Twitter will levy 'slight cost' on business and government users, hints Musk

As vague details of his plans for Twitter emerge, MPs invite Musk to Parliament to enlighten them

Ever since news broke that Elon Musk was investing heavily in Twitter, first by buying a large number of shares and then with a $43.4 billion hostile takeover bid, there has been speculation as to what his plans might be for the influential social media platform - or indeed if he has any clear plans at all.

$43.4 billion is an enormous sum to pay for a company with $5 billion of debts which only earns around $5 billion per year (Facebook makes 20 times that amount), and while some of that sum comes from his own personal fortunes, around half will be lent by investment banks who will want to see a return - even if Musk might see Twitter's value as a publicity machine as more important than its financial returns. Musk has also said that Twitter should not be so reliant on advertising.

As ever, with his preference for gnomic ambiguity, Musk has been light on the detail and even contradictory when discussing his plans for the platform, but in a tweet yesterday he suggests some sort of direction of travel.

While Twitter will always be free for "casual users", according to Musk, commercial and government accounts should expect "a slight cost". The exact definition of casual users and commercial accounts is not made clear.

Musk has also raised eyebrows with his apparent commitment to "free speech absolutism" and veiled threats to roll back Twitter's belated efforts to bolster its moderation practices to detoxify the platform. Definitions of free speech differ around the world, but most would balk at allowing terrorist groups, child abusers, human traffickers and spam merchants a guaranteed platform to promote their activities. There are always boundaries, and regulation of online platforms is moving in the opposite direction in many parts of the world. Away from these edge cases, guaranteeing a megaphone for the best resourced will only exacerbate existing power imbalances.

To tackle the issue of bots, Musk has suggested that all humans users should be verified. Bots and their role in spreading disinformation are obviously hugely problematic - but so is demanding verification which makes it much easier for abusers to create social graphs and to build a clear picture of their off-Twitter activities - as well as being downright dangerous for many in repressive regimes - and these days we could all be living in one of those sooner than we know.

There are also reports that Musk will seek to sell Twitter again after as little as three years.

Musk invited to the House of Commons

Whatever his plans, the UK government wants to find out more. Julian Knight, chair of the Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee, has invited Musk to the UK to enlighten MPs.

In a statement published on Tuesday, Knight wrote: "At a time when social media companies face the prospect of tighter regulations around the world, we're keen to learn more about how Mr Musk will balance his clear commitment to free speech with new obligations to protect Twitter's users from online harms.

"Appearing before the committee will give Mr Musk an ideal opportunity to set out his proposals for Twitter in more depth, and we would look forward to welcoming him."

In circles

Musk is expected to take over Twitter later this year. In the meantime, the social media platform has been testing new innovations, the latest being Circles - the ability to restrict a tweet to small groups of up to 150 people. Coincidentally or not, 150 is Dunbar's Number, the theoretical maximum number of human relationships that an individual can sustain.

The identities of users in a Circle are only visible to individuals within that group, and tweets shared to a Circle cannot be retweeted. Strangely, once you are in a Circle you cannot leave, only block or mute others within it.

The experimental feature is being rolled out to selected users around the world.