Twitter a plane headed towards ground at high speed: Elon Musk

Elon Musk has described Twitter as a “plane that is headed towards the ground at high speed” after revealing that the company is burning through $3 billion a year.

The billionaire issued a warning about the state of the social media company’s finances after pledging to step down as chief executive once he finds someone “foolish enough” to replace him.

Musk made that promise after conducting a Twitter vote on whether he should continue in the role following his $44 billion takeover of the company. Musk’s removal was backed by 57.5 per cent of the 17.5 million votes cast in the online poll.

He has said he plans to stay involved in day-to-day operations by overseeing Twitter’s software and server teams.

Since taking over in late October, Musk’s run as CEO has been marked by quickly issued rules and policy changes, which have often been withdrawn or changed soon after being made public.

Earlier this week, he said he had “spent the last five weeks cutting costs like crazy” and trying to build a better paid subscription service for the site.”

He said without the cuts, Twitter might be operating with $3 billion in negative cash flow next year.

He in part blamed the $US12.5 billion in debt tied to his April agreement to buy the company, as well as the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes.

Some of Musk’s actions have also unnerved Twitter advertisers and turned off users.

Musk also sacked more than half of Twitter’s workforce, released contract content moderators, and disbanded a council of trust and safety advisors that the company had formed in 2016 to address hate speech and other problems on the platform.

It’s worth noting that Musk purchased the company after a complex process which involved Twitter suing him in an attempt to force him to complete the sale.