Elon Musk can at occasions be inscrutable, and his politics are elusive, which has made it considerably tough to find out precisely what the billionaire would do if he efficiently acquired Twitter. However over the previous weeks and months, as he neared Monday’s cope with the corporate, Mr. Musk has given extra hints about what he would change about Twitter — in interviews, regulatory filings and, after all, on his Twitter account.
Listed here are the principle areas Mr. Musk might search to deal with:
Free speech and content material moderators. Mr. Musk has often expressed concern that Twitter’s content material moderators go too far and intervene an excessive amount of on the platform, which he sees because the web’s “de facto town square.”
He introduced up these issues as soon as once more in the release announcing the agreement: “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital city sq. the place issues important to the way forward for humanity are debated,” Mr. Musk mentioned.
“I additionally wish to make Twitter higher than ever by enhancing the product with new options, making the algorithms open supply to extend belief, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all people” he added. “Twitter has great potential — I sit up for working with the corporate and the neighborhood of customers to unlock it.”
In a tweet on Monday, forward of the announcement of his agreement with Twitter, Mr. Musk mentioned he hoped even his “worst critics” continued to make use of the platform “as a result of that’s what free speech means.”
The Trump query. Mr. Musk has not commented publicly on how he would deal with the previous President Donald Trump’s banned Twitter account. However his free speech feedback have stoked hypothesis that Twitter below his possession would possibly reinstate Mr. Trump, who was barred from the platform final 12 months. After the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol, Twitter mentioned Mr. Trump had violated its insurance policies by inciting violence amongst his supporters. Fb additionally banned Mr. Trump for a similar cause.
Learn Extra on Elon Musk’s Bid for Twitter
The previous president, who was recognized for tweets that criticized opponents and typically introduced coverage modifications, can also be making an attempt to get his personal social media website off the bottom. His start-up, Fact Social, has struggled to draw customers, and the issue might worsen now that Mr. Musk has recommended altering content material moderation guidelines on Twitter. Mr. Trump mentioned in a current interview that he probably wouldn’t rejoin Twitter.
The algorithm. At a TED convention this month, he elaborated on his plans to make the corporate’s algorithm an open-source mannequin, which might enable customers to see the code exhibiting how sure posts got here up of their timelines.
He mentioned the open-source methodology can be higher than “having tweets kind of be mysteriously promoted and demoted with no perception into what’s happening.”
Mr. Musk has additionally pointed to the politicization of the platform earlier than, and recently tweeted that any social media platform’s insurance policies “are good if essentially the most excessive 10 % on left and proper are equally sad.”
Who makes use of the platform and the way. Earlier than Mr. Musk provided to purchase Twitter this month, he expressed concern in regards to the relevance of the platform.
When an account posted a listing of the ten most adopted Twitter accounts, together with former President Barack Obama and the pop stars Justin Bieber and Katy Perry, Mr. Musk responded and wrote: “Most of those ‘high’ accounts tweet not often and publish little or no content material. Is Twitter dying?”
Extra not too long ago, the Tesla chief govt promised in a tweet Thursday that he would “defeat the spam bots or die making an attempt!”
