Elon Musk's Twitter account, 5 changes coming

 Elon Musk's Twitter account, 5 changes coming

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is set to become the next owner of the micro-blogging site Twitter. He is buying social media for about 44 billion. Elon Musk has promised to reform the platform's multiple features after buying Twitter. One of which is the relaxation of content restrictions.

In a statement on Monday (April 25th) announcing the acquisition of Twitter, Elon Musk promised to develop a number of new features, including the Authenticating All Human feature.

Exactly what will change after Elon Musk takes over Twitter is still uncertain. But five things are expected to happen after he takes office.

Freedom of speech policy and content moderation

Elon Musk has often complained about Twitter's moderate interference in social media.

Calling Twitter "de facto public town square" on March 25, Elon Musk said the platform had failed to uphold freedom of speech policies. This is a fundamental insult to democracy.

The billionaire described a platform free of content control, calling for the relaxation of Twitter's content restrictions.

Critics say the main reason for the decision to buy Twitter was a change in social media policy.

Angelo Caruson, head of Media Matters, a non-governmental organization for America, told Al Jazeera that although Elon Musk thinks he can make some money from social media. However, he is not buying Twitter for financial reasons. He is buying Twitter mainly for ideological reasons. And it's extremely scary.

Read more: Elon Musk buys Twitter!

Jave Sanderson, a member of the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics, told Al Jazeera that if Mask were to return to the status quo of violent rhetoric and misinformation, the consequences would not be good for Twitter.

Introduction to Edit Button

According to Twitter, the platform is working to add an edit button feature. This allows users to change the tweet message after posting.

Jay Sullivan, vice president of consumer products at Twitter, said the most requests were made to add an 'edit button' feature to Twitter.

The edit feature allows users to correct spelling or error in the tweet message without losing the reply, retweet or like found in their post.

However, the question remains as to how Twitter will stop the misuse of this feature. If such a tweet is retweeted by others then its statement or information is changed. What is the solution?

An obvious solution is to monitor the changes through the 'Edit Log'. This allows users to see the history of changes to a post like Facebook and Slack.

However, this feature has been regularly misused by scammers.

Twitter's algorithm should be open source

The algorithm or code that determines what Twitter users will see first will be revealed. The algorithm will be open to the public for viewing and development.

Musk said it would help prevent issues such as "behind-the-scenes manipulation". For example, during the campaign of former US President Donald Trump, Facebook was accused of conducting extensive foreign propaganda.

However, some analysts have objections in this regard. Elon Musk's proposal to make the data public has raised serious concerns about privacy breaches.

Ramesh Srinivasan, a professor of media studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the algorithms manage the emotional responses and propagate the content, making violent content the most viral. So Elon Musk needs to strike a balance between freedom of speech and violent speech.

Dealing with cryptocurrency scams

Elon Musk called for the elimination of "spam and scam bots and the bot army on Twitter".

The proposed solution is to develop the 'Authenticating All Human' feature or to integrate other personally identifiable information such as phone numbers or email addresses or pictures into a Twitter account.

Trump's return

Donald Trump has said on social media that he will not return to Twitter. Even if Elon Musk re-opened his account after buying Twitter, he would never return. He is living with his own social media Truth.

Trump was permanently banned from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat after the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riots. At the time, Twitter considered Trump's posts inflammatory and warned of "the risk of inciting more violence."

Officials in President Joe Biden's administration, meanwhile, have expressed concern that Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter will allow Trump and other Republicans who were banned from Twitter to return to the platform.