Since his takeover of Twitter, billionaire Elon Musk has confirmed several modifications to the microblogging platform. Musk has already made changes to the homepage of Twitter and many big changes are about to come shortly. The ‘Chief Twit’ is also evaluating the content moderation and deplatforming policies and has decided to form a special committee. Here's a look at the changes that have been confirmed by Musk so far.
New homepage
Within a day after closing his $44 billion acquisition deal of Twitter, Elon Musk decided to change the platform’s homepage.
As per his request, logged out users visiting Twitter.com will now be redirected to the Explore page that shows trending tweets and news stories, instead of a login page which encouraged user sign ups. Earlier, logged out or new users could only see a sign-up form on the homepage, encouraging the creation of an account to view tweets. Musk’s directive was implemented late Friday and it required VP involvement to override a code freeze put in place to prevent rogue staffers from making changes during the takeover process, the
Verge reported.
Paid blue ticks (verification badges)
Elon Musk is set to turn Twitter Blue, the social network’s $4.99-a-month subscription plan, into a $19.99-a-month plan, which will exclusively verify users, according to the report. Twitter users who are currently verified will be given 90 days to sign up for a paid subscription, else they would lose their blue-check status.
Musk hasn't confirmed the change, but categorically hinted that the whole process is being revamped in his reply to a tweet.
Users have been complaining about the entire verification process for years and it will be interesting to see if any changes are made to the process apart from it becoming a paid service.
New character limit
Musk also suggested that Twitter could soon expand or get rid of the 280-character limit on the platform. Responding to a tweet where he was asked if we can get rid of the character limit, or at least expand it, Musk replied, "Absolutely".
Content moderation council
After closing the deal, Musk tweeted that under his leadership, the company would form a "content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints".
He added that no major content decisions or account reinstatements will be done before the moderation council convenes.
Later, Musk clarified that that no changes to the content moderation policies have been made so far.
(Edited by : Jerome Anthony)
First Published: Oct 31, 2022 12:18 PM IST
