If you have been following the news lately or even the Trending Twitter feed, you know that Elon Musk has been in talks with Twitter to buy the entire platform. His offer of 44 billion dollars was accepted earlier this week and now the owner of Tesla can add Twitter to his portfolio of companies.
You are probably thinking that is all well and good but why do I care and more importantly what does that mean for the platform you use every day, including to schedule our posts?
First Some Backstory on the Deal
In the past few weeks, there has been a ton of back and forth between the rich space billionaire and the folks in charge over at Twitter.
First, Musk bought roughly 9% of the entirety of Twitter’s shares which made him the majority shareholder in the company. It appeared at this point that Twitter was going to allow him to join the board.
Then there was a big stir because Elon backed out at the last minute and decided instead to go from having a seat on the board of directors and some say in the workings of the platform to just buying the entire company.
With that in mind, it is fair to say that Elon Musk has some changes in mind for Twitter and intends to make them a reality.
What Changes Can We Expect?
Everyone’s favorite tech billionaire hasn’t been super specific on exactly what changes he is planning on rolling out to Twitter. Currently, there is no timeline or validated list of what to expect as he takes over the reins.
However, based on what he has said and tweeted in the past we can make a few assumptions about what is important to him and could be coming to Twitter in its new phase.
Free Speach?
Elon Musk is a huge supporter of free speech and has mentioned multiple times that Twitter is too censored. He thinks that the folks who moderate the platform are too harsh and stifle what should be an open online town square to say what you want. This means that in the future, it is likely that lots of things that previously got you shadowbanned or even completely banned from Twitter will no longer be an issue.
Algorithm Changes?
The new owner of Twitter has said before that he intends to make algorithm changes to the site. No one can be quite sure what exactly this means. From some of the things he has said in interviews, it looks like he is considering going open source with the Twitter algorithm so that everyone can understand how Tweets are actually sorted, you know instead of by magic and which way the wind is blowing.
Annihilation of Spambots?
If you have spent any time on Twitter, you have noticed that there are a ton of fake accounts created just to boost follower counts or to send awful DM messages. Everybody on Twitter hates spambots. Elon Musk seems to be included in that group. He has mentioned that he intends to purge the site of the spambots and start verifying all actual humans. So maybe future Twitter will have fewer fake followers and automated DMs. And maybe more blue checkmarks?
Payment with DogeCoin?
DogeCoin is the meme-based cryptocoin that Elon has a soft spot for. Now that Twitter has a tip jar and a premium option like Twitter Blue which costs a monthly fee for additional features, the billionaire has mentioned in passing his desire for supporters of the Shiba-faced coin to use it for payments in conjunction with Twitter. Maybe that means more integration with crypto could be on the horizon.
Elusive Edit Button?
Users of Twitter have been begging, pleading, petitioning, and just downright demanding an edit button pretty much since the beginning of the platform. Will Elon Musk be the one to bring the long-awaited feature to the masses? We don’t know. But he has spoken about it in an interview so we know it is on his mind even if we can’t confirm if it is on the agenda.
In our own opinion, we are torn. Who wouldn’t want to be able to undo that spelling mistake that is now going to be retweeted 200 times? But on the other hand, Twitter would lose some of what makes it what it is if we had the ability to go back and fix anything we said that was taken wrong. Think about it. Half the fun is how we can use tweets to prove someone said something because they can’t be edited. Would have the power to edit alter the unique ability of Twitter to keep people accountable? Just something to think about.
Trump’s Account?
The former President’s account was permanently banned from Twitter shortly after he left office. As he was one of the most controversial figures on Twitter, his banning has big news. Love him or hate him, banning such a prominent world figure as well as a hugely followed account stirred up all types of mixed feelings. Since Elon is such a defender of free speech on the platform it would make sense for him to reinstate one of the people who took that freedom to its absolute extreme. However Musk has not commented on the status of the former President’s account, so we will all just have to wait and see if Trump will tweet again.
