Of VIPs and Alpha Males---the Musk Take Over of Twitter
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Elon
Musk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter has certainly ruffled feathers. As many
observers have already noted, from his massive staff reduction to his reworking of the
checkmarks system, and elimination of “cancel culture” moderation policies, his entry
into the tech giant arena has resembled more of a “bull in the china shop”
approach to reform, or else of a mad alpha Titan who had taken an overdose of male enhancement
pills. His promotion of “de-botting” the program, by exposing it existed in the
base coding itself, was in essence an admission that Twitter was no different
than marketers who bot or create Twitter
followers unnaturally (albeit via reputable firms).
But the sudden and aggressive conversion of the
system clearly did not work out the potential fraud implications of reducing
the cost of entry into blue check status. Already we’ve seen mega firms like
Eli Lilly lose 4.37% of their stock value, when a fraudster got verified using
its name and logo, then tweeted the company was going to start manufacturing
free insulin. Disasters like this show that Musk did not really think things
through, and is probably in over his head. Hence, the “Elon-apocalypse” of
acrimony over his changes, as some observers have called it.
There is a simple solution to the verification mess,
though whether Musk will employ it is a big question. Somehow along the way,
being verified got tangled up with celebrity, VIP, or “big shot” status---though
it doesn’t need to be. Paying one (low) fee to merely establish you are a real
person, and a separate higher fee to establish you are in the “prominent public
figure” category should be two different tiers of membership. The latter would
be able to filter who can contact them to other VIPs as before, but without the
online caste system deal of “I’m real with a checkmark, but you’re not”
sanctimony. A simple $8 a month for verifying ID, but an $80 a month fee for
celebrity status (with filtering out of non-VIP messages) would solve the whole
issue.
However, Musk seems to have chosen for now to pursue
a messier path of suspending the announced changes, while setting up a more
complicated set of member tiers, that will basically remove the democratic
arrangement he promised he was moving towards. This may be dissatisfying to
both the older members who liked things the way they were and the pro-reform
side who wanted simple changes. It gives off the appearance, again, that Musk
never quite figured out how he was going to manage this tech giant company
prior to becoming the “chief Twit.” Can Elon please all sides, get the
advertisers he lost back, and avoid bankruptcy or other degrees of a train wreck
if he can’t? Stay tuned.
Ultimately, Musk’s macho endgame is to build up the valuation of Twitter with combined services (messaging, video, etc) until it
more resembles WeChat, a “one-stop shop” of social media services in Asia.
According to one commenter, “sorry, but thinking that's the way to go is wrong.
The rest of the world doesn't think like the CCP and its supporters in China. People
in the rest of the world will not like having everything in one place. And if Twitter
decides to go back to old Twitter while controlling everything in one place
that's going to be very destructive. BUT saying this adding Youtube service to Twitter even piques my interest. Being as Youtube needs a real long
content competition in the market. I just hope it's not another 30-second clip
platform.”
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