Elon Musk's Vision for Twitter: A New Era of Transparency and Accountability

Musk has spoken openly about what he hopes to change at Twitter, and has even polled his followers about the addition of features like an edit button. One of the most requested features from Twitter users is the ability to edit tweets after they have been posted. Twitter has been working on an edit feature since 2021, but has expressed concerns that the tool could lead to issues such as people sharing tweets that are then altered to change their meaning.

The concern that a lot of people have is that you could put out something a lot of people retweet it or like it, and then wait a day and change it completely. Imagine putting out a tweet that says "the sky is blue" and everyone says "yeah good job that's a great tweet". Then, waiting a day and switching it to say "the sky is gray or purple", and suddenly everyone liked the other one. There are ways to solve this, however, and Facebook has shown that you can have a history of the message that is what they do when you edit it - making it transparent for users to see what was changed.

Twitter's current approach to editing features has been met with resistance from the company, but Musk believes his version would include time restrictions, which would eliminate scams, bots, and bought armies on Twitter. These issues have affected him personally, as cryptocurrency scammers have impersonated him using fake accounts on various social media sites to trick people into giving away cryptocurrency. In 2020, Musk's account was also among many high-profile Twitter accounts that were hacked to push a bitcoin scam, including those of Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Kanye West, and more.

Musk has stated that bots bring down the site's product value and make it less enjoyable for users. Part of the problem is that as long as there have been people on Twitter, scams seem to always be present. The truth is that these will persist regardless of what Musk may be able to do. If he were to say to all the engineers at Twitter on day one, "stop everything you've been doing, I don't care about anything else, don't investigate new shades of blue, just keep the Twitter birds' wings the same size", and tell them to focus only on stopping scam bots, he could cut down on a lot of what's going on. However, it's a very tough thing to do, even for some of the best minds in the tech industry.

Musk also believes that Twitter's coding structure should be transparent. Social media users have complained that algorithms control their lives, encouraging them to spend more time on their platforms and using their data to send them targeted ads. Musk has talked about possibly open sourcing Twitter's algorithm, which means making available the code that makes Twitter choose what goes in your timeline when you're reading it. He would post this open-source data on GitHub, a popular forum for coders, so people can access the company's data identify flaws and offer solutions.

However, making Twitter's algorithm public risks sharing the information with bad actors who would abuse it. Musk added that users should know whether tweets were being promoted or de-emphasized manually or algorithmically, rather than permanent bands from Twitter advocating for temporary suspensions instead. The acquisition of Twitter is just one in a long line of billionaires increasingly investing in media organizations. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta formerly Facebook, bought Instagram in 2012 for one billion dollars, and WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion. Facebook came under scrutiny from both lawmakers and social media users.

