The 2024 election, although, will probably be a distinct story. By then, if the deal is consummated, Mr. Musk may have been in a position to extra absolutely mildew Twitter in his personal picture. The platform may look radically totally different by then — extra right-wing trolls, fewer guardrails towards misinformation and extremism — or it could possibly be largely the identical. However Mr. Musk will probably be firmly in cost, and if Twitter nonetheless performs anyplace close to the function in American political and media tradition that it does right this moment, he’ll emerge as a central, polarizing determine within the 2024 election cycle.
Republicans are, for apparent causes, enthusiastic about Mr. Musk’s taking on. However the final political penalties of his possession are tougher to foretell. It’s theoretically doable — although, I concede, most likely unlikely — that Mr. Musk’s proudly owning Twitter could possibly be good for Democrats in 2022 and 2024, if it permits extra Republican politicians to stake out excessive positions on Twitter that find yourself backfiring on them on the poll field.
However no matter strikes Mr. Musk makes earlier than 2024, it’s a superb guess that they are going to be carefully scrutinized for indicators that he’s placing his thumb on the size.
Twitter will kill unpopular options, go after bots and introduce new subscription merchandise.
Among the most revealing exchanges in Mr. Musk’s trove of textual content messages have been about his ideas on Twitter’s merchandise.
Specifically, Mr. Musk was dismissive of Twitter Blue, the corporate’s subscription-based product that offers customers entry to premium options like ad-free articles and an undo button for tweets. Maybe surprisingly, given his love of cryptocurrency, Mr. Musk additionally appeared skeptical of proposals to rebuild Twitter on a decentralized blockchain, saying that “blockchain Twitter received’t work.”
Based mostly on his statements, and pitches he made to buyers this summer time whereas attempting to tug a deal collectively, I’d count on Mr. Musk to make a number of adjustments to Twitter’s merchandise early on. First, he’ll transfer to close down lots of Twitter’s noncore options — together with a few of these in Twitter Blue, but additionally every other options that don’t generate a lot income for the corporate. He’ll attempt to rid the positioning of spam bots, an issue that he has lengthy singled out as one of many worst elements of Twitter. (And which fashioned the idea of his spurious try to get out of the Twitter deal, again earlier than he determined to purchase it once more.)
Mr. Musk may even attempt to shift Twitter away from promoting income and towards different moneymaking alternatives — together with funds options, data-licensing agreements and a mysterious new subscription product, which he has referred to as solely X, and which he has claimed may have 104 million paying customers by 2028.