Twitter officially announced on Monday that it has accepted a 44 billion dollar offer made by Elon Musk to take the company private.
This deal means that the world’s richest person will own the world’s most influential social media platform. So what changes can we expect to see on Twitter?
Relaxing the rules to promote free speech
Musk, a free-speech “absolutist”, has criticized Twitter’s moderation and that is what first led him to buy a substantial chunk of the company in the first place. He wants Twitter’s algorithm for prioritizing tweets to be public and objects to giving too much power on the service to corporations that advertise.
Upon announcing the purchase Musk said, “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.” He also argued in a Ted talk that comments that are offensive but legal should not be removed on the social media platform.
A huge fear with Musk’s approach is that it will give license to harassers, trolls and others who abuse the platform to target people. Twitter currently bans harassment, abuse and posts that wish physical harm to someone. Relaxing the rules exposes the platform to people looking to exploit it by spreading misinformation, or flat-out lies, about political events, government officials and matters related to public health and safety.
The ever-requested edit button
Twitter users have been for the longest time requesting an edit button. Other social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram allow people to edit their posts yet on Twitter, once one posts they cannot change it.
This tends to be frustrating because it means that if one wants to change anything they would have to delete the whole post and repost the edited version they want.
Musk has said he supports letting people change what their tweets say, a proposal that has stirred a heated debate among academics, journalists and other heavy users of the platform.
Although this might be a great idea, the adjustment could be weaponized by bad actors, who could use it to cover up abuse or harassment as if it never happened or to dupe or manipulate people. Yet Facebook and other social media platforms with the feature are functioning well and perhaps safeguards could be put in place like allowing people to see the unedited version.
Opening up the algorithm to the public
Musk believes that the software that determines what people are allowed to see should be cracked open. He supports placing Twitter’s algorithm on GitHub, a site popular with programmers for sharing computer code.
This sounds like a lot of chaos waiting to take place because Twitter processes billions of pieces of content every day and so far people view tweets according to their preferences, who they follow, where they stay and so on. Experts worry that Twitter is so dense and complex that the company’s own software engineers can be perplexed trying to understand its logic.
Get rid of advertisements
As Twitter goes private, it will no longer be under the same pressure from shareholders to grow advertising revenue. Although 90 per cent of Twitter’s revenue is made from advertising, they have not successfully managed to get many advertisers on the platform.
Musk has said it should move to a subscription model. Twitter has already taken some steps in that direction with the introduction last year of Twitter Blue, a premium service that cost $2.99 a month for additional features, like an undo button that allows for tweets to be recalled before they are sent.
Musk has said Twitter Blue should be cheaper, that if people are paying, they shouldn’t have to see advertisements and that the cryptocurrency that started as a joke, Dogecoin, should be an acceptable form of payment for a Twitter subscription.
Many people are on edge about the changes that will take place under the ownership of Elon Musk. Although he has shared some views that allow us to determine some of the changes, the practical implementation of these things will only be seen when they start to happen.