Jeff Bezos, founder and former CEO of Amazon purchased The Washington Post in 2013 without any prior business experience in the media industry. However, Twitter's board of directors accepted Musk's offer, and the acquisition isn't final until the deal is put to a shareholder vote, which is expected to close this year. It's unclear how much Musk's acquisition will alter Twitter's policies or even its stock price, but one thing is clear: change is coming to Twitter, and it won't be the same as it was yesterday.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enafter plenty of speculation and plot twist twitter's board of directors has accepted tesla chief elon musk's bid to buy the social media giant for 44 billion dollars two sides reportedly met on april 24th to discuss musk's proposal the tech mogul will pay shareholders 54.20 per share twitter was initially expected to reject musca's offer but the company reportedly warmed the idea after musk revealed his financing plan for the bid which included backing for morgan stanley the reality of this is that having watched a lot of acquisitions over the years and seeing companies try to fight it and then suddenly reverse their feelings on it usually it means that they tried to find someone else and they couldn't right they either couldn't get the value that they wanted or it just became abundantly clear that there was no way to truly stop this and that seems to be what is going on at least in this case with twitter musk first made the unsolicited offer to buy twitter earlier this month he said if it was rejected he'd consider his position as the company's single largest shareholder which could have affected the company's stock price musca's acquisition of twitter is the latest in a timeline of escalating events between the billionaire and the social media site musk's original offer came days after he refused to join twitter's board of directors after acquiring a 9.2 stake in the company in march with news of the acquisition users quickly took to twitter to share mixed feelings about the richest man in the world owning the highly influential social media platform despite pushback from some experts say twitter's board was likely focused on what could be best for the future of the social media platform as well as its shareholders the board's job is not to pick the best person to buy twitter their job is to pick the best deal it's all about the dollar signs at the end musk says he's not looking to make money from twitter that is he doesn't view the acquisition as a financial investment instead he sees it as a service for public good i think what is important is that elon musk seems very clearly upset by the way twitter operates and he sees an opportunity to change that and for him the politics of doing that are worth more it seems than a profit and if he happens to make a profit all the better for him elon musk is one of twitter's most prolific users and one of its biggest critics since acquiring a stake in the company musk has been tweeting about changes he'd like to see on the platform including more transparent content moderation eliminating ads on twitter's subscription service and creating an edit button which twitter is already working on musk says he wants to increase the public's trust of the platform by making it a place of inclusivity and true freedom of speech but the first amendment doesn't apply to private companies like twitter which can create their own rules about what's allowed twitter has become kind of the de facto town square really important that people have the both the uh the reality and the perception uh that they are able to speak freely within the bounds of the law as a platform twitter has helped drive social movements like the arab spring the me too movement and even black lives matter it's also been used as a tool for misinformation and harassment so the question is what does this mean for twitter users musk has spoken openly about what he hopes to change at twitter and has even polled his followers about the addition of features like an edit button one of the most requested features from twitter users twitter has been working on an edit feature since 2021 but has expressed concerns that the tool could lead to issues such as people sharing tweets that are then altered to change their meaning the concern that a lot of people have is that you could put out something a lot of people retweet it or like it or whatever and then you change it completely right imagine i put out a tweet that says the sky is blue and everyone says yeah good job that's a great tweet and then i wait a day and then i switch it to say the sky is gray or the sky is purple and suddenly everyone liked that other one right there are ways to solve this right there have been facebook for example showed that you could have a history of the message that's what they do when you edit it they they actually is a transparent thing it's right there you can find out what was changed but twitter may have a different opinion about this they very clearly do and they've resisted it for a very long time musk has said his version of an edit button would include time restrictions and would zero out any retweets eliminating scams bots and bought armies on twitter would also be a top priority for musk something that has affected him personally cryptocurrency scammers have impersonated musk using fake accounts on various social media sites to trick people into giving away cryptocurrency in 2020 musk's account was also among many high-profile twitter accounts that were hacked to push a bitcoin scam including barack obama bill gates kanye west and more musk has said that bots bring down the site's product value and make it less enjoyable for users part of the problem is that the you know as long as there have been people there seem to have always been scams of some sort and the truth of it is that those will persist regardless what he may be able to do right if he says to all the engineers at twitter on day one hey stop everything you've been doing i don't care about anything else don't investigate new shades of blue we don't care anymore keep the twitter birds wings the same size i want you to focus only on stopping scam bots he could cut down on a lot of what's going on but it's a very tough thing to do and even some of the best minds in the tech industry have struggled to fix it musk also believes twitter's coding structure should be transparent social media users have complained that algorithms control their lives encouraging them to spend more time on their platforms and using their data to send them targeted ads one of the things elon musk has talked about is possibly open sourcing twitter's algorithm right so in in english that means making available the code that makes twitter choose what goes in your timeline when you're reading it musk said if he acquired twitter he would post its open source data on github a popular forum for coders so people can access the company's data identify flaws and offer solutions however making twitter's algorithm public risk sharing the information with bad actors who would abuse it look if these companies wrote down in black and white here are the rules we have everyone who wants to act in bad faith will try to find ways to step right up to the line and tiptoe over it but never go far enough and that is part of why they're very hesitant to put the stuff out there it's not because they want us to all be confused although that is a really frustrating result of it a lot of it is because the people who want to cause the most harm on on the internet that's another tool for them to be able to cause harm musk added that users should know whether tweets were being promoted or de-emphasized manually or algorithmically he cautioned against permanent bands from twitter advocating for temporary suspensions instead muska's acquisition of twitter is just one in a long line of billionaires increasingly investing in media organizations mark zuckerberg founder and ceo of meta formerly facebook bought instagram in 2012 for one billion dollars and what's app in 2014 for 19 billion dollars which came under scrutiny from both lawmakers and social media users jeff bezos founder and former ceo of amazon purchased the washington post in 2013 without any prior business experience in the media industry though twitter's board of directors accepted musca's offer the acquisition isn't final until the deal is put to a shareholder vote something expected to close this year it's unclear