Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover: Five changes expected at the platform

New Delhi, Apr 28: Elon Musk, the world's richest person, bought Twitter in a US$44 billion deal, 11 days after announcing his bid for the company.

Musk, a self-described "free-speech absolutist" has promised to develop new features including "authenticating all humans." So, how exactly Twitter will change is yet to be known but let us have a look at few changes that may occur once Musk takes over the microblogging platform.

Free speech

Musk's twitter takeover has triggered a debate freedom of speech and the role of social media platforms in regulating the flow of information.

"Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," Musk said in a statement released by Twitter.

"I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots and authenticating all humans."

Musk has called for relaxing Twitter's content restrictions and described a platform free from content moderation.

The introduction of the Edit button

Musk made several suggestions about how to change Twitter, including adding an edit button for tweets and granting automatic verification marks to premium users.

There is no experimental evidence about how an edit button would change information transmission on Twitter. However, it's possible to extrapolate from previous research that analyzed deleted tweets.

There are numerous ways to retrieve deleted tweets, which allows researchers to study them.

Analysing deleting behaviour can also yield valuable clues about online credibility and disinformation.

Similarly, if Twitter adds an edit button, analysing the patterns of editing behaviour could provide insights into Twitter users' motivations and how they present themselves.

Editing tweets could allow users to selectively distort what they said, or deny making inflammatory remarks, which could complicate efforts to trace misinformation.

Twitter's algorithm should be open-source

Musk's description of a platform free from content moderation issues is troubling in light of the algorithmic harms caused by social media platforms.

The algorithm determines the priority in which tweets will become "open source" or available for the public to view and improve upon.Musk said this will help prevent "behind the scenes manipulation" such as fuelling massive foreign propaganda, which Facebook has been accused of during former US President Donald Trump's campaign.

Tackling cryptocurrency scams

American billionaire Elon Musk has declared a war on spam bots."If our twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying," read Musk's tweet. In another tweet on the thread, he added, " And authenticate all real humans."

The billionaire has often expressed his displeasure with bots. Earlier too, Musk had expressed his concerns over crypto bots that were publishing scam posts on Twitter to swindle investors.

Trump's return

There is a possibility of reinstating the account of former President Donald Trump, who was permanently banned from Twitter for his part in encouraging the January 6 insurrection.

When Trump was banned from Twitter, he resorted to putting out email press releases and trying to launch his own social media platform.

Former US president Donald Trump vowed he would not be returning to Twitter if his account was reinstated following the purchase of the platform by tech billionaire Elon Musk, announced on Monday.