What Really Changes in Our Lives After Elon Musk Becomes the Owner of Twitter?
This past Monday (25th), Twitter announced the sale of its shares to billionaire Elon Musk for $44 billion (approximately R$220 billion). After nearly 30 days of negotiations and attacks on the blue bird network, shareholders succumbed to pressure and came to the negotiating table. But what actually changes in our lives with this shift in Twitter ownership?
Zero Tolerance for Bots
Have you ever wondered how some accounts manage to have thousands, sometimes millions, of followers yet almost no engagement in their posts? Or perhaps you’ve come across a post filled with hateful comments, only to find the profiles behind them are empty and inactive. These are Twitter bots, operating in the interest of organizations or groups, often with political agendas.
Elon Musk has repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with the bots scattered across the platform, calling them the network’s biggest problem and blaming them for reducing the service's quality.
Although no specific date has been set for these adjustments, Musk has stated that tackling bots is one of his top priorities.
With Brazil’s presidential elections approaching, this could be an interesting development. Those who followed the previous election cycle on social media witnessed how bots were used to hinder the campaigns of political candidates (particularly left-leaning ones) through misinformation and character attacks.
"Moderated" Moderation
In contrast to other social media platforms, Musk has indicated that Twitter will not enforce strict content moderation policies. Citing "freedom of expression," he says users will be free to express themselves without fear of punishment.
Returning to the context of elections, unlike the potentially positive effects of reducing bots on the platform, this lack of content moderation is likely to result in a wave of misinformation from political profiles and their supporters. There are even rumors of the potential reinstatement of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s account. In Brazil, where misinformation on social media is already a significant issue, this could exacerbate an already precarious situation.
Edit Post Button
This is another of Musk’s priorities and, undoubtedly, one of the most anticipated changes for users. By far, this feature will most impact your day-to-day experience on the blue bird platform. Tweets of any date will become editable. Musk even conducted a poll on his profile to gauge support for an "Edit Post" button, receiving overwhelming approval from his 80+ million followers.
However, this change could have repercussions on less well-intentioned profiles, creating opportunities to cover up traces of bad behavior or erase embarrassing moments from the past. Still, as the saying goes: you can delete it, but the screenshot is eternal.
What Do You Think?
Will these changes make you feel safer when consuming content on Twitter?
This article was written by Jota Batista, an International Relations student at Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul.
