Elon Musk jokes that his dog is now Twitter CEO in rambling two-hour interview

Elon Musk also said Twitter now has about 1,500 employees, a sharp decline from "just under 8,000 staff members" it had before he took it over in October.

With respect to Twitter’s future, Mr Musk said he doesn’t see any social network surviving without paid verification.  Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, file

Elon Musk declared that most of the advertisers who abandoned Twitter after his $44bn (€40.3bn) acquisition have returned, suggesting the struggling platform is regaining its footing during a rambling interview played out before millions of listeners.

Mr Musk, speaking in a Twitter Spaces interview with the BBC, reaffirmed Twitter is operating at about breakeven and could become profitable as soon as this quarter.