Over the course of the past two weeks, he has indicated through regulatory filings, tweets and a recent interview at a TED conference how he thinks about the company and if it will be successfully used by more than 200 million people. What will he do if he acquires a social-media site? people around the world.
The chief executive of Tesla Inc last week offered to buy Twitter with a bid of $43 billion. In response, the company adopted a so-called poison pill, which made it difficult for Musk to increase his stake in the company to more than 15%.
The board has yet to formally respond to the details of the proposal. In the meantime, here is a list of what Mr. Musk has said he would like to do with the platform.
Soften your stance on content moderation.
Mr Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” said in an interview during a TED conference last week that Twitter is “the real city square” and that it is “very important to have an inclusive area in free speech.”
He added that Twitter should be more cautious when deciding whether to delete tweets or ban users permanently. Timeouts are better, he said.
The platform must also comply with the laws of the countries in which it provides services, Musk said. And when Twitter makes changes to increase or decrease the reach of a tweet, it should inform users of what happened, he said.
Mr Musk also said he did not have all the answers. Meanwhile, Twitter has spent years trying to promote healthy discourse on the platform, adding content moderation under the argument that it’s good for business.
Create edit feature for tweets.
An edit button has long been requested by Twitter users. Earlier this month, Mr Musk polled Twitter users on whether they wanted one. More than four million accounts voted, and over 70% said yes. Twitter later said it had been working on an edit button since last year.
Mr Musk reiterated his support for an edit button in a TED interview, and reflected on how the platform could implement the feature.
take public company private,
Mr Musk said in a regulatory filing that he wants to keep Twitter private.
“Twitter needs to be turned into a private company,” he said. “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.”
Removing Twitter from the public stock exchange will likely make it easier for Musk to implement his desired changes to the company, as much of the shareholder pressure will be removed. However, Mr. Musk also said in a TED interview that he would like to retain as many shareholders as possible if he is successful in keeping the company private.
Make Twitter’s algorithm open source and put the code on GitHub.
In a TED interview, Mr. Musk suggested making Twitter’s algorithm open source, meaning others outside the company would be able to see and recommend improvements and changes. One way to do this, he said, is to put the code on GitHub, a site used to archive software projects.
Give users paying for Twitter Blue Authentication check marks.
Mr Musk sparked a flurry of tweets during the second weekend of April, suggesting that Twitter lets users who pay for Twitter Blue – a subscription service that adds additional features to users’ accounts – to their account. There is a check mark to show “Authenticated”. This will be different from the iconic blue check mark which requires accounts to be both authentic and noteworthy.
rely less on advertising,
In the same series of tweets, Mr Musk said Twitter should move towards a business model that relies more on subscriptions. Twitter Blue currently adds premium features like “undo tweets” for a monthly fee of $2.99. Mr. Musk suggested that membership include removing all ads.
He cut employees and closed the company’s San Francisco headquarters. Such cuts may be needed if the company was to move away from advertising, which accounted for about 90% of its revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Try to block spam and scam bots.
Mr Musk said the top priority for him would be to end “bot armies” on Twitter, which run spam accounts and scams.
“If I had one Dogecoin for every crypto scam I saw,” he said during a TED interview.
Allow long tweets.
In a tweet last week, Mr Musk advocated long-running tweets.
On Friday, he responded to a lengthy Twitter thread by Yishan Wong, former chief executive officer of social-media company Reddit Inc., who offered his take on the status of the Twitter acquisition. Mr Musk did not respond to Mr Wong’s views, he responded to the form he took.
“My most immediate conclusion from this one source novel is that Twitter is *way* overdue for long form tweets!” He said without giving any further explanation.
In most cases, tweets can contain up to 280 characters, which is double the previous limit of 140.
Twitter declined to comment. Mr Musk did not respond to a request for comment.