He wants to force his paid subscription to Twitter including account authentication, one of his flagship projects for the platform, after a first attempt marked by great confusion and the influx of fake accounts.
The Twitter platform gave some information on Monday throughout the day, explaining on its site that the subscription would initially be available in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, for $8 per month, or $11 for owners of Apple devices.
However, at the end of the day GMT, it was not yet possible to subscribe. The main interest for those who agree to pay money: a checkmark that is supposed to certify the identity of the subscriber, blue for individuals, golden for companies, grey for institutions.
In order to obtain this authentication, users must have had an account for at least 90 days associated with a verified phone number that does not appear “misleading or deceptive.
Also, they must have been active at least once in the previous month and not have changed their profile picture or name on Twitter in the previous week. Users who already have a check mark will, a priori, be able to keep it without paying, according to the detailed terms of use published by Twitter.
During the first attempt to launch a new subscription formula, in early November 2022, had seen, an outbreak of accounts posing as those of celebrities or large companies and contradictory messages. The project was then suspended and then postponed several times.
This new strategy should allow Twitter to diversify its revenue beyond advertising. Revenues from the latter have indeed declined in recent months with the economic slowdown, while many advertisers were scalded by the takeover of the platform by Elon Musk, fearing to find their ads with controversial content.
Elon Musk, who presents himself as a defender of free speech and regularly claims that Twitter used to be biased in favor of left-wing ideas, has indeed significantly reduced the number of staff in charge of moderation and allowed the return on the platform of suspended personalities, such as Donald Trump.
Elon Musk himself published a series of polemical messages this weekend, attacking in turn the outgoing White House advisor on the pandemic Anthony Fauci, the former head of security of Twitter Yoel Roth or even the non-gender pronouns.
He’s also trying to get attention by promoting what he’s dubbed “Twitter files” for the past ten days, internal documents that supposedly illustrate questionable moderation practices. “I don’t understand what he’s trying to do” with these sweeping statements, reacted Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies. Maybe it’s a tactic to attract more people and thus sell more subscriptions, she suggests.
It is clear that his positioning is very badly perceived. But his strategy remains obscure, says Carolina Milanesi. Elon Musk “wants to be seen as the one who saves democracy, but can he really do that with the anti-vaccines” or the conspiracy theorists? She wonders. Invited to a show stage in San Francisco by comedian Dave Chappelle on Sunday, the richest man in the world was welcomed by a mixture of applause and copious booing.
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