Twitter Before Changes: Free Or Fried Bird?

Musk took over Twitter and immediately started rebuilding the platform. What changes? Will it be to the Group’s advantage? And will Trump return to the platform?

The bird is free, Elon Musk tweeted last week. But there are experts who see it differently. The bird is more likely to be fried, says marketing professor and tech expert Scott Galloway at CNN. A lot happened in Musk’s first few days on Twitter. But what does that mean in detail?

hate speech and fake news

Both increased on Twitter immediately after Musk’s takeover, according to various studies. Musk himself had spread a conspiracy story about the attack on US politician Nancy Pelosi’s husband on Twitter over the weekend, but later deleted it. Musk wants to introduce a so-called “Moderation Council”. Something like this already exists at Meta: the so-called Oversight Board for Facebook and Instagram. People from various camps should decide on rules for deleting tweets or blocking accounts.

Musk has announced that the rules should not change until the council is in place. However, Twitter employees who take care of hate postings and disinformation should only have limited access to their internal systems. This is reported by the agency Bloomberg. However, the access rights are important in order to be able to moderate or delete content. Elections will take place in the US on Tuesday. Elections have always been a challenge for Twitter, even with tools that work. Anyone who wants to spread disinformation about the Midterms will probably have an easier time this year.

Verified accounts should cost money

Verified access can be recognized by the blue tick. They are important because they confirm the authenticity of an account and make information more credible. If you want to remain verified, you should pay for it in the future. First there was a rumor of $20, now it’s said to be $8 a month – Musk tweeted that. However, the price may vary from country to country. The blue tick should be part of the paid Twitter version.

That would mean that the verification could possibly be bought – previously you had to apply for it and it was linked to content-related criteria. Above all, however, Twitter is valuable because many verified accounts, politicians, celebrities, authorities and the media express themselves directly here. If everyone can buy a blue tick, Musk will lose trust in the platform, which is already very damaged. However, Musk has now announced that he will still have time to make a decision on the subject of verification.

The advertising business and the Trump account

The income that can be generated from the sale of advertising is currently weakening enormously. Even giants like Meta or Google notice this. Advertising is the most important source of income for Twitter. Corporations like General Motors have announced that they will no longer advertise on Twitter for the time being. Activists have called on other companies to do the same. If Twitter wants to continue earning or even make more money, then only with sufficient content moderation. “Anyone who doesn’t want content moderation should go to platforms like 4-Chan,” says marketing expert Galloway at CNN, referring to competing offers on the right-hand side: “Networks like Parler or Gettr, which pretend to be users from the ‘left censorship ‘ Wanting to liberate don’t make money.”

Former US President Donald Trump’s Twitter access has not yet been reactivated. Trump has also said that he would rather stay on his own network, Truth Social. Musk had called the suspension of the Trump account wrong. However, Galloway estimates that Musk will not bring Trump back for one simple reason: Musk is a narcissist who does not like to share the limelight.

The staff and the boss

The employees at Twitter are obviously very insecure. The former top management was fired on the first day; now there are rumors of more upcoming layoffs. It is said that this could affect between 50 and 75 percent of the staff. The fact is: Twitter is in the red. Personnel is a major cost factor. Musk has now dissolved the board of directors, and he is the only new director.

The new Twitter owner and boss could face conflicts of interest. What if, for example, China made the sale of Musk’s Teslas cars conditional on the government getting data from Twitter users? Musk was at Heidi Klum’s Halloween party Monday night dressed up as a warrior with red armor. He’ll probably have to keep it. Because the criticism is getting louder: It gets very ugly very quickly.