Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur, has revealed the true motivation behind his high-profile acquisition of Twitter (now known as X).
In a recent interview with Joe Rogan, Musk claimed that his decision to buy the social media platform was driven by a desire to prevent 'human extinction.'
According to Musk, he was deeply concerned that Twitter was having a "corrosive effect on civilization" and was contributing to a "mind virus" that he believes poses a threat to the very existence of humanity.
Musk argued that the platform had become a vehicle for the propagation of a particular worldview that he sees as damaging to society.
The tech billionaire pointed to the deteriorating conditions in downtown San Francisco, which he described as a 'zombie apocalypse' due to the city's ongoing drug use and homelessness crisis, as evidence of the negative impact of this 'mind virus.'
Musk believes that the ideas being "piped to Earth" through Twitter were originally quite niche, but the platform's technology has allowed them to spread globally, with disastrous consequences.
He described the situation as a "death cult," where opposing views are not tolerated, and the ultimate outcome is the demise of human civilization.
While Musk acknowledged that most people with this "mind virus" are not intentionally seeking to bring about the end of the world, he felt compelled to purchase Twitter to address the problem.
The billionaire made it clear that he is "not in favor of human extinction" and sees his ownership of the platform as a way to combat the forces he believes are threatening our very existence.
Musk has removed Twitter's iconic bird symbol and replaced it with the letter "X", drawing inspiration from other products like the Tesla Model X, Space X, and the name of his son.
The company has also changed the Twitter.com domain to X.com.
This rebranding is happening amidst users leaving Twitter, with estimates of up to 32 million people potentially departing, and Musk has faced criticism for changes to the verification system and tweet viewing limits on the platform.
However, he has declared that he loves the negative feedback and stated that X will go further and transform Twitter into a 'global town square.'
At the time, Musk posted a short 3-second video on his account to give a preview of the new logo. The video showed a big white "X" with some glitchy effects on top of the old blue Twitter bird logo.
A user named @ajtourville designed the new logo. They took inspiration from the Art Deco style after Musk asked his followers for logo design ideas.
In a live stream, Musk said he was sorry it took so long to do the Twitter to X rebrand. He said it should have been done earlier.
