Elon Musk has claimed that he bought Twitter in a quest to save civilisation from a “zombie apocalypse” in a bizarre almost three-hour interview with Joe Rogan.
Mr Musk appeared on the latest episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast on Tuesday, where the pair both dressed up in Halloween costumes.
During the podcast, the duo brought up the subject of cancel culture while Mr Musk claimed that X helps “freedom of speech”.
When Mr Rogan asked Mr Musk why he had decided to buy Twitter, the controversial tech billionaire responded with a lofty reason: to ultimately save the world.
"This is going to sound somewhat melodramatic, but I was worried that it was having a corrosive effect on civilisation... that it was having a bad impact," he said.
Mr Musk said he believes that there is a “mind virus” spreading through an “information technology weapon” that is leading to the “end of civilisation”.
Social media has spread this “virus”, he claimed, causing people to act like zombies.
“If you walk around downtown San Francisco, right near the X/Twitter headquarters, it’s a zombie apocalypse. I mean, it’s rough,” he added.
The two lamented that they have both been subjected to “cancel culture”, with Mr Rogan explaining that the “mind virus” does not allow for any opposing views because it “doesn’t stand up to scrutiny”.
Joe Rogan dressed for Halloween on the show— (Joe Rogan/X)
Mr Rogan then fawned over his podcast guest, praising Mr Musk for taking over the company.
“You did humanity an immense service, and if that didn’t happen, the narrative of this country would have gone further and further down to the point that people would have been scared to speak their mind,” he said.
“It was important to have at least one social media outlet that wasn’t cancelling people,” Mr Musk replied.
Mr Musk is a self-described “free speech absolutist” and has previously said this is why he wanted to take over the company.
However, this freedom may have also encouraged the recent spread of misinformation on the platform.
After reinstating a number of banned accounts and changing the way the verification of profiles works, there has been increased concern around how the company moderates – or doesn’t moderate – content.
Elon Musk on the podcast on Tuesday— (Joe Rogan/X)
The EU recently opened an investigation into X due to misinformation linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict that started to spread on the platform.
In Tuesday’s podcast show, Mr Rogan continued by asking how one person could manage so many high-stakes business endeavours, to which Mr Musk admitted it is “a lot for a human brain to handle”.
The podcast host then bought up his $44bn purchase of Twitter last year after a months-long legal battle with the social media company.
“Ugh, man, that was expensive,” Mr Musk tutted in response.
Among his claims of saving humanity and free speech with X, Mr Musk refused to reveal how much X is now worth.
“Everything,” he replied when asked for a value, seemingly confident that he cleverly dodged the monetary value that Mr Rogan was after.
“Yeah.. not for the market, right?” Mr Rogan replied.
After the podcast aired, Mr Musk took to his social media platform to reiterate what he said about the value of the company, announcing that “Freedom of speech is priceless.”
It turns out, however, that X’s freedom of speech and quest to destroy the “mind virus” does have a price tag that comes in at a value which has plummeted since Mr Musk took over the company in Octover 2022.
Fortune reported that the company is worth $19bn, dropping by 56 per cent in the last 12 months.
In the past, Mr Musk has admitted that he overpaid for Twitter and shared in July that X was “still negative cash flow with a 50 per cent drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load”.
Mr Musk’s takeover prompted some high-profile advertisers to withdraw from the site, leaving the platform to drop in value.
