Elon Musk news latest: Twitter CEO says suspending accounts for Mastodon links was ‘a mistake’

Elon Musk has admitted taking down accounts for posting links to rival Mastodon was “a mistake” as he looks for a replacement after announcing he is stepping down.

While speaking in a Twitter space on Wednesday, Mr Musk was questioned about the suspension of accounts, like that of venture capitalist Paul Graham, for posting links to Mastodon.

“Yeah, that one was a mistake,” Mr Musk said when asked about users getting banned for mentioning Mastodon.

“‘I agree, it was a mistake,” the Tesla billionaire again said after being told that arguments can be made for suspending Kanye West and ElonJet.

He was then asked to clarify whether people can post the link to Mastodon now.

“Yeah f***ing post Mastodon all goddamn day long, I don’t care,” he added.

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ICYMI: Even if Elon Musk steps down as the head of Twitter, picking out a successor may not be so simple.

“No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive,” he tweeted overnight. “There is no successor.”

One of those stepping forward to offer their services is Lex Fridman, an AI researcher, computer scientist and popular podcast host.

“Let me run Twitter for a bit,” he tweeted to Musk. “No salary. All in. Focus on great engineering and increasing the amount of love in the world. Just offering my help in the unlikely case it’s useful.”

Musk replied: “You must like pain a lot. One catch: you have to invest your life savings in Twitter and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. Still want the job?”

ICYMI: Officials in Brussels have warned Elon Musk that Twitter could face “sanctions, soon” after booting a series of journalists from its platform.

European commissioner Vera Jourova said that the suspensions were “worrying” and that EU law protects media freedom.“News about arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying,” Ms Jourova said.

The commissioner, who is the European Commission’s vice president for values and transparency, said: “EU’s Digital Services Act requires respect of media freedom and fundamental rights. This is reinforced under our #MediaFreedomAct.

“Elon Musk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon.”

ICYMI: John Besey has a rundown of Mr Musk’s Monday night announcement that only paying Twitter subscribers will be able to vote on future policy-related issues.

The announcement came shortly after a majority of Twitter users voted for Mr Musk to step back from his role at the company in an open poll on Sunday.

ICYMI: Will Elon Musk step down as chief executive of Twitter? I have no idea. He might have done it by the time this is published, or he might not. Maybe he’ll have made it illegal to use the letter “a” by then, or banned non-binary people from the app altogether. Who knows.

Musk tweeted a poll asking users if they thought he should step down and those users – your columnist very much included – did, at the time of writing, just tell him precisely where to stick it. It is unclear whether anything will change.

What is certain, on the other hand, is that the chaos will continue in one form or another for the foreseeable future.

In the Elon Musk era, there isn’t such a thing as a quiet Twitter news week, writes Marie Le Conte.

Former president Donald Trump claimed billionaire deliberately lost new Twitter poll on his future.

American rapper Snoop Dogg has put himself forward to run Twitter, gathering more than one million votes in an online poll to take over from Elon Musk.

The 51-year-old poked fun at Mr Musk after the SpaceX and Tesla boss tweeted a poll asking if he should step down as Twitter CEO, amid a tumultuous takeover of the social media platform. The results showed 57.5 per cent voting in favour of the billionaire resigning.

“Should I run Twitter ?” Snoop Dogg asked his followers yesterday morning.

Within 10 hours of writing the tweet, he had already accumulated more than one million votes and an overwhelming “Yes” result of 81.8 per cent.

The billionaire, who lost a Twitter poll on Sunday in which he asked his followers if he should step down, made the announcement in a tweet on Tuesday evening.

“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams,” he tweeted.

South Pasadena police department has confirmed it is investigating 13 December incident that Tesla billionaire tweeted about.

One of the biggest investors to join Elon Musk’s $44bn purchase of Twitter says it expects to make up to five times its money back.

Aliya Capital Partners LLC, which invested $360m alongside the Tesla billionaire says it is confident he will be able to monetise the platform’s 229 million daily users that have “historically been under-monetized.”

“We believe Twitter will produce a return of 4-5x in just a few years, with comparably limited downside risk,” Aliya Chief Executive Ross Kestin said in a statement.