Elon Musk told the BBC that "if the media's firing non-stop stories about why you're a horrible person, it's hurtful" but free speech is important.
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Elon Musk spoke about how media coverage of him had been "rough" and "hurtful" during a 90-minute interview with the BBC that was live-streamed on Tuesday night from Twitter's San Francisco office.
"I've been under constant attack," the billionaire said. "It's not like I have a stone-cold heart or something. It's rough."
"If the media's firing non-stop stories about why you're a horrible person, it's hurtful," he added.
Musk didn't refer to any specific reports, but his management style has come under scrutiny several times.
He has reportedly fired several Twitter employees who criticized him, including one who told Musk his popularity was sinking on the platform, and another who opposed his joke tweet about Donald Trump.
His cost-cutting measures that have seen over 6,000 Twitter staff lose their jobs in the last six months have also come under scrutiny.
Employees criticized the lack of communication involved, with one describing Musk as a "brutalist decision-maker" and another calling the company "a bunch of cowards" after he was fired via a now-deleted tweet.
A top UN official also wrote to Musk urging him to "ensure human rights are central to the management of Twitter" after its human rights and ethical AI teams were laid off.
And the reduced workforce has made the platform harder to keep online, with one "massive" outage happening because an employee accidentally deleted data and there was nobody left on the team responsible.
Musk insisted that layoffs were necessary because Twitter was on track for an estimated negative cash flow of $3 billion this year – partly due to the loan he took out to purchase it – and he had to "save Twitter from bankruptcy."
For the workers who have kept their jobs at Twitter, other cost-cutting measures have had unexpected consequences on their working life. Insider's Kali Hays reported in January that some New York employees had complained of bad-smelling bathrooms with no toilet paper after Musk decided not to renegotiate the contracts of facilities maintenance workers who handle in-office supplies and cleaning.
Tuesday's interview also saw Musk clash with the BBC's technology correspondent, James Clayton, in a discussion about free speech and misinformation.
Clayton said he had seen more sexist and racist posts on his Twitter "For You" page since Musk's takeover. "So you think if something is slightly sexist it should be banned?" the CEO replied.
And when Clayton didn't give a specific example of one such tweet, the billionaire became heated and said: "You don't know what you're talking about."
But Musk also spoke about having a "love/hate relationship" with the press, speaking to the importance of free speech and holding power to account.
"The media is actually able to trash me on a regular basis, in the US and UK," he said. "In a lot of other places, the media cannot say mean things to powerful people."
Insider contacted Twitter for comment. The company responded with an automated message that didn't address the inquiry.
