Elon Musk doesn't care about being Twitter's CEO, but expects people to listen to him

Elon Musk's Twitter deal has had its ups and downs. In April 2022, Twitter officially accepted Elon Musk's offer to buy the social media giant for roughly $44 billion, at a $54.20-per-share exchange.

Then in May 2022, the deal was put on hold.  

Now, during his first meetings with Twitter employees this week, the entrepreneur said he is not so interested in being CEO but he does want people to listen to him, according to a report published by Business Insider on Saturday.

A lot of chores to being CEO

"There are a lot of chores to being CEO. And I just want to make sure that the product evolves rapidly and in a good way," Musk said.

"I don't really care what the title is. But people do need to listen to me," he added. 

Musk added that if his deal to purchase Twitter materializes, he wants to focus on the app's "software and product design." 

"If I say 'Hey, we need to improve the product in the following way and add these features' then, like, I do expect that people will listen to me in this regard," he told Twitter employees. 

CNBC also revealed the answers to employee questions, according to a person watching a video call where Musk spoke.

Musk claimed that success at Twitter would look like a significant increase in daily active users, potentially topping 1 billion, and discussed the existence of lines. He said he had not seen any evidence of the latter as of yet.

Musk added that people should be allowed to say what they want on the firm but that Twitter need not promote what they say.

Not offending people

He also said that users should have the right to filter out content they don’t want to see. He said it was not about offending people, but more about keeping them entertained and informed.

He explained that if 10 percent of the far left and far right are upset, Twitter is doing the right thing and that he hopes to get all humans on Twitter.

Concerning layoffs, Musk said it would all depend on the company's financial situation.

“It depends. The company does need to get healthy,” Musk said. “Right now the costs exceed the revenue”

However, he added that “anyone who is a signification contributor has nothing to worry about."

Musk also revealed his “bias is strongly towards working in person.” He did add that if someone is exceptional at their job, remote work is fine. 

Elon concluded by saying he loves Twitter. “I learn a lot from what I learn on Twitter.” It’s a “great way to get a message out”, “some people use their hair to express themselves, I use Twitter," he said.