#25
Why did you buy Twitter / X?
Interviews
6
Answers
8
X posts
4
Span
2023 to 2025
First asked Oct 31, 2023, most recently Nov 30, 2025. Excerpts below are from machine transcripts with filler words (um, uh, you know) and stutters removed; … marks a cut. They are not checked word for word, so use the link to hear the exact words, or the transcript link for the raw text. Timestamps: 2 cross-checked against YouTube captions, 6 from the archive transcript only. X has no link-to-time option, so X links open at the start.
How the answer evolved · oldest first
Oct 31, 2023 · The Joe Rogan Experience · asked by Joe Rogan
Q: Yeah. So was that shocking?
Yeah, it's weird. No, I mean the degree to which. And by the way, Jack didn't really know this, but the degree to which Twitter was simply an arm of the government was not well understood by the public. And it was, There was no, it was whatever the official government. It was like Pravda, basically. A state publication is the way to think of old Twitter. It was a state publication and was
Oct 31, 2023 · The Joe Rogan Experience · asked by Joe Rogan
Q: It's fascinating that I'm pretty sure you don't. Why would you?
Yeah, but I didn't use Instagram for a while. I mean, there was a time when I was posting on Instagram, but I found myself doing selfies and I'm like, what the hell is wrong with me? Why am I posing for selfies to get likes. This is crazy. And like, so then I was like if you pose for selfies on Twitter, that people would jump all over you know?
Nov 9, 2023 · Lex Fridman Podcast · asked by Lex Fridman
Q: What role do you think X will play in the 2024 U.S. elections?
Well, our goal is to be as even handed and fair as possible. Whether someone is right, left, independent, whatever the case may be, that the platform is as barren and as much of a level playing field as possible. And now in the past, Twitter has not been because Twitter was controlled by far left activists. Objectively, they would describe themselves as that. So sometimes people like, well, has it moved to the …
Apr 8, 2024 · In Good Company · asked by Nicolai Tangen
Q: Now, when you, when you bought Twitter, now renamed X, did you expect that you would end up in these type of situations or is this all unexpected?
Well, I knew it wouldn't be just a total bed of roses and it's okay, I wouldn't. No. I mean, I thought it would be since we're just like rigorously trying to pursue the goal of being the most accurate and truthful place on the Internet and that doesn't mean that what is said is always true or accurate, but it is perhaps another way to frame it is as the least inaccurate place on the Internet.
Nov 4, 2024 · The Joe Rogan Experience · asked by Joe Rogan
Q: Well, what was the pushback like, what happened when you guys released the Twitter files?
Yeah. No, there was massive government interference in Twitter. But like Twitter welcomed it. That's important to old. Twitter welcomed it all. Twitter was controlled by far left activists.
Nov 14, 2025 · Baron Investment Conference · asked by Ron Baron
Q: Did you have all this in your head before you did it?
Not really, no. I just bought Twitter because I thought it was having a negative effect on civilization and just sort of pushing ideas that were anti civilizational. It's sort of captured by the far left that's, it's fair to say the radical left, I mean, they wouldn't regard themselves as such, but it was captured by a group of people whose political beliefs are those of deep blue San Francisco and Berkeley, which …
Nov 30, 2025 · People by WTF · asked by Nikhil Kamath
Q: Is there a number to it on X?
Well, so we have like about 600 million monthly users. Although it can spike up if there's some major event in the world. It can get up to 800 million or a billion if there's some major event in the world. So there's, I don't know, 250, 300 million per week type of thing. It's a pretty decent number. It tends to be readers, people that read words.
Nov 30, 2025 · People by WTF · asked by Nikhil Kamath
Q: If one had to rework social media and build something bottom up, what do you think could work for the world of tomorrow?
Well, I mean, I don't think that much about social media to be frank. I mean it's, I can mostly just want to have something where there's a, in the case of X, kind of a global town square where people can say what they want to say with words, pictures, video, whether it's a secure messaging system, we've recently added the ability to do audio and video calls. So you're really trying to bring the world together into …
In his own posts on X
@elonmusk · Feb 15, 2024
@Austen I bought Twitter to improve probable civilizational lifespan
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Aug 13, 2025
@TheCaptainEli It’s fundamentally important to have a global town square, where everyone can communicate within the bounds of the laws of countries. Done right, this is the collective mind of humanity.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Sep 15, 2025
While at times the discussion on 𝕏 can become negative, it’s still good that there is a discussion happening. 𝕏 is the global town square.
View on X ↗@elonmusk · Oct 15, 2026
𝕏 is the global town square. No place better to reach the world fast! https://t.co/yEKapjhrOm
View on X ↗
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