They have to pay a slight cost.
Free for Casual Users
Weeks after Elon Musk announced that he was going to buy Twitter for $44 billion, he said that commercial users, like businesses and governments, may soon require to pay a certain fee to continue using Twitter.
For the charismatic chief executive of electric car maker Tesla and rocket manufacturer SpaceX (these are far from all the facts about Elon Musk), the billionaire’s purchase of Twitter became a culmination of his controversial past on the platform.
On the other hand, the platform will be free for casual users.
Elon didn’t say how much the fee will be. He also didn’t state if there are people or businesses that are exempted from the fees.
Twitter for many years failed to make money the same way as other social media platforms.
With over 90 million followers on Twitter, Musk said that by acquiring Twitter, he’ll make it better by introducing more new features.
Currently, the platform is experimenting with Twitter Blue. It’s a paid-for subscription service. But it’s only available in some countries.
The subscription costs $2.99 a month in the US. Subscribers can access features, such as bookmarking tweets or undoing tweets. Musk said that he wants to lower the price of Twitter Blue. He will also implement several changes to the platform, such as banning ads.
End-to-End Message
Under Elon Musk, Twitter may include end-to-end encryption to direct messages. In that way, no one can spy on a user’s messages. He also wants to eliminate bots and trolls, which exist on the platform.
Taking It Private
Elon wants to take Twitter private. But once it’s private, he may return it to the public stock market in three years.
Once Musk takes ownership of the blue platform, it will be controlled by the world’s richest person. He’s a heavy critic of Twitter. He also uses it contentiously.
He said that the main reason he wanted to buy Twitter is that he wishes to change Twitter’s current censorship of free speech rules. Unfortunately, not all people are a fan of it. Many of his critics are concerned that the new free speech rules will only lead to silencing his critics’ voices. Currently, he has blocked his critics from his personal account.
Content Moderation
But he still believes that content moderation is still necessary to deal with violence. He also added that some features will be introduced to comply with the laws in the country in which it operates.
Permanent Bans
Elon Musk is not a fan of permanent bans neither does Jack Dorsey. Instead, he wants time-outs. This may be a path for former President Donald Trump to rejoin Twitter once Musk starts to control the platform. Trump’s account has been deleted. Before his permanent ban, he had over 88 million followers.
But Trump insisted that he wouldn’t be coming back to Twitter.
Trump has been permanently banned from the platform after his role in January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
Musk also said that the platform must be politically neutral if it wants to enjoy public trust. He said that Twitter is the “digital town square.” He wants to make it better by introducing new features, and ensuring algorithms are open source to boost trust.
