Elon Musk seems to have big plans for his social media platform. These four changes could be coming to Twitter users now.
Social media platform Twitter struck a deal on Monday with billionaire Elon Musk, who wants to take over and privatize the platform. Musk had offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, for a total consideration of $44 billion.
He had already made the offer in mid-April, and yesterday, Monday, Twitter approved the deal (via cnet.com). The purchase could change some things on the popular short message platform. We list which changes could therefore come to you.
Musk has big plans for Twitter
Musk shared a screenshot from a statement yesterday that hinted at some of the changes detailed below. Specifically it says:
Freedom of speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital marketplace where issues affecting the future of humanity are discussed.
I want to make Twitter better than ever by improving the product with new features, open-sourcing the algorithms to increase trust, defeating spam bots, and authenticating everyone.
Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community to unlock it.
link to Twitter content
Change #1: Publish the algorithm
In the statement, Musk clearly says that he wants to make the algorithm open source, i.e. public. This algorithm is essentially responsible for determining what content you see (first) on Twitter and what you don’t see immediately.
However, it is not yet clear how exactly this is determined. Musk already indicated that he wants to change that at the end of March, when he started a survey as to whether the algorithm should be open source:
link to Twitter content
But Musk goes one step further. in one Live-Interview mit TED he said users should be able to see if their tweets have been demoted or promoted by the platform to provide transparency. Also, the code should be on the Github coding platform, where programmers can search the Twitter code for errors and suggest improvements.
Change #2: Dealing with Free Speech
Before we begin, let’s briefly clarify the terminology: American free speech (Freedom of Speech
) is not to be equated with Europe freedom of expression. In most cases, the American freedom of speech is interpreted very broadly, which means that it also covers statements that in other countries already fall under the criminal offense of hate speech, incitement to commit a crime or slander. For example, false statements of fact are not criminal offenses in the USA and are covered by freedom of speech.
Musk has already mentioned in previous tweets that he currently disagrees with how free speech is handled on Twitter. Specifically, he wrote:
Since Twitter serves as a de facto public marketplace, failure to uphold the principles of free speech fundamentally undermines democracy.
what should be done
link to Twitter content
It is still unclear what exactly he intends to do in this area. However, it is conceivable that tweets and accounts previously deleted from Twitter for violating policies could be treated differently in the future.
Change #3: Increased fight against spam bots
Spam bots are a problem on Twitter, especially in the area of cryptocurrencies. You can find them mainly under tweets from accounts that deal with Bitcoin and Co. They often impersonate an account to entice followers to transfer them cryptocurrency. In almost all cases, this is a scam.
Musk complained about the bots back in January. There he shared a screenshot of Twitter’s plans to implement NFTs as a profile picture and harshly criticized them.
A few days before Twitter accepted his offer, Musk revisited the issue on the platform. Here he wrote: If our Twitter bid is successful, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying! And authenticate all real people
.
link to Twitter content
Again, the exact measures that Twitter wants to take against the bots under Musk are not yet clear. What is certain, however, is that they have been a thorn in the side of the billionaire for a long time and that he wants to ban the bots from the platform.
Change #4: An edit button
A button to edit tweets could also be on the new Twitter owner’s wish list for changes. So far it hasn’t existed, probably because it could become complicated if the content of statements can be changed afterwards.
On April 5, Elon Musk launched a poll asking if his followers wanted an edit button, deliberately with misspelled answer options.
link to Twitter content
There are many suggestions for implementation, including from Twitter users Everyday Astronaut. He proposes the edit function under two conditions: First, it should only be available for a few minutes, i.e. five to ten minutes after the tweet was sent. On the other hand, the processing should always be traceable via a link. So everyone can see what has changed.
Musk replies with That sounds reasonable
also That sounds reasonable
. So there seems to be an interest in the feature from his side as well.
What is that?
Elon Musk buys Twitter and many want to switch to Mastodon
Even if it is not yet clear how exactly the points described above could be implemented and how much direct influence Musk has on them, it should be undisputed that Twitter will change as a result of Musk’s acquisition. This is already encouraging some to use the alternative social media platform Mastodon instead. You can find out what this is all about in the article linked above.
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