Elon Musk, the new ‘Chief Twit’ of the largest microblogging site, is all set to make a mark in Twitter Inc since he became the sole director after firing several directors.
Elon Musk on Wednesday announced that it would be ‘at least a few more weeks’ until banned accounts would be allowed back on Twitter.
Previously, in another tweet, he expressed his wish to make verification a paid thing. Days after acquiring the social media platform, the tech billionaire has been reviewing the company’s code with help from Tesla Inc. engineers while consulting with powerful friends, he trusts, to help him make important decisions about where to take the product.
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Here’s a look at the several proposed suggestions Musk wishes to bring about in the Twitter space:
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Paying for the blue tick
Elon Musk on Tuesday said the site will charge $8 per month to verify users’ accounts.
In a tweet, he said that this policy will upend the platform’s “current lords & peasants system” and help in rebuilding their revenue model and “reward content creators”.
The pricing will be “adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity” and a user will be prioritised in “replies, mentions and search, which is essential to defeating spam and scam.”
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With this, a paid, verified user will also have the ability to post long videos and audio, receiving “half” the number of advertisements they see now.
“There will be a secondary tag below the name for someone who is a public figure, which is already the case for politicians,” Musk further said.
Many of Twitter’s most prominent verified users said they would leave if it tried to implement the plan.
Stephen King, an American author, tweeted: “USD 20 a month to keep my blue check? F– that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.” Hours later, Musk replied to King: “We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about USD 8?”
Restoring banned accounts
Musk tweeted, “Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks”
However, former President Donald Trump, an avid tweeter before he was banned, said Friday he was “very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands” but promoted his own social media site, Truth Social, that he launched after being blocked from the more widely used platform.
Trump was banned two days after the Jan. 6 attacks for a pair of tweets that the company said continued to cast doubts on the legitimacy of the presidential election and raised risks for the presidential inauguration that Trump said he would not be attending.
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Trump has repeatedly said that he will not return to Twitter even if his account is reinstated, though some allies wonder if he’ll be able to resist as he moves closer to announcing another expected presidential campaign. His Twitter account remained suspended Friday.
Musk said the delay will give Twitter time to set up a process around determining when and how banned users can return. Musk has said he doesn’t believe in permanent bans and called it a “mistake” to permanently suspend Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Twitter had said at the time it made the decision “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
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Musk also said he had talked to civil society leaders “about how Twitter will continue to combat hate & harassment & enforce its election integrity policies.”
Free edit button
Earlier, when Musk had picked up a stake in Twitter, he had expressed his thoughts on introducing an edit button on Twitter.
However, the feature, which allows users to edit a tweet in a 30-minute window after publishing the post, was recently rolled out simultaneously in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, for $5 per month.
“the Edit tweet test is expanding and now rolling out to Twitter Blue members in the US,” Twitter Blue said in a post on Thursday.
“go ahead, try it out!” it further stated.
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The feature was announced on September 1.
Bringing back Vine
Vine, the short-lived video-sharing platform, was introduced by Twitter in 2012, just five months after the platform launched and became an overnight sensation. However, in 2016, Twitter shut the platform down due to growing competition from competitive platforms including Tik-Tok.
Recently, Musk tweeted a poll to asses whether Vine should be brought back, where 70 per cent of users voted for a Yes.
Last week, Musk completed the USD 44 billion acquisition of Twitter and ousted chief executive Parag Agrawal, legal executive Vijaya Gadde, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and General Counsel Sean Edgett.
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In a separate development, Musk has denied a New York Times report that he plans to lay off Twitter workers before the start of next month to avoid having to make payouts.
The New York Times reported that Musk had ordered major job cuts across Twitter’s workforce.
Citing people with knowledge of the situation, the report said that some managers were being asked to “draw up lists of employees to cut.” The newspaper said the layoffs would take place before November 1, when workers were due to receive grants of shares in the company as a major part of their pay deals.
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But replying to a Twitter user asking about the report, he said: “This is false.” The takeover has prompted discussion among Twitter users over what the platform will look like under Musk’s ownership, the BBC said.
Some have voiced concerns that more lenient free speech policies would mean people banned for hate speech or disinformation may be allowed back to the platform.
(with agency inputs)
