It would be hard to avoid the news of Twitter’s acquisition by billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk as the sale has certainly not been drama-free.
The acquisition was officially completed on 27 October, and Musk immediately fired top Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal, whom he replaced with himself. One of his first announced policy decisions was to institute an $8 monthly fee for a “blue tick”.
Musk’s move has undoubtedly raised questions about social media ethics and the monetisation of status online. We spoke to Dr Gregoire Burel, Research Fellow in the OU’s Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) who had previously, along with colleagues, written about the possible consequences of Musk’s intent to buy out Twitter.
“It is hard to speculate about the impact of policies that have not been applied yet and may significantly change by the time they come into force.
“For example, since Musk took over Twitter just over a week ago, he has rapidly changed his stance about monetising “blue ticks”. Initially, it was reported that a $20/month fee will be necessary for a verified account to keep its checked status. Now, it appears that it will cost $8/month and be available to all.
“Rightfully, there has been a large amount of concern about how it may impact the spread of misinformation as individuals lose their ‘blue ticks’ and bots and impersonating accounts gain the coveted status making it harder to distinguish between real and fake accounts.
“Although Musk has assured that no moderation policy has been changed since his takeover, an increase in hate speech on the platform has been observed shortly after the announcement as racist and extremist users celebrated the news. In a now-deleted tweet, Musk himself was also seen as tweeting a link to a misinforming website relating to the recent attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
“As Twitter currently loses money, Musk needs to find ways to make the company more profitable and sees a subscription model as a way to reduce the company’s debt despite the company making most of its earnings from advertising.
“At least in the short term, Twitter needs to retain advertisers to keep the company afloat. That means reining in hate speech and misinformation on the platform. Although Musk has tried to reassure companies, General Motors has already announced that it was pausing advertising on Twitter over platform directions uncertainties and there has been rumblings of other large organisations following suit.
“Hate speech laws are also likely to impact the shape of moderation on the platform. For instance, Twitter will need to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA requires online platforms to “mitigate against risks such as disinformation or election manipulation, cyber violence against women, or harms to minors online”. Musk has already assured that Twitter will abide by these rules.
“Although a few early signs point towards a potential increase in hate speech spread since Musk took over Twitter, it is too early to speculate about how misinformation will spread as new policies are implemented. In any case, Twitter needs advertising revenue and needs to comply with laws relating to misinformation and hate speech. This means that Musk will need to find a balance between a moderated and a free-for-all platform.”
Asked about today’s (4 November) news of mass layoffs beginning at Twitter, Dr Burel said it was concerning:
“Obviously, information is scarce at the moment about where the cuts are made so we do not know much about how they will affect the platform.
“However, the news about the mass layoff could be cause for concern about Twitter’s ability to moderate content, particularly the speed at which they can remove harmful or false tweets with a heavily reduced workforce. Only time will tell how much impact this will have.”
