But what will the leader of Tesla do with his new toy? In just ten days, Elon Musk’s proposed takeover of Twitter materialized. The richest man in the world has offered the social network for 44 billion dollars, a deal which should be finalized at the end of 2022 according to the official press release. This takeover raises questions about the future direction of the blue bird when the founder of Space X is known for his radical positions, in particular in favor of uninhibited freedom of expression. 20 minutes wondered about the upheaval this change of direction could cause on Twitter.
American free speech
“Free speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy and Twitter is the digital public square where issues vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Elon Musk said in the official takeover statement. The first will of the billionaire by buying Twitter is therefore to sanctify this freedom of speech. “He has an extremely libertarian vision of freedom of expression and sees the Internet as a border to conquer, to overcome”, reacts Anuchika Stanislaus, specialized in digital public policies.
Elon Musk’s room for maneuver in favor of unconstrained expression will, however, be limited. The European Union has just reached an agreement on the DSA, “Digital Service Act”, which will require platforms to “promptly” remove all illegal content and suspend users who “frequently” violate the law. If the businessman stipulated to be aware that Twitter will have to submit to the laws of the various countries, the latter could therefore harden in the years to come.
Less moderation could amount to even more moderation
Because “all platforms will be confronted with this question [de modération] and will have to evolve whereas until now they enjoyed an unrestrictive environment”, analyzes Henri Isaac, who directs the master’s degree in Management, Telecoms and Media at the University of Paris-Dauphine. “Maybe in the United States he can do something, but in Europe it will be more difficult,” he adds. Especially since the billionaire aspires to moderate only what is illegal in a given country, a vision that would require the platform to train and assign moderators to specific legislation.
Because “what is to be moderated in India, is not necessarily so in the Philippines”, underlines Anuchika Stanislaus who believes that the entrepreneur “goes back 15 years with 0 thoughts on moderation”. For example, Holocaust denial is not sanctioned across the Atlantic whereas it is prohibited here. Elon Musk’s desire not to establish rules on a global scale to moderate at a minimum could therefore push Twitter to spend more on moderation. Especially since in 2021 the platform had revealed that it employed less than 2,000 moderators worldwide.
The key word: transparency
Elon Musk also wants to tackle the lack of transparency of the platform. To do this, the tech mogul wants to make his algorithm public in order to “increase the confidence” of users. For Henri Isaac, who headed the think-tank Renaissance Numérique, putting Twitter’s recipe in open source “could improve the network collectively, make it healthier and more efficient”. This announcement would “check how the algorithm works” which is, according to him, “too easily manipulated”.
On the contrary, Anuchika Stanislaus is worried that “malicious actors take advantage of this to promote their own products while the source codes are usually only revealed to researchers, authorized people”. Among Twitter’s malicious actors are the bots the PayPal co-founder wants to “defeat or die trying”. These automated accounts are often used to mass harass users or escalate issues on the platform. To get rid of it, Elon Musk aims in particular to authenticate all humans who use Twitter.
Stock market exit
In order to “realize the potential” of Twitter, Elon Musk wants to get out of the stock market, an operation that will give more leeway to its new owner and protect it economically during a metamorphosis, many aspects of which remain unclear. Freed from market constraints, the billionaire will be able to work on a new economic model for Twitter.
Because, with its 217 million daily users against 1.929 billion for Facebook and 500 million for Instagram, Twitter acts as a dwarf in its world. The blue bird is also struggling when it comes to doing the accounts: the company took twelve years to generate a profit and its turnover of five billion dollars in 2021 remains weak next to those of its competitors. “It’s a social network that has always struggled to monetize its audiences,” says Henri Isaac, who heads the Telecoms and Media Management master’s degree at Paris-Dauphine University.
Twitter soon in freemium?
With a free voice, Twitter, which was already struggling to attract advertisers cautious about being associated with sulphurous content, will probably have to change its economic model. Until now based on advertising, the social network could switch to a freemium model which combines a free offer and a paid offer, with more functionality. The “edit” button could, for example, be reserved for paying Twittos.
Most social networks are free, but “there are alternative models even if they are few in number,” emphasizes Henri Isaac, who notably cites Linkedin and Xing, a German-speaking professional social network. Elon Musk, however, assured that his acquisition of the blue bird was not “at all” for economic purposes in a Ted Talks conference on April 14.
New adventure for the blue bird
Still, the founder of Space X is a seasoned entrepreneur. From PayPal to the conquest of space, Elon Musk knew how to compete with audacity and determination in order to make his businesses grow. The challenge could be daunting with the blue bird, which has never managed to find its economic model.
The changes that Elon Musk could inject into the platform are therefore numerous and, beyond the foreseeable questions that are looming, could surprise us. “So far, we did not see very well where this social network was going. It may be an opportunity to reinvent itself for Twitter”, underlines Henri Isaac for whom it is, “in any case, a signal that things are changing in this space”.