Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk spoke about his plans for Twitter, making his first public statement — aside from tweets — since reaching a deal to purchase the popular social media platform.
Musk, who was joined by his mother on the red carpet at Monday night’s Met Gala, promised a more “inclusive” experience for everyone and vowed as he has in the past to rid the platform of bots.
At the #MetGala, Elon Musk says he wants Twitter to be "broadly inclusive" after he completes his purchase of the platform: "Ideally, most of America is on it and talking." pic.twitter.com/7rK39ohHSu
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 3, 2022
“Well, I mean, the goal that I have, should everything come to fruition with Twitter, is to have a service that is broadly — is as broadly inclusive as possible where ideally most of America is on it and talking!” Musk told the Associated Press.
“I think just generally, the — I’m looking for something that’s like I said as broadly inclusive as possible, that’s as trusted as possible as a system, and I hope we are successful in that regard,” he continued.
“I’ve also vowed this publicly that we have to get rid of the bots, trolls, scams, and everything. That’s obviously diminishing the user experience and we don’t want people to get tricked out of their money and that kind of thing,” Musk added, concluding, “I’m on the warpath! If somebody is operating a bot and troll army then I’m definitely their enemy!”
Musk spoke to a number of reporters while on the Met Gala’s red carpet — and during one such interview, his mother Maye jumped in to answer a few of the questions for him.
When an Entertainment Tonight correspondent asked about critics who were concerned that Musk could have done something better with his money than ink a deal to buy Twitter, he responded by explaining that his companies were always looking for ways to better humanity and prepare for the future.
“Really, my companies are intended to do good for the future of humanity, with Tesla trying to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport and energy. And SpaceX is providing internet to the least served people around the world,” he said.
“The best space company in the world,” Maye interrupted, “In the world!”
The correspondent then asked where he had gotten that mentality, opening the question up to Maye as well.
“I told him not to take on the world and the universe, and he didn’t listen,” Maye replied. “Doesn’t listen to his mom.”
The host turned asked Musk one final question — why, with everything else he had going on, he felt that it was important to take time to attend an event like the Met Gala.
Maye interrupted again, answering for him: “I wanted him to come.”
“Yeah,” Musk laughed. “My mom wanted to come, so I brought my mom. That’s the reason.”