Elon Musk now looks set to become the sole proprietor of Twitter, after Twitter’s board met on the weekend to vote on accepting his $44b takeover offer.
Elon Musk Buys Twitter – Plans and Future
According to reports, Twitter’s board ultimately felt that they had little choice but to accept the billionaire’s offer – which means that Elon himself will now be the one setting the rules, and giving the green light on the way forward for the platform.
So what does that mean?
Well, no one knows for sure, likely not even Musk himself, who recently admitted that he’s still working through his plans.
But we do have some pretty clear indicators about Musk’s intentions, ranging from restoring ‘free speech’ to combating bots.
Here’s a look at Musk’s key areas of focus, based on his public statements thus far, and how he might go about tackling each.
1. Restoring Free Speech
Free speech has become the main focus of the Musk-Twitter push, with the Tesla owner publicly decrying Twitter’s past actions in silencing certain users.
Musk has also criticized Twitter’s decision to ban former US President Donald Trump, while he’s also had his share of issues related to his tweeted remarks and statements.
Will Twitter take a different approach to such under Musk’s leadership?
Musk’s main contention here is that taking Twitter into private ownership will enable it to be free in what it allows, as it won’t be beholden to shareholders or advertisers in this respect.
But ads, of course, are Twitter’s key moneymaker – in looking at Twitter’s Q4 21 results, ad sales made up the vast majority of Twitter’s revenue intake.
Musk’s view is that authenticating real people, and giving them a checkmark, will lessen the impact of bots (another of his key focus points), and forcing people to pay for Twitter Blue, at $3 per month, could be the way that he does it.
But would people pay for Twitter? Does anyone need the app that much that it would justify a $3 per month charge?
Right now, very few people are signing up for Twitter Blue, with the lure of a few custom color options and ‘undo tweets’ really not moving the needle for regular users.
But if Musk cut everyone off unless they paid the fee, maybe that would get more people to pay up – and if a lot of prominent users did end up paying, that would then entice others to sign on, so they don’t miss anything.
At present, Twitter has 217 million daily active users, which, if they each paid $3 per month, would bring in $7.8b in annual revenue for the app. Of course, not all of these users are going to pay, but I suspect also that Twitter is a very important tool for those that do use it, even if its user numbers pale in comparison to Facebook or Instagram.
If Musk can also add new features, as he says, to make that $3 monthly investment even better, Twitter could become a hub for more engaged, active, and accountable conversation very fast. And a lot of media folk, at the least, would be willing to pay to engage in that group chat.
This is the kind of bet that I think Musk will take, and while it could reduce Twitter’s presence in the social media sphere, by lessening its user base, it could still ensure that it remains a relevant, valuable entity, and potentially a profitable one for the Musk longer term.
And ultimately, that could also be Musk’s pathway to free speech. With every user registered and accountable, and only paying users able to get into the app, that puts more onus of responsibility onto each contributor, while trolls wouldn’t so easily be able to make new accounts just to attack and harass others.
2. Open Sourcing the Algorithm
Another element of Musk’s Twitter takeover push has been algorithmic transparency and allowing users to understand, and even control, how the system decides what’s most relevant to them.
Twitter’s already exploring through its ‘BlueSky’ initiative, and the concept that regular users could have a better understanding of such systems does make sense – though the complexities may well be lost on us non-coders and regular folk (i.e. the vast majority of Twitter users) who just want to check out the latest tweets.
A key risk on this front is that by opening up its algorithmic parameters, Twitter would enable users to identify key aspects that they may want to emphasize or not within their experience.
It’s not an easy road, and Musk will have his work cut out on this front, but again, Twitter is already moving on this path, and Musk’s impetus will likely see the Bluesky project develop a lot faster.
3. Eliminating Bots
Musk is also keen to eliminate bots, which, as noted above, a new checkmark system for all users could assist with in many ways.
Twitter’s been working to address its bot problems for years, though the view is that it could do more, with bot accounts seemingly easy to identify for most users.
The question in the past has been whether Twitter wants to tackle bots, or whether it’s more beneficial for the platform to continue counting them as ‘active users’. With market pressure on Twitter to boost usage numbers, maybe, by turning a blind eye to some of these bot profiles, that help to prop up those figures.
Going private eliminates that emphasis, and Twitter could, at least theoretically, now take stronger action on bot accounts.
It seems like Musk will be pushing for that, and it’s another area that Twitter has been developing, while a shift to increased accountability for all human users will, again, be of benefit here.
These are the three key pillars of Musk’s Twitter push – or at least, the ones that we know of thus far, and it does seem like these will be the focal points of his platform leadership when he takes over at the helm of the app.
It does seem that we’ll find out very quickly what Musk’s plans are for the app.
More Details – https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/elon-musk-buys-twitter-so-what-now/
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