Elon Musk Says Running Twitter Has Been ‘Quite Painful’

Elon Musk says running Twitter has been "quite painful" and "a rollercoaster" for him since the October acquisition of the company. Musk, 51, told BBC that he's had some regrets about how he's run the social media site.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said the "pain level has been extremely high. This hasn't been some sort of party." Though he hasn't been "bored," Musk admits it's "really quite a stressful situation." Despite all the drama surrounding the company -- from massive layoffs to his work habits -- he still felt buying Twitter was the right thing to do.

Discussing Twitter's finances, Musk said the company is now "roughly breaking even," as most of its advertisers have returned. To help him achieve that, Musk cut the workforce from just under 8,000 to about 1,500. "It's not fun at all. Painful," Musk said of the firing. He added that it was one of the hardest things he had to do.  He claimed that the cuts were to prevent the company from going bankrupt. "If all ships sink, then nobody's got a job," he said.

The exit of many of Twitter's engineers since Musk bought the company has raised concerns about the stability of the platform. He acknowledged some glitches, including outages on the site, but he said the outages have not been for very long.

Elsewhere in the interview, Musk addressed the hate speech and misinformation spread on the social site. He claimed that there was less misinformation since the takeover. Meanwhile, his efforts to delete bots should decrease fake news. However, studies have been conducted to prove engagement with popular misinformation-spreading accounts spiked after his takeover.

He also addressed his sometimes controversial tweets saying, "Have I shot myself in the foot with tweets multiple times? Yes." Musk jokingly added, "I think I should not tweet after 3 a.m. If you're going to tweet something that maybe is controversial, save it as a draft and look at it the next day. See if you still want to tweet it."

On the issue of legacy-verified blue checks on the platform, Musk said they would be removed from accounts by the end of next week.

New research has revealed the most Googled celebrities of 2022 in America, conducted by celebrity news site CelebTattler. The site analyzed Google search data for over 150 of the most influential celebrities since January 1, 2022 to determine which celebrity was the most talked about of the year. Commenting on the study, a spokesperson for CelebTattler said: "This year has certainly not been lacking when it comes to celebrity news stories, whether it be Elon Musk taking over Twitter or the Don’t Worry Darling behind the scenes drama. This study offers a fascinating insight into which celebrities have had the biggest impact on the American people and it will be interesting to see if these search figures rise or fall in 2023."

With no shortage of celebrity drama, deaths and controversies, it is of no shock that the top 10 celebrities who made the list are those whose stories we are still following. See below the top 10 most Googled celebrities of 2022: