Elon finally did it: he bought Twitter!
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what happens next: the left wing media ecosphere (rotten garbage) will go after Elon and will begin migrating away from the platform unless he offers the communists (the media) an offer they cannot refuse.
Conservatives and their followers will cheer his purchase, but they have to remain patient for meaningful changes Elon might implement. With these caveats in mind, let’s talk about Twitter. What it is, what it should be, and how Elon can improve the company.
The thesis for Elon should be: don’t piss off the mega-users, don’t let the marginal users leave, bring back the censored users, and use these participants as a way to make money without pissing off the entire political ecosphere.
As an example: I used to be a rabid Twitter user, but I stopped because the censorship became out of control and the COVID messaging from Twitter began mirroring the CDC which is a thoroughly discredited organization. How can Elon get me back and make money on my return?
What is Twitter today in a nutshell?
· A place that once allowed free thinking and free expression of ideas, but slowly morphed into a black hole of left wing thought, news, and narratives to the exclusion of anyone who may not agree
· Twitter (corporate) came to the unfortunate conclusion that anyone with a conservative idea or belief – or even an idea or belief that runs counter to whatever progressive narrative is popular that day – is too dangerous for the “uninformed user of Twitter”
· We saw this with COVID: Twitter thought that whatever the CDC said about COVID was gospel and that anyone – even people in the medical community – who said something contrary to the CDC did not deserve to have their POV shared on the platform
· Now, it’s an information outlet strongly biased against anything or anyone not lockstep with a radical, progressive agenda
· It’s also why Twitter is a place that very purposely silences – a form of censorship - anyone pushing back against progressive narratives.
· More worrying, Twitters has become a mouthpiece for the US and Western intelligence organizations which often lie to us even when the public has clear evidence to the contrary
· It’s also repository of bots, or fake twitter users that support or condemn various people/accounts/or ideas that run counter to progressive orthodoxy
· Twitter does not consider itself a publisher of information even though millions of people read (censored) news on the platform and more importantly, read news that comes from Twitter’s algorithm which very purposely diverts some news and not all news to its users
· Because US authorities agree that Twitter is not a publisher, Twitter gets to skirt rules that otherwise apply to media organization – rules such as having to suffer real penalties for allowing “trusted sources” to defame and/or slander individuals who may not be public figures (celebrities)
What should it be?
· Twitter should be a place where just about anything goes, especially in the political and policy realms
· More free speech is the antidote to disinformation, not less. More access to information that Twitter believes is wrong or disinformation is the answer, not less
· Light is always the best disinfectant to things that may be untrue
· Twitter needs to understand that its users are adults and can make up their own minds when it comes to reading the consuming the news
· Just because an authority says something is true, doesn’t mean Twitter should assume its true and force everyone on the platform to assume it’s true
· Again, the CDC may have good ideas when it comes to public health. But they may be lying or recommending something with real disagreement in the medical community (see COVID)
· Twitter shouldn’t be teaming up with governments or agents of the government to dictate what is true or false or what is read and/or not read. Governments and their agents lie and do so routinely. They always have done so
· Absent child porn and absent threats against private individuals, Twitter should have zero rules when it comes what you can and can’t post
· If you want to make fun of Joe Biden and say nasty things about celebrities, no problem.
· If you want to post conspiracy theories, you should have that right and not be censored for doing so
· Twitter should be a marketplace of ideas and users – not algorithms – should be able to decide what’s import and worth reading (which implies the need for upvoting and downvoting, not just upvoting or “likes”)
· Twitter should let the users – not algorithms – determine what people see and don’t see. Twitter’s censorship team should not exist and should not have any say in the way algorithms show content to users
· Twitter should have real penalties in play for censoring people or organizations based on their political ideologies
· Again, if you say something that people think is untrue or you say something offensive, Twitter should not be banning you. If you make a threat, break the law, or send child porn, then you’re off but Twitter should be doing less and not more when it comes to banning people
How can Elon make Twitter great again?
· He can remove anonymity on the platform. That is, get rid of fake people and fake bots ruining the average user’s experience
· If someone wants to post anonymously, that’s fine, but Twitter should still confirm whether or not it’s a real person and whether or not they are not bots
· He can fire everyone who works there (note: CEO and leadership is out - that is a very encouraging sign!)
· He can charge companies more money to advertise there and continue reducing costs (no more censorship department - see above)
· He can get rid of the news algorithms or change them to show content people are reading and liking and not using the algorithm to downplay something controversial or confrontational against a major institution or brand
· He can welcome back conservatives on the platform
· Elon could allow Trump back onto the platform as an example
· Even better, he could put conservative talking heads and platforms on par with progressive platforms
· He can add a downvote button to Tweets and build that into the algorithm to ensure people are seeing the best possible content regardless of whom it may offend
· He could offer an edit feature to Tweets but only allow it to remain in place for a few days
· He could take the platform private before taking it public again. This may be a good idea especially he wants to make drastic changes. A board of a public company may not allow Elon to reshape the company in a radical way very quickly unless he stacks the board which may be difficult in the short-term
· He could solicit advice from its users (polls, surveys) and take their advice seriously. He could ask companies, media organizations, and super-users to give real time feedback and he could actually listen to that feedback
The bottom line is that Elon has a huge opportunity in front of him and one that can be immensely profitable. He can return Twitter to its “free speech” roots, get rid of the censorship squads, stop banning people, entice conservatives back onto the platform, and find new ways to monetize the platform. This will be tricky since so many of Twitter’s users are progressives, but if he makes the platform better and tones down the censorship while making users real people, my guess is that people will stay and the user base will grow.
But (always a but!) as the saying goes, “don’t fall in love with a public figure. They are bound to let you down.”
This saying absolutely applies to Twitter. Elon has lots of people to please beyond conservatives marginalized by Twitter’s former management. Elon has to make money to justify this purchase and he has to keep shareholders in his other companies happy at the same time - this will be no easy feat. And of course, politics do not have to be the center of any changes Musk might make to the company. As an entrepreneur, making money should be his first goal and everything else (angry conservatives) should come second.
It’s therefore a topic worth revisiting in about 12-18 months to see if Twitter is worth downloading and using again. I do have high hopes that Musk improves the platform because he’s a genius and finds ways to make people money in a visionary way. But I also don’t pretend that the needs of a marginalized community of twitter users (conservatives) are any more important that Musk’s very practical goal of making money and improving the platform for anyone willing to pay.