The big bang on Monday evening: Elon Musk is buying Twitter after all. The richest man in the world puts $44 billion on the table for one of the core pieces of the world’s public communications. But what follows? What is Musk – the Tesla boss hailed by many as a genius – up to?
By Robert Becker
According to their own statements, above all: strengthening freedom of expression. Elon Musk’s definition of freedom of speech is: “When someone you don’t like is allowed to say something you don’t like.”
What exactly the 50-year-old means by that remains open. Ultimately, the discussion will probably boil down to the question of how much Musk will shape Twitter according to his rules in order to create the freedom of expression he propagates.
Does that also mean that the hate speech trolls who were banned from the network for breaking rules are returning? Can Donald Trump tweet again? We will see.
In any case, Musk has said before that he’s opposed to permanently banning users, preferring temporary bans instead.
Other planned changes are:
► Special Awards for Subscribers: Musk appears to be planning blue verification badges for everyone who subscribes to Twitter’s premium Blue service, which costs $2.99 a month.
Twitter Blue, which launched in June 2021, is Twitter’s first subscription service and offers “exclusive access to premium features” on a monthly basis, according to Twitter. The service is currently available in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
► No more advertising: Twitter could also move to a subscription-based model across the board and move away from advertising, which currently accounts for 90 percent of the company’s total revenue.
► Payment by crypto-coal: It is also possible that users could pay with cryptocurrencies, including the joke currency Dogecoin, for which Musk has long had a fondness.
► New features: Musk has indicated that he wants to give users the ability to edit tweets. To date, you can no longer edit an uploaded Twitter message. If you later discover an error, you have to either delete it or leave it as it is.
► Publish algorithm: The algorithms of the platform should be made “open source”. This would allow people to see exactly why Twitter chose to make some tweets more visible to users than others.
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► Headquarters may become a homeless shelter: At the corporate level, Musk has floated the idea of closing the San Francisco headquarters — and turning it into a homeless shelter. The Californian city is currently plagued by one of the worst homeless crises in the United States.
► Cut salaries, lay off employees: Even before the purchase, Paypal founder Musk indicated that the board members would no longer receive salaries, which would save three million dollars in expenses. In addition, he will probably lay off many employees after the deal is completed – also to reduce costs.
At first glance, the Twitter purchase looks like a cliché: a rich man buys one of the largest news portals in the world. The future will show what Musk will really change and whether Twitter will objectively improve or worsen as a result.