how much musca's acquisition will alter twitter its policies or even its stock price what is clear is that change is coming to twitter there are a million things that could happen but it's not going to be the same twitter tomorrow as we had yesterday and that's what's most importantafter plenty of speculation and plot twist twitter's board of directors has accepted tesla chief elon musk's bid to buy the social media giant for 44 billion dollars two sides reportedly met on april 24th to discuss musk's proposal the tech mogul will pay shareholders 54.20 per share twitter was initially expected to reject musca's offer but the company reportedly warmed the idea after musk revealed his financing plan for the bid which included backing for morgan stanley the reality of this is that having watched a lot of acquisitions over the years and seeing companies try to fight it and then suddenly reverse their feelings on it usually it means that they tried to find someone else and they couldn't right they either couldn't get the value that they wanted or it just became abundantly clear that there was no way to truly stop this and that seems to be what is going on at least in this case with twitter musk first made the unsolicited offer to buy twitter earlier this month he said if it was rejected he'd consider his position as the company's single largest shareholder which could have affected the company's stock price musca's acquisition of twitter is the latest in a timeline of escalating events between the billionaire and the social media site musk's original offer came days after he refused to join twitter's board of directors after acquiring a 9.2 stake in the company in march with news of the acquisition users quickly took to twitter to share mixed feelings about the richest man in the world owning the highly influential social media platform despite pushback from some experts say twitter's board was likely focused on what could be best for the future of the social media platform as well as its shareholders the board's job is not to pick the best person to buy twitter their job is to pick the best deal it's all about the dollar signs at the end musk says he's not looking to make money from twitter that is he doesn't view the acquisition as a financial investment instead he sees it as a service for public good i think what is important is that elon musk seems very clearly upset by the way twitter operates and he sees an opportunity to change that and for him the politics of doing that are worth more it seems than a profit and if he happens to make a profit all the better for him elon musk is one of twitter's most prolific users and one of its biggest critics since acquiring a stake in the company musk has been tweeting about changes he'd like to see on the platform including more transparent content moderation eliminating ads on twitter's subscription service and creating an edit button which twitter is already working on musk says he wants to increase the public's trust of the platform by making it a place of inclusivity and true freedom of speech but the first amendment doesn't apply to private companies like twitter which can create their own rules about what's allowed twitter has become kind of the de facto town square really important that people have the both the uh the reality and the perception uh that they are able to speak freely within the bounds of the law as a platform twitter has helped drive social movements like the arab spring the me too movement and even black lives matter it's also been used as a tool for misinformation and harassment so the question is what does this mean for twitter users musk has spoken openly about what he hopes to change at twitter and has even polled his followers about the addition of features like an edit button one of the most requested features from twitter users twitter has been working on an edit feature since 2021 but has expressed concerns that the tool could lead to issues such as people sharing tweets that are then altered to change their meaning the concern that a lot of people have is that you could put out something a lot of people retweet it or like it or whatever and then you change it completely right imagine i put out a tweet that says the sky is blue and everyone says yeah good job that's a great tweet and then i wait a day and then i switch it to say the sky is gray or the sky is purple and suddenly everyone liked that other one right there are ways to solve this right there have been facebook for example showed that you could have a history of the message that's what they do when you edit it they they actually is a transparent thing it's right there you can find out what was changed but twitter may have a different opinion about this they very clearly do and they've resisted it for a very long time musk has said his version of an edit button would include time restrictions and would zero out any retweets eliminating scams bots and bought armies on twitter would also be a top priority for musk something that has affected him personally cryptocurrency scammers have impersonated musk using fake accounts on various social media sites to trick people into giving away cryptocurrency in 2020 musk's account was also among many high-profile twitter accounts that were hacked to push a bitcoin scam including barack obama bill gates kanye west and more musk has said that bots bring down the site's product value and make it less enjoyable for users part of the problem is that the you know as long as there have been people there seem to have always been scams of some sort and the truth of it is that those will persist regardless what he may be able to do right if he says to all the engineers at twitter on day one hey stop everything you've been doing i don't care about anything else don't investigate new shades of blue we don't care anymore keep the twitter birds wings the same size i want you to focus only on stopping scam bots he could cut down on a lot of what's going on but it's a very tough thing to do and even some of the best minds in the tech industry have struggled to fix it musk also believes twitter's coding structure should be transparent social media users have complained that algorithms control their lives encouraging them to spend more time on their platforms and using their data to send them targeted ads one of the things elon musk has talked about is possibly open sourcing twitter's algorithm right so in in english that means making available the code that makes twitter choose what goes in your timeline when you're reading it musk said if he acquired twitter he would post its open source data on github a popular forum for coders so people can access the company's data identify flaws and offer solutions however making twitter's algorithm public risk sharing the information with bad actors who would abuse it look if these companies wrote down in black and white here are the rules we have everyone who wants to act in bad faith will try to find ways to step right up to the line and tiptoe over it but never go far enough and that is part of why they're very hesitant to put the stuff out there it's not because they want us to all be confused although that is a really frustrating result of it a lot of it is because the people who want to cause the most harm on on the internet that's another tool for them to be able to cause harm musk added that users should know whether tweets were being promoted or de-emphasized manually or algorithmically he cautioned against permanent bands from twitter advocating for temporary suspensions instead muska's acquisition of twitter is just one in a long line of billionaires increasingly investing in media organizations mark zuckerberg founder and ceo of meta formerly facebook bought instagram in 2012 for one billion dollars and what's app in 2014 for 19 billion dollars which came under scrutiny from both lawmakers and social media users jeff bezos founder and former ceo of amazon purchased the washington post in 2013 without any prior business experience in the media industry though twitter's board of directors accepted musca's offer the acquisition isn't final until the deal is put to a shareholder vote something expected to close this year it's unclear how much musca's acquisition will alter twitter its policies or even its stock price what is clear is that change is coming to twitter there are a million things that could happen but it's not going to be the same twitter tomorrow as we had yesterday and that's what's most important\n"