Tech billionaire Elon Musk would also be involved in the product development of the service after a Twitter takeover. At a video conference with Twitter employees, Musk said he assumes that employees would listen to his suggestions for features. Among the product ideas that Musk mentioned on Thursday was, for example, taking money for today’s free user verification. He also confirmed the intention to fight against automated bot accounts.
Musk recounted how he once bought a bad product based on an advertisement for it on video sharing platform YouTube and did a web search and discovered it was a scam. He wants to prevent something like that on Twitter.
Also allow “outrageous” tweets
The Tesla boss reiterated his position that the dissemination of radical positions should also be allowed on Twitter. He himself advocates moderate political positions, Musk said accordingly. At the same time, he reiterated that users should be allowed to post “pretty outrageous” things, but Twitter can throttle the distribution of such tweets. He acknowledged that users could leave Twitter if they were attacked or felt uncomfortable on the platform.
Musk had previously announced that he wanted to lift the ban against former US President Donald Trump as a Twitter owner. His criticism that Twitter restricts free speech too much had also raised concerns that more misinformation or insults could remain on the platform under his direction.
He’s aiming for “at least a billion people on Twitter,” Musk said. He set the bar high: Twitter currently has around 230 million daily active users to whom the service can display advertising because they use the in-house app or the web version. In a possible hint at the future direction, Musk praised the Chinese video app Tiktok for finding clips that are entertaining for users.
Statements immediately pierced
While Thursday’s conversation with Musk was intended for staff only, Twitter officials shared information from it so freely that several major US media outlets were able to liveblog it.
Musk prepared the Twitter workforce for possible job cuts. Twitter should be financially healthy – and right now its costs are higher than its revenues, he stressed. However, those who make a significant contribution have nothing to fear. According to Musk, valuable employees would also be more likely to be allowed to continue working from home. The online service had previously promised employees that they would not be forced back into the offices even after the pandemic ended. But Musk has only recently prescribed a general attendance requirement for the companies he runs – the electric car manufacturer Tesla and the aerospace company SpaceX.
Takeover still questionable
It is also unclear whether Musk will eventually become the owner of Twitter. Although he agreed to a takeover with the Twitter board of directors, he is dependent on the approval of the majority of shareholders. At the same time, he declared the deal suspended because he had doubts about the number of fake accounts. Twitter countered that Musk could not unilaterally put the agreement on hold and was determined to enforce it.
While Musk is offering shareholders $54.20 a share, the stock ended Thursday at $37.36, down about 1.7 percent. So Musk has an incentive to renegotiate the price, while many previous shareholders have an interest in selling on his current offering. The appearance in front of the employees was taken as a sign that Musk is still fundamentally interested in buying Twitter. He did not directly comment on this in the conversation.
