Twitter doors have finally wide opened for Elon Musk as he acquires the social media giant for a whopping $44 billion. The news took the entire social media by storm as it was one of the most significant acquisitions in recent history.
Musk, who has harnessed over 85.6 million followers on Twitter, is believed to implement specific changes that will improve the platform tenfold.
What changes does Elon intend to bring in?
Now that he holds the power to mend and weave the platform as he wishes, the real question is how and when? Elon seems to have had specific ideas up his sleeves before acquiring Twitter. Let us run through some of the visions that pivoted Elon’s mind.
Standing at the top: Free speech
Elon seems to be a strong supporter of “free speech.” Post the purchase; he released a tweet saying:
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”
Elon holds a title for himself as a free speech absolutist. He has long been against the over-content moderation on social media channels that basically kills the idea of free speech.
Musk has defended the statement that even if specific comments might be offensive, they are still legal and should stay. Currently, the social media giant doesn’t promote harassment and abusive comments or posts. It is up to Elon how he will tackle the situation by not killing the free speech notion.
A much-awaited edit button
Making err is human, and the opportunity to fix the error seems to be unavailable on Twitter. Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms provide an edit button, while Twitter lacks it.
Elon Musk, who has supported the idea of editing tweets, has received backlashes from many. The main reason for this is the opportunity that could be used by actors who commit a mistake, abuse, or harass and later cover up as if such an incident never happened.
A simple way to preserve the original content and keep a history of edits can tackle such an issue.
Complete transparency on Twitter’s algorithm
The algorithm that determines how and what people see on Twitter should be open to the public, as Musk says. While some support this notion and say that this can lead to much greater openness, others believe that the step won’t be that effective.
Some also believe that such transparency will give an opportunity for spammers and attackers to exploit the system.
Shoot down the bots
Bots are literally everywhere. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, you name it, Bots are there. Musk aims to banish bots that are programmed to automatically respond to certain subject-related topics, which kill the organic growth.
He emphasized that he wants to burn down scammy bots that spread fake promotional scams.
Dumping the ads
Twitter’s 90% revenue is from advertisements. Since the platform is going private, it might move to a subscription platform other than ads spamming all over the place.
Twitter Blue, which was deployed last year, was a part of that initiative. Elon Musk believes that Twitter Blue should be cheaper and that users shouldn’t be flocked with annoying ads.
When will Elon takeover?
The approved deal by the Twitter board is most likely to close this year. It will be subject to certain regulatory approvals and shareholder votes.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Taylor said in a meeting about the emotions that the entire team was going through on the day the deal went through.
“It’s important to acknowledge that all of you have many different feelings about what is happening.” It might take three to six months for the deal’s completion, so “in this moment, we operate Twitter as we always have.”
Mr. Agrawal said in the meeting,which The New York Times listened to
As of now, it is unclear as to when Elon will deploy these features one by one. But the entire community seems to be excited. Let us wait and watch in which direction the platform will be heading with Elon’s guidance.