Twitter: Elon Musk wants to make “meaningful improvements”

Will Elon Musk shake up everything at Twitter? It’s off to a good start…. Only a few hours after officially becoming the first shareholder of the social network, the billionaire entered the board of directors and announced the color by indicating that he was going to work with Parag Agrawal, the boss of the group and Twitter to set up ” significant improvements” in the coming months.

The founder of Tesla, who has just taken 9.2% of the capital of Twitter, already seems to have several ideas in mind. And the leaders of the group are well obliged to take their side. For Parag Agrawal Elon Musk is “both an enthusiast” and a “critic” of the service, “what [nous avons] exactly what you need,” he said.

The document filed with the SEC to announce his entry to the board of directors specifies that the businessman has undertaken not to increase his stake beyond 14.9%.

Even before the word of welcome from the leaders of Twitter, Elon Musk, who has some 80 million subscribers on the social network, had begun to propose ideas that could modify the micro-blogging site in depth. He launched a poll to find out if users wanted an edit button. Informal survey which had already received, Tuesday afternoon, more than 3.5 million votes.

The risk of altering the meaning of a tweet

This is not the first time that Twitter users have asked for an edit button to correct tweets, modify them (after they have been sent), in particular to review the spelling.

But so far, the group with the blue bird had always refused. Even in Twitter Blue, a premium and paid version of Twitter (with fewer ads and more features) available in some countries like the United States, there is no edit button. There is certainly the possibility of canceling a tweet a few seconds after having published it, but only before it is visible on Twitter.

1^er April, the company had indicated with a terse tweet that it was working on the subject of an edit button, but it was… April Fools.

What is the problem with this famous button? The possibility that an influential user edits a tweet by changing its meaning, after having received retweets and likes.

Elon Musk’s request now has a better chance of succeeding, insofar as he has gone in a few hours from an informed user to a decision maker.

And, this isn’t the first poll that Elon Musk, himself an avid Twitter user, has launched.

What influence will Elon Musk have?

For example, he asked users about freedom of expression on Twitter. In the process, Elon Musk then strongly criticized Twitter, accusing it of undermining democracy.

As observers question the precise role – and influence – the world’s richest man will have in San Francisco-based society, tweets from the past few hours leave little room for doubt. .

The markets have, in any case, appreciated. After jumping 27% on Monday, the microblogging site still took 4% on Tuesday.