X owner Elon Musk admitted his posts on the platform have done more to financially hurt the company than help.
In a March 27 deposition made public Monday, Mr. Musk said his posting habits have not changed since he took the reins at X in 2022 and that they have likely hurt the company financially. The Huffington Post first published the transcript of the deposition.
“I’ve probably done — I may have done more to financially impair the company than to help it, but certainly I — I do not guide my posts by what is financially beneficial but by what I believe is interesting or important or entertaining to the public,” he said in the deposition.
Mr. Musk’s comments are often cited as a major reason for X’s financial decline, especially after he told apprehensive advertisers to go “f—-” themselves at a conference in November.
The deposition is part of a defamation lawsuit brought by X user Ben Brody last fall. The suit accuses the billionaire of pushing a conspiracy theory that asserted Mr. Brody was at the center of a “false flag” attack aimed at conservatives.
In June 2023, responding to a video of a brawl between two extremist protest groups, Mr. Musk said the incident was staged and that Mr. Brody was a government agent. The video, and Mr. Musk’s post, made the rounds in conservative circles on X. Mr. Brody was not at the event in question and was falsely identified.
In the deposition, Mr. Musk claimed to be unaware of who Mr. Brody was or the finer details of the lawsuit. The X owner claimed that Mr. Brody’s lawyer, Mark Bankston, was the one who sued him and that the suit was frivolous.
Mr. Musk also tried to brush off the accusation that his promotion of the conspiracy theory did any harm to Mr. Brody, saying it was a reply and not a post.