision”, he said.

Mr Musk said his offer to buy Twitter came after frequent complaints about content censorship and a lack of free speech on the site.

However, this has led to concerns about how hate speech and policies to moderate content will be handled under his leadership.

In the video meeting, Mr Musk likened Twitter to a “digital town square, but much more than that as you can't fit that many people in a town square”.

For a functioning democracy, it is essential to have free speech, he said.

“It is free speech within the context of the law — I am not suggesting we just flout the law because we will get shut down. An important goal for Twitter is to include as much of the world as possible,” he said.

“We need to strike this balance between allowing people to say what they want to say but making them comfortable on Twitter. I am in favour of going as far as the law will allow us,” Mr Musk said.

Job cuts?

The company needs to turn its fortunes around as costs currently exceed revenue, “so that's not a great situation to be in”, Mr Musk told Twitter staff.

“There has to be some rationalisation of headcount,” he said.

“Anyone who makes a significant contribution has nothing to worry about. If someone's getting useful things done, then that's great; if they are not, then I am like why are they at the company?”

Remote work

Mr Musk, who is also Tesla's chief executive, recently came under the spotlight when an email he sent to the electric car maker's staff, which was made public, instructed employees to be in the office for a minimum of 40 hours a week or leave as remote work was no longer acceptable.

He told Twitter staff: “Tesla makes cars and you can't make cars remotely; it has to be done in a big factory. There are some roles at Tesla where work can be done remotely, like say software or design.

“If somebody is exceptional at their job it is possible for them to be effective remotely. With Tesla, I requested that a manager confirms that someone is an excellent contributor, and if they do, they are allowed to work remotely,” he said.

“If someone is working remotely, they need to show up occasionally so that they can recognise their colleagues. You can't walk down the street and pass your colleague and not recognise them — that would not be good.”

Twitter plans, transparency and troll farms

During the call, Mr Musk touched upon his potential plans for Twitter and what it needs.

To build trust in Twitter, there needs to be transparency — “that's why I'm an advocate for the algorithm to be open source so people can critique it or improve it”, he said.

He said getting rid of troll farms and bots was incredibly important. Tweets and reactions could be prioritised for those who are verified.

“We need to improve the core technology, we need to improve the design,” he said.

“I have a great understanding of the product because I use Twitter every day. What I have less understanding of is bot / spam or anything that affects the monetisable daily user number.”

The businessman wants to have at least 1 billion people on Twitter, from 229 million at present.

Aliens

The world's richest man rambled into topics outside of business during the 45-minute call.

Speaking about Tesla and SpaceX, Mr Musk switched to an existential discussion, talking of sustainable energy and extending the “scope, scale and lifespan of consciousness as we know it”.

“It would be great to understand more about the universe, why we are here, the meaning of life, where are things going, where do we come from,” he said.

“Can we travel to other star systems and see if there are alien civilisations? There might be a whole bunch of long dead, one-planet civilisations out there that existed 500 million years ago,” he said, clarifying, however, that he has not seen “actual evidence of aliens”.