Twitter: Elon Musk suspends Kanye West, contends moderation policies with Apple

Yahoo Finance Live anchor Dave Briggs details Elon Musk's big week as Twitter CEO, which featured an online spat with Apple and suspending Ye's Twitter account after a series of antisemitic tweets.

Video transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: A picture is worth a words. And in the case of the world's richest man, $100 billion in net worth. This picture here, that is the bedside table of Elon Musk and how much he's lost this year on paper.

On that table, two guns, four caffeine free Diet Cokes, a painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware, a Buddhist ritual object, and a book which I'll address later.

It's, frankly, a mess, but a perfect illustration of Elon's business priorities. They are scattered, to say the least. He started the week by taking on the biggest company in the world, asking his 119 million followers if Apple, quote, "hates free speech in America." A midweek trip to Cupertino and the combination of Apple's peaceful pond and Tim Cook's calming demeanor seemed to smooth things over-- for now.

Elon then sprinkled in an update on SpaceX and, quote, "more progress to Mars." And at the complete opposite end of the Earth, or actually down in it, he was criticized by the "Wall Street Journal" for ghosting cities across the country with ambitious, unfulfilled promises of traffic-altering tunnels from his Boring Company. And Thursday, folks, was truly bananas.

ELON MUSK: He's not actually using a keyboard. He's moving the cursor with his mind to the highlighted key. It's also important to show that-- it's like he actually likes doing the demo and is not like strapped to the chair or anything.

DAVE BRIGGS: He being the monkey. His Neuralink demo showed a monkey control a cursor and type on a computer using a brain implant. Elon adding, human trials are six months away. No word from the FDA, but, remember, the Cybertruck has been pushed back three times and still no indication when we're going to see it. He did, however, deliver an even bigger truck last night.

ELON MUSK: If you're a truck driver and you want the most badass rig on the road, this is it.

[CHEERING]

DAVE BRIGGS: That was very low key Elon-- must have been thrilled at those Diet Cokes and the nightstand, Pepsi, I'm talking about, because they received the first EV semi, which Tesla says has completed a 500-mile drive on a single charge with 80,000 pounds of cargo.

The end of the week brings us back to that book on the nightstand, as, actually, it's up there in the corner behind the water bottle. The sleuths on the internet determined that was Washington's "Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation."

Kanye West apparently did not read that book. He has been banned from Twitter for more anti-Semitic material. And according to the internet sleuths, neither gun is real. One is used in video games, which begs the question, how much of this act is real? How much is for show?

I'm not going to give the richest man in the world advice. I'll read a quote often attributed to the most influential businessman of our time, Steve Jobs, to give Elon some advice. Do not try to do everything, do one thing well. Seana, that is terrific advice from Mr. Jobs, who, of course, founded Apple, and one piece of advice that Elon could probably follow in focusing on Tesla.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, certainly is a piece of advice that he could follow that I think many would argue he should follow. I don't think many people are confident that he is going to follow that advice. I don't think he has an ability to focus on one company.

I mean, listen, Elon Musk is a brilliant man. I don't think many people would dispute that. But I think he has his hands in so many things.

When does he sleep? How does he have time for all of this? And I think Tesla's stock performance has reflected some of those concerns recently. When you take a look at the losses, more and more analysts coming out on the Street saying that Twitter is a huge distraction. It's now a risk here for Tesla investors, something that doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.

So you're looking at a company, two companies-- just two of them, Twitter and Tesla-- that are facing major changes or growth opportunities, at least, when it comes to Tesla. It's hard to imagine how he is going to be able to balance all of this going forward. We know he loves to be in the spotlight. I don't think anyone would dispute that. But, clearly, it's a little hard to see the direction of all of his endeavors at this point.

DAVE BRIGGS: Well, what is clear is this Twitter endeavor truly excites him, because he engages in it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It's clearly his passion. And that's what really gets him up in the morning.

And he's often tweeting at 4:00 in the morning, which tells you what he's passionate about, and to your point about Tesla having lost more than half its net worth over the last year. But I did agree with one thing he said on Twitter today, and he said that Twitter is being fair when extremists on the far right and the far left are simultaneously upset.

Twitter aims to serve the center 80% of people. I hope he's right. If, in fact, he's right and he gets this right, then he brings it all back and he can focus on making society a better place. We shall see.