Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has recently made one of the biggest and most notable purchases of his career as a businessman – Twitter Inc. Musk reportedly made a bid of USD 44 billion to acquire the social networking site, and Twitter accepted the offer.
Musk, who is currently the world’s richest man, had been working on plans to take Twitter under his wing for quite some time, and the deal finally went through on April 25. With a new company under his ownership, it is likely that Twitter will undergo some major changes for the users.
In the past, the SpaceX founder has been vocal about the “free speech” policies of Twitter, conducting a poll about whether or not Twitter adheres to the free speech model. In the public poll, over 70 percent of the people voted ‘No’.
Elon Musk had also talked about whether or not there should be an ‘Edit’ button for the users once they have posted the tweet, with most of his followers in favour of the change. Twitter later said that they are working on making this change on the site.
So, how can Twitter change under Musk, when it comes to the user experience?
Changes in content moderation, free speech
Elon Musk has been very outward about accusing Twitter of going out of its way to moderate content, saying that the content moderators go too far to intervene in several matters. It is likely that easing content moderation will be one of the first changes introduced by Musk.
Introducing an ‘Edit’ button
This is another thing that Musk has talked about in the past. He conducted a Twitter poll asking the netizens if they wanted the option to edit their tweets after they have been posted, a feature that doesn’t exist on the platform right now. An ‘Edit’ button is also on cards for Twitter in the near future.
Banned users can make a comeback
Many people have been banned indefinitely by content moderators for posting objectionable content, most prominently former US President Donald Trump. Since Musk is cracking down on content moderators, it is likely that banned accounts can return to Twitter under conditions.
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Changes in algorithm
Musk had earlier announced his plans of making the algorithm of Twitter open-sourced, which according to him, would be better than “having tweets sort of being mysteriously promoted and demoted with no insight into what’s going on.”
Users to switch platforms?
Twitter is a platform that is used by the masses to post their opinions and remain up to date with the world. It is likely that the changes under the ownership of Musk are not appreciated by some, and the userbase of Twitter declines in the near future.
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