Expect to see dramatic changes to Elon Musk’s new Twitter (Titter?). Musk has said he doesn’t care how much Twitter makes and wrestling it back from Wall Street is more important. We’ve gathered some of the changes he’s mentioned below. As for who will run Twitter, it’s unclear – probably not Agriwal – but some suggest it could be Jack Dorsey. Impossible? Read @Jack’s response to the sale at the end.
Bloomberg writer Kurt Wagner suggests Jack Dorsey could. Musk and Dorsey are chums and share similar ideas and Dorsey knows Twitter as its co-founder. Dorsey’s regrets are some of the changes Musk wants to make, like opening up the algorithm.
After spending $44 billion, Twitter locked down all product updates after accepting a $44 billion bid from billionaire Elon Musk, making it harder for employees to make unauthorized changes to the platform. For now, Twitter won’t allow product updates unless they’re business-critical, Bloomberg reports.
I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter because
that is what free speech means. ~ Elon Musk
Elon Musk is looking to make a lot of changes to Twitter to unleash its power. He is considering the following changes once Twitter, or possibly Titter, goes private:
- Loosen up content rules to allow free speech
- Adding an “edit button” (it could be designed to “zero out” retweets and favorites when a tweet is edited to avoid abuse of the feature)
- Make the platform’s algorithm publicly available to address concerns that tweets are unfairly promoted or demoted. Open up Twitter’s algorithm to the public. Musk has said that the software that determines what people see and how widely content spreads on Twitter should be cracked open. He supports placing Twitter’s algorithm on GitHub, a site popular with programmers for sharing computer code.
- Converting the company’s San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter (something endorsed by Jeff Bezos). The workers allegedly don’t do much work in San Fran.
- Dropping “w” from Twitter’s name (“I’m serious about this one,” he said in April)
- Scraping advertisements (as a private company, the company “will not be under the same pressure from shareholders to continually grow advertising revenue” NPR reports)
- The billionaire said he wants to verify “all real humans” who use the site in an effort to crackdown on spam. “If our Twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!” he tweeted earlier in April. No more bot armies!
- Reinstate canceled posters like Donald Trump? – he hasn’t said.
- Give Board members $0 salaries.
What do you think about these changes?
@JACK DORSEY’S RESPONSE
Jack Dorsey gave his response to the sale on Twitter Monday night:
In a tweet thread that included a link to the Radiohead song “Everything In Its Right Place,” Dorsey, who still holds a seat on the company’s board, espoused his ideas about how Twitter should operate and how Musk would support that mission.
“I love Twitter. Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness,” Dorsey tweeted Monday night after it was announced Musk reached a deal to purchase the company.
The idea and service is all that matters to me, and I will do whatever it takes to protect both. Twitter as a company has always been my sole issue and my biggest regret. It has been owned by Wall Street and the ad model. Taking it back from Wall Street is the correct first step.
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In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.
In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.
I’m so happy Twitter will continue to serve the public conversation. Around the world, and into the stars!
As for the Radiohead song, the lyrics are basically, “Everything in its right place,” except at one point, the words switch to:
There are two colors in my head
There are two colors in my head
What, what is that you tried to say?
What, what was that you tried to say?
Tried to say, tried to say
Tried to say, tried to say
As an aside, he’s going to have a lot of problems with his staff. They’re likely plotting as I write this.
I fear Elon Musk could undermine the ideological diversity, equity and inclusion at Twitter which currently maintains a careful balance of 98.7% for one side. pic.twitter.com/I6JeTuTx9k
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 25, 2022
