Elon Musk is an Entrepreneur, business mogul, and investor, He is the founder, CEO, and chief engineer of SpaceX; an angel investor, Tesla’s CEO, and Product Architect; the creator of The Boring Company; and a co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI.
Elon Musk wants the world to know that Twitter is changing. Twitter said on Monday that it has struck an agreement with Musk, who will buy the prominent social media site for $54.20 per share in cash, valuing it at over $44 billion. Musk made the statement after declining a position on Twitter’s board of directors.
The agreement between Twitter and Musk has sparked debate about what this means for the social media site’s future. The deal looked doubtful at first, but when Musk gave additional specifics about how he would fund the possible purchase.
Twitter’s board allegedly began to consider the offer more seriously.
Agreement Debate Between Twitter And Elon Musk
“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,” Musk stated.
“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spambots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential — I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”
Musk, like other Twitter users, doesn’t shy away from expressing his opinions on what needs to be corrected on the platform. Tweeting his candid observations to his 83 million followers.
(Musk has more social media clout than Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey combined, as assessed by followers.)
Those tweets reveal his love-hate relationship with the social media platform.
Dorsey, a well-known player in the internet business, has praised Musk’s usage of Twitter, observing that the billionaire expresses “his thinking openly” on the platform. Musk’s forthrightness, though, has placed him in hot water. After Musk tweeted that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private in 2018, the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued him for allegedly breaking securities law. Musk’s attorneys are attempting to terminate a deal between the SEC and Musk that required certain of his tweets to be preapproved.
Musk might advocate for the following four reforms on Twitter:
1) Modifications To Content Moderation
Since before he revealed his interest in the firm, Musk has been tweeting about what is and isn’t permitted on Twitter. Musk, for example, asked users if they thought Twitter protected free expression in a poll at the end of March. The poll findings, he suggested, would be “very important.”
Musk wrote on Twitter, “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” Approximately 70% of the 2 million responders said no.
The First Amendment does not apply to private corporations like Twitter, which may make their own rules concerning what is permissible. In 2020, Agrawal, then Twitter’s CTO, told MIT Technology Review that the company’s job is to “service a healthy public conversation,” not to be bound by the First Amendment.“
He Inquired About The Necessity For A New Platform
In a further tweet, Musk said, “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?” He also inquired about the necessity for a new platform.
Musk isn’t the first person to wonder if Twitter is limiting certain viewpoints. Conservatives chastised Twitter for barring former US President Donald Trump following the deadly Capitol Hill rioting on Jan 6. While Dorsey defended the decision citing the reason to avoid encouraging violence. Some Twitter users have urged Musk to reinstate Trump on the network.
Musk wrote on Twitter this week that “a social media platform’s policies are good if the most extreme 10% on left and right are equally unhappy.” He didn’t respond to queries about how Twitter plans to track this.
Elon Musk’s tweets, for what it’s worth, haven’t been without criticism. In 2020, Musk received allegations of breaking Twitter’s guidelines. It was against dangerous coronavirus disinformation by allegedly tweeting that “kids are essentially immune” to COVID-19. Children can, in fact, contract the infection. The message did not breach Twitter’s guidelines, according to Axios, because it was not “definitive.”
2) Scams Involving Cryptocurrency Must Be Avoided
Scams involving cryptocurrency have been a thorn on Twitter’s side, and it’s a problem that has affected Musk personally.
Scammers have used phony identities on social networking platforms to imitate Musk in order to induce users to give away bitcoin. Musk’s account was among the high-profile Twitter accounts hacked in 2020 to promote a bitcoin fraud.
Musk complained in January that Twitter was focusing its efforts on nonfungible tokens, or assets that have been validated on a blockchain, rather than combatting crypto spambots.
“Twitter is spending engineering resources on this bs while crypto scammers are throwing a spambot block party in every thread!?” he tweeted.
He’s also said that bots are Twitter’s “single most annoying problem.” On Thursday, Elon Musk wrote on Twitter if a Twitter bid proves successful “we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!” and “authenticate all real humans.”
3) Twitter Should Have An Edit Button
Users have long sought the ability to edit their tweets for typos and other issues. The functionality has never been high on Twitter’s priority list. As part of its $3-per-month Twitter Blue membership option, Twitter includes the ability to erase tweets.
Elon Musk brought up the idea of an edit button again on April 4, tweeting a new poll. He misspelled the words yes and no in his tweet, “Do you want an edit button.” More than 4 million people voted, with about three-quarters of them in favor of the plan.
Elon Musk hasn’t stated whether or not he believes an edit button is necessary. On April 5, Twitter tweeted that it’s been working on an edit feature since last year — “no, we didn’t get the idea from a poll,” Twitter’s communications team did tweet with a winky face emoji. The corporation stated that it would begin testing the tool in order to determine what works and what is possible.
Does Twitter Require An Edit Button?
Twitter has previously raised worries that allowing users to modify tweets might lead to problems such as individuals posting messages that are later modified to change their meaning. Dorsey even told Wired in 2020 that he didn’t think Twitter will ever include an edit button.
“We started as an SMS text messaging service. So, as you all know, when you send a text, you can’t really take it back,” Dorsey said in the interview. “We wanted to preserve that vibe and that feeling in the early days.”
It appears that Twitter is giving the feature a higher priority. On April 4, Agrawal responded to Elon Musk’s edit button poll with familiar wording.
“The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully,” Agrawal tweeted.
It appears that Twitter is giving the feature a higher priority. On April 4, Agrawal responded to Musk’s edit button poll with familiar wording.
4) Open The Twitter Algorithm
Users of social media platforms have claimed that algorithms have taken over their life. Luring them to spend more time on Twitter, Facebook, and other sites. Some Twitter users prefer to view tweets in the order they were sent. After user protests, Twitter reversed a modification that would have shown the algorithmic feed by default.
Musk has urged that Twitter’s algorithm should be made open-source. Musk didn’t elaborate on what that would involve, but open-source software is free to use and modify. He proposed the notion in a poll on March 24. A total of 83 percent of the 1 million people who took part in the survey voted yes.
Dorsey seemed to applaud the outcome, tweeting, “The choice of which algorithm to use (or not) should be open to everyone.”
Musk stated in a TED Talk earlier this month. It said Twitter users should be able to see if a tweet has been downgraded or elevated on the platform so that “behind-the-scenes manipulation” is avoided. He believes Twitter’s code should be available on Github so that anyone can search for bugs and make suggestions.
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