How will Twitter look under Elon Musk?
Fears have increased that the most wealthy person in the world will lift the restrictions on hate speech on the social network, but can he really afford to?
Elon Musk claims he is not purchasing Twitter to increase his wealth; rather, he is doing so to benefit humanity.
Read Also: Elon Musk, bio, family, net worth and assets
In a message to advertisers last week, the world’s richest man said it was important to the future of civilisation to have a “common digital town square”. But bettering the species is going to cost money, given that Musk has paid $44bn for a social media platform to achieve that aim.
[the_ad id=”2914″]
How will Twitter look under Elon Musk?
The new company will be saddled with a $13 billion debt load that was used to finance the transaction, and interest payments must be made on it. Given that Twitter generates more controversy than revenue, this will be a challenging assignment.
Twitter’s most recent financial figures showed a negative free cashflow of more than $120 million, which means the company spends more money operating than it brings in.
Drew Pascarella, a senior lecturer in finance at Cornell University in New York state,“He’ll either need to dramatically reduce expenses, or significantly increase revenue, or both,”
With over 238 million users, can Musk increase revenue and user numbers without alienating advertisers or turning off new sign-ups who will help the platform become a truly representative town square?
[the_ad id=”2914″]
Advertisers
Advertisers will not want to put money behind a fractious, ultra-divisive platform, and would-be Twitter newbies will not want to join it either.
Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022
Since he first invested in the company, Musk has sketched out a loose vision for the future of Twitter: block the spambots, protect free speech and build an “everything app”.
Recommended:
Agriculture Jobs in Canada With Visa Sponsorship 2023
How To Generate Income At Home On Vacation
American Visa Lottery 2024 (DV-2024): How To Apply Online
Stanford University Free Online Courses 2023
[the_ad id=”2914″]
Spambots
The first goal became central to the legal wrangling over the takeover. When the bid was first announced, Musk cited “defeating the spambots” as one of his core aims.
But as Musk stated that he had been misled about their ubiquity, the existence of bogus accounts, mostly supporting various flavours of bitcoin scam, quickly became an argument for quitting the trade completely. However, he was unable to support that claim with any evidence, and as he had previously agreed to give up his right to look into the company’s financial status, the justification was rejected.
Since then, defending free expression has taken precedence. In April, Musk stated that “free expression is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.” He attempted to reassure advertisers on Thursday by walking back some of the effects of that decision.
Content moderation on Twitter
Instead, he advocated for opt-in content moderation on Twitter:“Our platform must be warm and welcoming to all, where you can choose your desired experience according to your preferences, just as you can choose, for example, to see movies or play video games ranging from all ages to mature.”
In such scenario, the prohibition on hate speech would be repealed and users would have the option of hiding reported accounts from their timelines.
[the_ad id=”2914″]
On Friday, Musk provided more clarification, stating that the business would create a “content moderation council” with “widely diverse viewpoints”. There won’t be any account reinstatements for contentious banned individuals like Donald Trump or Katie Hopkins until that council is formed.
Twitter jail
Then, he complicated matters by claiming in the future that “Anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons will be freed from Twitter jail.” Additionally, he proposed that Twitter be divided into sections where users may rate the quality of their tweets and hold online debates in a designated area of the website.
Twitter’s central role in the media landscape could also be at risk, but only if Musk’s changes made it so toxic as to be unusable, according to one media expert.
According to Nic Newman, a senior research associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, “journalists have also invested a lot of time in curating their feeds to bring them a range of high-quality information about politics, but also about any niche, passion, or journalistic beat you can think of.” “It is hard to see another network that does that as effectively or as efficiently right now.”
Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.
No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
But, he continued, if the platform lost those qualities or became overly controversial, it would lose its appeal to the media, which gave it considerable power while being a relatively tiny platform. Naturally, Newman added, “that’s unlikely to be good business for Twitter either.”
[the_ad id=”2914″]
Making Twitter into a “everything app,”
The aspect of Musk’s vision that is least developed is making Twitter into a “everything app,” but it is also one of his most persistent goals. An “everything app” is exactly what it sounds like when referring to Chinese services like WeChat: a single programme that handles social media, private messaging, commerce, business messaging, in-person payments, and more. The concept served as the foundation for much of Facebook’s growth before it switched its attention to the metaverse.
Musk frequently brings up his first business, the online bank X.com, and has said he wants to resurrect that name to create his own take on the ubiquitous western everything app.
Early in October, he declared, “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app.” Twitter probably accelerates X by three to five years, but I could be wrong.
See Also:Facebook Plans to Alter Its Feeds to Compete with TikTok
How will Twitter look under Elon Musk?
[the_ad id=”2914″]
