UAE Cabinet Affairs Minister Mohammad al-Gergawi (L-on stage) speaks with Elon Musk attending the World Government Summit virtually in Dubai on February 15, 2023. Musk said he aims to find someone ‘one to succeed him as CEO of Twitter by the end of 2023.
Karim Sahib | AFP | Getty Images
Elon Musk said Wednesday that he may be able to name his successor as Twitter CEO by the end of 2023, but first he needed to “stabilize” his social media business.
“I think I need to stabilize the organization and make sure it’s in a financially sound place and the product roadmap is clearly defined,” Musk said at the Global Government Summit in Dubai.
“I guess the end of this year should be a good time to find someone else to run the business, as I think it should be in a stable position towards the end of this year.”
Musk took over as CEO of Twitter in October as part of its $44 billion acquisition of the social media company.
The Billionaire reported at the end of last year that he doesn’t expect to be CEO of Twitter permanently and will eventually hand over the reins to someone else.
In December, Musk tweeted out a poll asking people if he should step down as the head of Twitter. The majority of the 17.5 million votes said yes.
“I’ll step down as CEO as soon as I find someone dumb enough to take the job! After that, I’ll just lead the software and server teams,” Musk said. tweeted after the ballot.
Why Musk bought Twitter
Musk spoke about the thinking behind the acquisition versus building his own social media company.
“I thought about building something from scratch, but I thought maybe Twitter would speed up the progress from building something from scratch by three to five years,” Musk said. “And I think we’re seeing tremendous technology acceleration that’s actually worth a lot over three to five years.”
Musk opened up about his motivations for taking over Twitter, saying he was “a bit worried about the direction and effect of social media on the world, and especially Twitter.”
“I thought it was very important that there was some kind of digital public square of maximum trust, where people at home and abroad could communicate with the least amount of censorship allowed by law. Obviously, this varies a lot by jurisdiction.”
His comments echo those he has made over the past few years. He called himself a “free speech absolutist”.
Musk, however, said on Wednesday that social media companies “should abide by the laws of other countries and not try to put an inch on the scale beyond the laws of the countries.” He accused Twitter of imposing the “values” of San Francisco and University of California Berkeley, which he called a “niche ideology”, in the way it ran its business.
“I thought it was important, in a way, for the future of civilization to try to fix that thumb on the scale,” Musk said, describing his motivations behind buying Twitter.
Musk has been criticized for, on the one hand, advocating for free speech while adhering to censorship laws in countries, a fine line he tries to toe, as evidenced by his comments.
The latest controversy centered on a BBC documentary that criticized Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Last month, the Indian government ordered internet platforms and social media companies, including Twitter, to block links and videos from the documentary. Twitter appeared to comply with the order, according at NBC News.
Musk responded to a user in January asking if it was true that Twitter had complied with orders from the Indian government.
“First I heard. It’s not possible for me to fix every aspect of Twitter in the world overnight, while running Tesla and SpaceX, among others,” Musk replied.