Since announcing his intention to take over Twitter in a $44 billion deal, Elon Musk has had plenty of time to elaborate on his ideas for transforming the platform.
Cracking Spam, Increasing Premium Users, and Adding a Payment Function (Maybe Even) dogecoin) are all ideas issued by the billionaire Tesla CEO.
The deal itself remains up in the air, with Musk saying the deal ‘cannot proceed’ pending further details from spambots on the platform, despite the $33.5 billion he promised for his takeover bid.
Telling fellow tech big-wigs on the All-In podcast, he continued to discuss his intentions for Twitter, the potential for the platform to become a WeChat-style ‘super app’ with multiple functions in one place.
If all these grand ideas come to fruition – and the deal itself is done – what might Elon Musk’s Twitter look like?
freedom of speech
Perhaps the most (appropriately) discussed aspect of Musk’s takeover bid has been free speech. Twitter’s potential new owner has repeatedly underscored the need for a “digital town square”.
musk have clarified That their pursuit of freedom of expression means being “against censorship beyond the law”. So that could mean the new Twitter will see a refresh of moderation rules and the return of familiar faces—Musk has already said he will reinstate Donald Trump’s account.
By “free speech” I simply mean that which conforms to the law.
I am against censorship which goes far beyond the law.
If people want less freedom of expression, they will ask the government to pass laws to that effect.
So going beyond the law is against the will of the people.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2022
He too Claimed If it were to take ownership of Twitter, it would be “devised toward the middle 80% of the population”, leaving both the far right and the far left “dissatisfied”.
bot-busting
While free speech has been in the headlines for most of Musk’s ideas, it is the eradication of spam bots that he has touted as his top priority. The issue is the current moratorium on the deal, with Musk suggesting that the company estimates that only 5% of its daily active users are bots.
Twitter’s machine-learning methods already detect and challenge 5 to 10 million accounts every week, a . According to last year’s blog post, But Musk thinks he can do better.
Without bots, what would the platform be like? Judging by the recent Twitter purge of automated accounts, most people will have a hit with the number of followers. By one estimate, Musk himself could lose half of his followers.
One target for Musk appears to be fewer scams, including crypto scams. At TED 2022, in Vancouver, he said bots and “scam armies” make Twitter “very bad.”
“If I had Dogecoin for every crypto scam I saw, I would have 100 billion Dogecoin.”
premium Membership
Twitter Blue, which costs $3 a month, was introduced last year as the platform’s first subscription offering. It provides various additional features for paying users like bookmark folder and 30 second ‘undo tweet’ button.
Kasturi said, Tweets deleted since, that anyone who pays for the service should also receive a blue “Verified” check mark, though he clarified that this should stand out from the badges that Twitter already gives to users who consider it active and noteworthy. Huh. They have also said that the site should be ad-free for the customers.
With a goal of 69 million Twitter Blue users by 2025, Musk is certainly confident that any changes he makes to the premium option — and to the platform at large — will make it worth paying for.
Dogecoin and NFT
And how will you be charged for that Twitter Blue subscription? musk suggested on twitter that there may be an option to pay dogecoinThe meme coin he’s championed on the stage.
However, it is anyone’s guess whether he is serious about it.
One thing he’s not impressed with is Twitter’s recent adoption of NFT profile pictures, calling it “annoying” in a tweet argument That it was a waste of engineering resources that could have been better spent targeting crypto scammers.
Twitter is spending engineering resources on this BS while crypto scammers are throwing a spambot block party in every thread!?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 21 January 2022
payment
Users can expect to see some sort of payment feature on Twitter if Musk takes over. The former PayPal CEO has said that combining multiple functions into one app would be “really useful” compared to China’s WeChat.
Talking about the possibility on the All-In podcast, Musk said that payments could be a part of the offering for such platforms, “be it crypto or fiat.”
However, he also said that converting Twitter into this “super app” was just an option, with the option being to build a new app from scratch.
Project Bluesky
As for the fate of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s efforts to “develop an open and decentralized standard for social media,” the project is not set to be affected by Musk’s Twitter acquisition.
Project Bluesky, which is exploring elements of crypto and Web3, says it is owned by employees and therefore not under the whims of—or ownership—of Twitter.
Taking to Twitter, the people behind the venture said: “Both Twitter and Bluesky felt that our independence was critical to the success of the project, which is why we established an independent company to ensure that we serve the widest possible interests.”
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