SAN FRANCISCO, United States — After months
of controversy,
Elon Musk is now at the head of one of the most influential
social networks on the planet, whose “tremendous potential” he has promised to
unleash.
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What changes can we expect for the platform from the
multi-billionaire chief executive of Tesla and founder of SpaceX?
New boss
One of Musk’s first
decisions was to sack Twitter chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial
officer Ned Segal and head of legal affairs Vijaya Gadde, according to several
US media outlets.
The billionaire entrepreneur will have to find
replacements for them.
“Musk is in the unenviable position of convincing
seasoned executives to work for him at a platform that he has publicly
disparaged,” said Jasmine Enberg, an analyst for Insider Intelligence.
According to Bloomberg, Musk will assume the role of
CEO of Twitter, at least initially.
He will have to deal with concerned employees. Musk
wants to cut the workforce by 75 percent (or about 5,500 employees), according
to the Washington Post.
“The mood at Twitter is tense, with employees
worried about layoffs,” said Enberg. “Product and even engineering teams could
face a shakeup.”
Freedom of speech
A self-described “free
speech absolutist,” Musk said on Thursday that he wants to turn Twitter into a
platform that is “warm and welcoming to all” and not a “free-for-all
hellscape”.
He has criticized what he sees as aggressive content
moderation, which he contends results in the censorship of right and far-right
voices.
“Experts we’ve spoken with have suggested around 600
people at Twitter itself, and thousands more with third-party affiliations have
worked on platform content moderation,” said
Scott Kessler of Third Bridge.
“Musk has publicly advocated for these actions to be
driven by algorithms instead of people,” he added.
The Tesla boss further hinted that former US
president Donald Trump, who was suspended from the platform after the attack on
Capitol Hill in early 2021, might be allowed to return.
One of Musk’s other pet peeves is the issue of fake
accounts. He threatened to walk away from the deal over the inauthentic or
“bot” accounts but has not revealed what he will do to fight them.
‘Unpalatable to advertisers’
Another challenge for Elon
Musk is to improve the financial health of Twitter, which faces slow growth,
even recording a net loss in the second quarter.
In April, Musk mentioned options to generate more
revenue: boosting paid subscriptions, monetizing the dissemination of popular
tweets, or paying content creators.
In a letter published Thursday, the entrepreneur
called on Twitter advertisers to work together to “build something
extraordinary”, stressing the importance of welcoming a wide diversity of
opinions on the platform.
“Mr Musk has indicated in his latest publicity stunt
that he wants to throw the kitchen sink at Twitter to attract new users,” noted
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and market analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“But he is going to face a huge challenge of
maintaining and building revenue, given that the controversial opinions he
appears to want to give more of a free rein to in this ‘global town hall’ are
often unpalatable to advertisers,” she said.
Some civic groups are also calling on major brands
to use their influence to prevent
Musk from providing a platform for the most
radical speech.
“Considering that ads reportedly account for 90 percent of
Twitter’s revenue, it is clear that the power to hold Musk accountable, if he
rolls back the platform’s protections against harassment, abuse, and
disinformation, lies in the hands of Twitter’s top advertisers,” Media Matters
for America, a nonprofit watchdog group, argued.
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