Elon Musk Has a Lot of Plans for Twitter

He says people should pay for a checkmark.

New Sheriff

There's a new sheriff in Twitter town and he's look to make some big changes.

After randomly buying nearly 10 percent of the company's stock and joining the board of directors, Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk spent his evening last night furiously sharing ideas he thinks will make the platform better.

"Everyone who signs up for Twitter Blue should get an authentication checkmark," Musk said last night, referencing the new feature that allows people to pay $3 per month for additional platform features like preview time to correct mistakes before a tweet goes live.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1512949511928352775

Twitter Blue also includes the ability to read articles ad-free, but Musk said it isn't good enough.

"No ads. The power of corporations to dictate policy is greatly enhanced if Twitter depends on advertising money to survive," Musk said in a threaded reply.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1512962115270754306?s=20&t=6v92pDLURCh0uYeLV03EfA

Constant Change

Some readers in Musk's thread were horrified by the idea and said the move could hurt basic human rights.

"Freedom of speech is a right not a premium feature to be sold. Globally how many people live on less than 2 dollars a day? Guess the edit button ain't for them?" one user commented.

Giving out checkmarks might actually be a decent way to weed out bot accounts, which surely can't all be interested in or able to purchase a Blue membership. Because nearly 48 million Twitter accounts aren't actually people, it's possible Musk's idea could have a positive impact if users could see who does and doesn't pay.

Unless Musk's plan is deeper than he says, people who don't want to pay for Blue could still access the site, read content and filter out irrelevant accounts. The hotly contested edit button is really just a preview period to check for typos before it goes live, so the fear that bad actors could manipulate the public conversation are unlikely to come true.

People have been asking Twitter to do something about fake, malicious accounts. Maybe Musk has a point.

More on Musk's big dreams: Elon Musk Suggests Tesla Might Start Mining Lithium