Ilan Mask's Twitter plans: from freedom of speech to the destruction of bats

Ilan Musk's Twitter purchase has sparked a wave of speculation among millions of users of the social network, and everyone wants to know what changes Twitter is waiting for. Will Ilan Mask completely transform Twitter?

Ilan Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and the richest man on earth last month, paid $ 2.89 billion to buy 9.1 percent of Twitter. Gained. from then on, we guessed at BingMagmag that based on Ilan Mask's background, we should expect him to buy Twitter in full. He finally agreed with the board last week to buy the social network for $ 44 billion.

Even if you are the richest person on the planet; It is unlikely that you have 44 billion in cash in your account. Mask will have to borrow $ 25.5 billion to raise this huge amount, and will personally raise the rest through the sale of shares. This is more than the annual budget of many countries, and Mask must have big ideas for Twitter that is willing to take such a big risk. We will look at the expected changes on Twitter below.

What does the evidence say?

The $ 25.5 billion loan to buy Twitter is about seven times the company's gross revenue in 2020, and Ilan Musk has promised to make changes to Twitter to persuade banks to offer the loan.

Mask in these negotiations Referring to the much lower revenue of Twitter compared to its counterparts, Twitter has criticized the way things are run and the possibility of downsizing. He also points to new ways to monetize, such as making money from popular tweets or receiving money from sites that post tweets on their pages.

This is not the first time that the idea of monetizing tweets on sites It is popular, and we have seen it in the past years, but in the end it did not go anywhere. Twitter's restrictions on publishing content paint a picture of a liberating knight. Calling himself an "absolute defender of freedom of expression," he asked users after buying 10 percent of Twitter that they thought Twitter was committed to freedom of expression, which was followed by a negative response from 70 percent of participants.

Mask poll on freedom of expression on Twitter

What made users' skepticism was a statement that "Freedom of expression is the cornerstone of democracy, and Twitter is like the main square of a digital city where vital issues for the future of humanity are being discussed," Musk wrote on the social network.

According to the wealthy owner of Twitter, social networks should not remove even offensive comments as long as they are not outside the framework of the law. He had already repeatedly ridiculed the policy of deleting tweets and closing accounts on his personal page. Even after buying Twitter, he expressed hope that even his worst critics would not leave the social network.

Users and experts do not have the same opinion about the mask program to reduce these restrictions. On the one hand, some worry that this will help the return of annoying users and trolls, and increase the volume of offensive and hateful content. It could also turn Twitter into a platform for political lies, harming government policy-making and public safety and health. Now they are celebrating the purchase of Twitter by Mask. According to the group, Twitter is clearly left-leaning and biased towards their views, but Mask can counter it.

For example, Mark Weinstein, founder of the social network MeWe, and George Farmer, CEO of Parler, has expressed hope that Mask will help reduce freedom of expression on Twitter by easing restrictions.

Opening the content display algorithm on Twitter

There has been controversy about it on Twitter, the posting algorithm. Some users believe that this The algorithm does not treat all tweets the same and displays some tweets in higher and higher feeds.

According to Ilan Mask, an algorithm that is effective in displaying posts to users and its extent should be published open source Be. He supported the public release of the algorithm at GitHub, which is the programmers' favorite source for software code sharing around the world. Were action. Jack Dorsey, the founder and former CEO of Twitter, also supported this, saying that choosing the right algorithm should be free for all users.

Although proponents of greater transparency see this as a step towards greater justice, others argue that It is believed that the disclosure of complex algorithms will not only not help much, but will also pave the way for more spammers and malware publishers to operate on the network. It deals with millions of users and billions of posts, it is so complex and deep that even the company's engineers may not understand its logic.

In addition, without access to basic user data and only with Relying on codes One can not judge the performance of the algorithm in ranking tweets. Since this data will never be made public, the release of the algorithm is unlikely to have much effect. /19469-5.jpg ">

Bats are fake user accounts that are programmed to send posts and comments in certain cases. Developers misuse bots for a variety of purposes, such as influencing public opinion, political currents, or fraud, and their high number has become a major problem for Twitter. It has been on Twitter, but sometimes it has been supported by them. For example, in 2013, when the news of the Tesla car fire hit the company, several bots began to publish positive information about Tesla.

However, in most cases, bots They are made with the aim of scamming or negatively affecting the Twitter environment, and Mask has emphasized on countering these bots. Twitter already has strict criteria for these bots and has banned them, but Mask is likely to take further steps in this direction by "authenticating all users" as stated on its page.

Reduce advertising and monetization Sharing service

Currently, about 90% of Twitter revenue comes from advertising, but the company has always faced challenges in attracting advertising. Due to the Twitter atmosphere, these ads usually involve political disputes or the promotion of inappropriate sites.

With the privatization of Twitter, there will be no more pressure from shareholders to advertise on the site, and Musk has already said that It tends to generate revenue through a shared service.

The company has already taken steps in this direction by introducing the "Twitter Blue" service. The service allows users to access special features such as bookmarking for a monthly fee of $ 2.99.

Attract to Twitter Blue. His other plan is likely to be to accept DojQueen to sign up for the service, which will make it easier for users around the world to submit requests.

Provide the ability to edit tweets

One of the most anticipated features on Twitter is the ability to edit tweets after posting, because Twitter, unlike Facebook, Instagram and other social networks, allows you to change posts and even correct typos after Does not publish.

Mask, in one of the largest Twitter polls of 4 million people, asked users about it, and almost 75% of respondents supported the feature. In response to the poll, Twitter said it had been working on it since last year.

Twitter's excuse for blocking editing tools is the possibility of changing the content of frequently shared tweets. ; A case that can be severely abused. Some users, including journalists, are worried that hackers will change the text of the tweets in such a way that they will be lost after the insulting content is published.

Comment; For example, you can display a history of changes made to the tweet next to it. However, the evidence shows that sooner or later Twitter will see editing tools.

Source: MakeUseOf