The tycoon, who now champions “content moderation”, wants the social network to become more dependent on the subscriber than on ads. While he orders piles of layoffs, his erratic drive sparks a flight of advertisers
He bought Twitter just over a week ago and said he would “liberate the bird from its cage” and for now, he’s opened the box of thunder. Elon Musk has never been good at waiting, which makes it difficult to predict the course of his new adventure beyond that purge that has decimated the company’s high-profile ranks — starting with the resignation of his legal manager, Vijaya Gadde, architect of Donald Trump’s account suspension for comments made after the White House attack — and the announcement in line that he would lay off 3,700 employees, half of the workforce. As the first demands are made, those who remain try to master the storm of signals and trial balloons that activate their new boss with his mere presence. Or with tuis that only contribute to his erratic drive. After appealing to free speech, he came off the hook Friday night with a message that gave his speech a twist: “To be clear, Twitter’s strong commitment to content moderation remains absolutely unchanged.” Something that didn’t stand in the way of taking down Gadde as the person responsible for that policy, which he called “chief censor” once he was given command of the company.
After a decade and a half of implementation, Twitter’s strengths are many and varied, recalls Ana Santos, a digital strategy consultant. Information in real time, does not require reciprocity like other networks, posts are concrete and concise, content segmentation (let’s not forget that the hashtag was born here)… But things are not going as well as they should . A place that gets so much attention and makes so little money (less than half of Facebook per user) is an anomaly in the world of networking and business in general. That Musk jumped in the pool six months ago, without properly checking what Twitter had in it — monetizing a database perhaps not as easy as he thought, with only one in six users with daily monetized activities — pays that departure budget.
Musk links his landing to his commitment to save free speech, which is not understood without measure, he recalls. An artificial debate, says Álex Rayón, from the University of Deusto, “because no social space is run without rules”. In his particular crusade, the tycoon wants to end what he calls the “infernal pit” Twitter has become, “an echo chamber of the far right and far left, which divides society because everything is allowed and no one pays the consequences. That doesn’t change the fact that Musk is highly critical of Trump’s veto — Angela Merkel was too — although he is now submitting the unblocking of these and other accounts to the discretion of a committee that analyzes the most relevant cases.
In addition to his messianic messages in favor of free speech and a “common digital agora” from which insults, threats or hate crimes are banned, Musk is a businessman who has just invested $44,000 million for those who expect to get something in return. Twitter is an essential tool in public discourse, and wielding that key is paramount to someone with an economic empire (you can use it as a springboard for your business) and a trendsetter in the world of digital assets (one of your attacking partners in Twitter is Bidance, the largest cryptocurrency exchanger by trading volume).
In this scenario, initial efforts are focused on designing a platform that amplifies subscription offerings to be less dependent on advertisers (they currently represent nearly 90% of Twitter’s revenue). To do this, you must have a stable source of funding. This is where the so-called verified accounts come into play, the appeal of which is said to be in giving priority to searches, comments and mentions, and which is the sweetest claim of that Twitter Blue that allowed features like ad blocking to date. or editing tweets. His strategy is to “give the user more power”. But don’t let anyone fool you, just those who are willing to go through the box.
The blue marking that distinguishes those who pay is a symbol of status, of influence: it would help distinguish authentic accounts from fake ones – those ‘bots’ or programs capable of interaction that automatically launch content – allowing users to to supposedly more credible spaces. A prestigious label in a world where ‘trolls’, ‘haters’ and ‘fake news’ have lost their respect for years. Which gives rise to a deeper reflection: if we live in a world where fake news is free and authentic news costs money.
How much? Well, it’s not quite clear. Those subscribed so far in the few countries where Twitter Blue worked – the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – paid $4.99 for this “premium” feature, while the owner of Tesla and SpaceX now plans to is to charge them $8 (that after shuffled rates of 20 or even nothing in the span of a week). “But that step entails risks. Perhaps not so much in the United States where paying for a service is normal; but yes in Europe, where Twitter has triumphed because it was free. At the minimum that people have to pay to give their opinion, another tool will appear,” said Antoni Pérez Navarro, professor of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications Studies at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). The writer Stephen King has already replied that he must be paid. “If this continues, I’ll go to Enron,” he counters.
The unease is beginning to invade some. It occurs, for example, with the largest advertising agencies, such as Interpublic Group, who have advised their clients to pause campaigns on Twitter while waiting for the panorama to become clearer. Or with brands like L’Oréal, which have stopped advertising spending. All of these measures hide fears that Musk will relax the social network’s security measures, which will have an undesirable impact on the digital advertising ecosystem.
But Musk is not enlightened. His extravagance, determination and genius in approaching challenges from an approach no one considers have led him to transform vacated businesses into thriving business niches. Moreover, he does not act alone. In addition to the aforementioned Bidance, his dream is shared by partners from whom he expects $13,000 million backing, including Morgan Stanley, the Bank of America, Barclays, the Qatar Investment Authority or the venture capital firm Sequoia.
Rayón lists three fundamental strategies in his roadmap: change the moderation policy, open the algorithm code and create new services to generate more revenue. The first requires great caution because, as advertisers point out, “excessive or poorly designed regulation comes at a cost as incalculable as not doing it.” As for the algorithm – responsible for the content recommended to us – the announcement to open the code can carry risks, because “the more transparent it is, the easier it is to manipulate”.
The third has such a broad development that it is difficult to predict in just one week: from the creation of new mobile applications to the real-time reporting of events, “such as what has been proposed to do during the World Cup in Qatar by signing commentators like a MisterChip or a Maldini, achieving greater redaction of content and selling qualified ad inventory» Add to that an increase in the duration of the videos and the number of characters per tweet -now the maximum allowed is 280- , mix everything well and the result is… unpredictable.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
