In a free interview with New York Times Columnist Maureen Dowd, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said his direct Twitter messages are primarily made up of memes, and that he is not overly concerned about being hacked.
Musk was one of over 100 high-profile Twitter accounts compromised as part of a July 15 Bitcoin scam. The company has said that the attackers may We have downloaded the private direct messages and personal information of some people in the process, although Twitter said that none of them were “verified” accounts, such as Musk’s.
“I am not concerned that my DMs will be made public,” Musk told Dowd. “I mean, we can probably pick a section of my DM that sounds bad out of context, but overall my DM is mostly about swapping memes.”
During the conversation with Dowd, Musk said he has a “secret” Instagram account “to see links to things people send me” (pagination Ashley Feinberg…) and that he believes he may have had COVID-19 in January.
“I think the reality of Covid is that it is dangerous if you are elderly and have pre-existing conditions,” he said in the interview. “It makes a lot of sense to have a block if you’re vulnerable, but I don’t think it makes sense to have a block if you’re not vulnerable.” Musk came face-to-face with officials in Fremont, California, reopening his company’s auto factory there in May, in violation of a local shelter-in-place order. He told Dowd that he wears a mask on the factory floor.
One of the most puzzling aspects of the interview is how Dowd paints Musk’s personal relationships: “Certainly, the Titan can be a romantic.” She lists several of his most high-profile relationships, including his current girlfriend Grimes, and actresses Talulah Riley and Amber Heard, but does not mention Musk’s first wife, Justine, the mother of five of his children, whom he divorced in 2008.
Musk doesn’t do a lot of interviews, so it’s interesting to see him answer questions about SpaceX, Tesla, Facebook, AI, Twitter, and that cat tweet he sent to Amazon and Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos. And in case you’re wondering: He agrees that President Trump calls him “one of our great geniuses” after the launch in May of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
“I will take the compliment,” said Musk.
We are as surprised as you are.
