5 min readNew DelhiMay 4, 2022 03:18 PM IST
First published on: May 4, 2022 at 10:11 AM IST
Governments and commercial users might soon find that their tweets come with a price tag, at least that’s what new Twitter owner Elon Musk has hinted. Musk posted on his official Twitter handled that while the platform will always be free for casual users, there may be a slight cost for “commercial/government users.” He wrote in, “Ultimately, the downfall of the Freemasons was giving away their stonecutting services for nothing,” followed by, “Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users.”
When someone tweeted that Freemasons could not compete with ‘discount masons’, Musk replied, “Some revenue is better than none!,” which indicates he might be serious about this. Musk has long insisted that Twitter is an important part of the public discourse and that he plans to take the company private once the acquisition is over. Earlier, Reuters had reported that Musk’s business plans for Twitter included the ability to generate revenue from viral tweets. The report notes that his plans include charging a fee when a third-party website wants to quote or embed tweets from verified individuals or organisations.
The Tesla boss has also tweeted in the past about how he wants to make changes to the company’s Twitter Blue premium subscription service, which would include reducing price, banning ads, and an option to pay in the cryptocurrency dogecoin. He then deleted the tweet. He had also posted that he wanted to reduce the website’s dependence on advertising, which was deleted as well.
So clearly Musk is not joking when he says there will be a paid element to tweeting soon. The SpaceX co-founder also responded to a CNN tweet about an article which said that advocacy groups want brands to ensure that Twitter upholds content moderation policies under Musk.
“Who funds these organizations that want to control your access to information? Let’s investigate …” he wrote, replying to the tweet with the, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
When someone else posted, “Few names will sure come up, like Open Source Foundation, George Soros amongst others,” Musk replied, “I will call him and ask,” referring to George Soros, who is a billionaire investor.
The SpaceX boss also took a dig at Apple responding to an article, which states that, “PayPal Helped Spur EU Antitrust Complaint Against Apple Payments.” Musk is a former PayPal founder.
“Apple’s store is like having a 30% tax on the Internet. Definitely not ok,” he wrote, adding it was, “Literally 10 times higher than it should be,” referring to the talks. Musk also replied to some Twitter shareholders saying they will try and keep as “many shareholders as legally possible in privately held Twitter!”
Check out Musk’s latest tweets
Elon Musk’s Twitter deal was announced last Monday, April 28 and he will acquire the company for approximately $44 billion. However, the details of how he will finance this are not entirely clear at the moment. Ever since the deal was announced, Musk has continued his tweeting sprint, hinting at and talking about all sorts of changes that one can expect at the platform.
Some of his tweets have also caused backlash against Twitter employees, including its legal head Vijaya Gadde, who faced a lot of racial abuse and harassment on the platform after Musk indirectly criticised her on the platform. He later tweeted a meme mocking Gadde as well. When criticised by former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo that Musk was bullying employees, he replied saying, “What are talking about? I’m just saying Twitter needs to be politically neutral.”
Musk has also insisted that freedom of speech needs to be within the limits of the law on Twitter and he was against any censorship that went above and beyond legal limits. He has also said that the aim is to make both the far left and far right equally miserable.
Governments and commercial users might soon find that their tweets come with a price tag. (Image credit: Reuters) 
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