Peak social media: Trouble at Twitter
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2023
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Elon Musk took over Twitter with the promise of promoting free speech and making the loss-making platform profitable again. But his critics say he’s destroying Twitter’s culture and driving it to bankruptcy. How much danger is the company really in? In the first episode in a new series of Tech Tonic, Elaine Moore, deputy editor of the FT’s Lex column, asks whether Musk will save Twitter or destroy it.
In this episode we hear from Evan Henshaw-Plath, one of the original creators of Twitter; Rumman Chowdhury, Twitter’s former head of machine learning, ethics, transparency, and accountability who was laid off by Elon Musk; and FT tech reporter Hannah Murphy.
Presented by Elaine Moore. Produced by Edwin Lane and Josh Gabert-Doyon, Executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Original music by Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Special thanks to Hannah Murphy
Clips: TED Conferences, CBS, Joe Rogan Experience Podcast, MSNBC, CNN
We're keen to hear more from our listeners about this show and want to know what you'd like to hear more of, so we're running a survey which you can find at ft.com/techtonicsurvey. It takes about 10 minutes to complete and you will be in with a chance to win a pair of Bose QuietComfort earbuds.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The FT News Briefing is supported by Equinole, the UK's energy partner. |
| 0:06.2 | Learn more at equinole.co.uk |
| 0:10.0 | Hello, I'm Elaine Moore. |
| 0:12.1 | This is Tectonic and this season is about social media. |
| 0:17.0 | So I'm starting it here in San Francisco |
| 0:20.4 | with the story of the world's richest man |
| 0:23.0 | and one of the best-known social media platforms in the world. |
| 0:27.6 | I'm standing on the corner of Market and Tent Street in San Francisco. |
| 0:33.7 | Headquarters to Twitter, one of the city's most famous companies. |
| 0:37.6 | Above me is a huge sign with Twitter's name and it's Bluebird logo. |
| 0:43.1 | San Francisco is a beautiful city and it's a lovely morning |
| 0:46.4 | but this is not the best part of town. |
| 0:48.7 | Twitter's move was supposed to kickstart a regeneration of this area |
| 0:51.7 | and I would say that that has had mixed success. |
| 0:54.6 | You can buy some very expensive lunches around here |
| 0:57.3 | but a lot of the shops have been barged shut. |
| 0:59.6 | There are strange stains all over the road |
| 1:01.8 | and like a lot of San Francisco, it smells very strongly of weed. |
| 1:06.3 | The road is busy but the street is fairly quiet. |
| 1:08.9 | I've seen more people going into the gym behind Twitter's headquarters |
| 1:12.4 | than I have seen people walking into the offices |
| 1:15.0 | and that's probably because over the last few months |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Forhecz Topher, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Forhecz Topher and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.