How many crazy things does Elon Musk want to do on Twitter (and why he’s playing with us) | technology

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Elon Musk is today the biggest champion in the game Displays It is Twitter now. The richest man in the world has temporarily become at least four things on a social network: a seller of cheap subscriptions as if they were collections of encyclopedias, a tireless catch of progressives, a restrained CEO of a multinational company and a technology guarantee.

One can see on Twitter how Stephen King, a successful novelist, Think you know more about companies and networks from Musk and his team. The claim that people on Twitter should know more about the network than someone with 113 million followers just spent 44 billion to buy it is remarkable.

Of course it could all end in murder. But for now, Musk is fighting us with his plot twists, memes, and school jokes. It’s nice to see millionaires struggle with not being able to pay their year-end $1,000 million bills, but now Musk has more fun than the others.

Musk is familiar with the risks of failure and knows how to build companies that pioneered online payments (Paypal), electric cars (Tesla) and revamped the space race (SpaceX). Then he could go down badly and be a really annoying clown, the average guy who just threw pieces of paper at the girls and laughed at himself. But they are two different roles.

Musk’s messy profile is also good for the media because it can all be said about him: the The New York Times He says he copies Mark Zuckerberg. Axios says he’s imitating Trump. And again it can be both at once.

Tech companies work by testing things: they unlock changes in the market and see what works best. These are often contradictory functions, but testing with software is easier than testing with hardware. Plus, it’s easier to tweet about demo balloons than to get a new service up and running. There is a lot going on and the people who know it best are the Twitter staff. Here, a Twitter employee posted this picture while she was sleeping in the company she defended.

The number of layoffs being processed (according to a comment in an internal Slack channel) is 50% of the company, and more than 3,700 people, which would be one of the largest massive layoffs in recent tech history. It also limits remote work, as in the case of Tesla. This is fucking mail Received by staff yesterday Thursday: The machete will begin to fall at 5:00 pm Spanish time by mail.

But here I am more interested in changes in the network itself.

1. Subscription is not (just) a blue “check”

Until it closes, we won’t know what Twitter is offering for $8, which in Europe or Latin America is probably another number. The only clear measure is that the famous Check Blue, verified account, will be able to buy. To date, this badge has been awarded to public figures. Now users without position or fame (“peasants,” according to Musk) will be entitled to benefits that until now had accounts that Twitter believed should have this mention (“gentlemen”).

The great advantage is that if you pay, you’ll be more visible: your mentions, answers or searches you’ve made, verified ones will appear sooner. The obvious problem is that whoever wants to sell smoke or state propaganda will be able to buy his influence. If you give up a dictatorship for 200 Check blues For followers, they will be able to respond to critical tweets first and bury the rest.

What will the subscription offer? Who knows. Twitter employees found out who was supposed to set it up when Musk tweeted it. (This behavior brings him closer to Trump, who has been tweeting announcements his advisers didn’t know about.)

This procedure has great supporters (it is necessary to charge more for those who use the platform more and want more benefits) and detractors (what was free never works and does not cease to exist). The truth is that it depends on what the subscription offers, for example seeing fewer ads.

Beyond Check Blue There is a clear movement from advertising funding to subscriptions. A network dominated by subscriptions, which could eventually turn into funding for creators, will give less importance to proliferation and the war of attention: to make money through ads, you need more traffic than subscriptions. calls super followers They can come back as simple subscriptions to content creators.

Twitter is perhaps the last network to be dominated by text. Investors, engineers, doctors, writers, and athletes use it the most. Subscription capabilities, with all the options available, go beyond the scope of Check blue.

2. Vine’s Return

Musk conducted a survey about the return of Vine, the short video service that founded and killed Twitter in 2017, before the era of TikTok. In the survey, 69% of nearly 5 million respondents said yes. Musk seems to have given the green light. Vine is old and still works fine, but it’s one of those experiences that’s almost free: We killed it because it lost its appeal, but now the world is different. Why not try this one too and see if anyone else likes it?

If Instagram and YouTube are competing with Reels and Shorts on TikTok and doing so well, why not Twitter?

One of the crazy ideas mentioned here is that vines (which were 6 seconds long) would encourage recording your reaction to a tweet.

3. The Supreme Court of Twitter

Musk announced that the return of suspended accounts would depend on an ideologically diverse advisory board. This is his similarity to Zuckerberg. He also met with several human rights organizations to talk about liberals moderation and calm ahead of Tuesday’s elections in the United States.

Musk posted an autobiography of his “Twitter Complaint Line” and a picture of him as a child with an old phone. Now it is the only face of Twitter. After a while, it will lose relevance. One of his changes would be to transfer the power of moderation to this council.

4. Trump is back (or not)

Musk said it would take “weeks” to decide whether to return Trump. With former President Trump, there is an additional problem: Mask is a contributor to another network, the Truth Social. You probably have a contractual obligation to stay until, perhaps, sell it. Between the elections and the truth there can be a silent agreement to mollify these changes until some time now.

5. Moderation or censorship

The new head of Twitter came to the network as an absolute defender of freedom of expression. Temperance experts have already warned you that if you continue to dream, you will have to stop. This article analyzes 15 levels of problems that Musk would have to contend with rather than allow just about everything: child sexual abuse, copyrighted memes, hate speech, and threats from foreign governments.

Musk wears the anti-progress sign. Tweet fake news To Hillary Clinton about the attack in her home on Paul Pelosi, husband of US Congress leader Nancy Pelosi. This was so wrong that it appeared that Twitter had deleted the tweet for moderation. He deleted it himself. For now, Twitter’s chief of security is still in office and Musk publicly supports him.

6. Paid Direct Messages

Another option launched to enter some funds. Do you want to contact a celebrity? Pay.

7. OnlyFans Other

There are different forms of subscriptions where there is a lot of money which is pornography. One option that someone has taken back on Twitter is their OnlyFans, where users post videos that only subscribers can see on their accounts. If this was porn, it would be OnlyFans. A few months ago, it became known that Twitter has already explored this method of income. It was abandoned because pornography (especially if child molestation creeps in) is dangerous, even though it is allowed on Twitter.

8. Bird Watching Defense

The previous team launched a kind of tweet screening that works like Wikipedia, in collective wisdom. It is being published in tests in the United States and three other countries. This week, a tweet from the White House went viral, which boasted about the pension hike. The truth is that the reason for this is only the increase in the cost of living, not because the Biden administration put in more money.

Musk showed this tool. Even if it wasn’t his team’s idea, if it worked, he’d take it upon himself. You can be right about something or wrong about everything, but it’s reasonable to test whether this grieving and expert complaining web can live another life.

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