Optimistic About Musk Twitter

Everyone has an opinion about Elon Musk buying Twitter, so I'll share mine - I'm optimistic. Here's why:

1) Twitter right now is a cesspool of negativity. Take any popular person, and read the replies to their tweets - you will be horrified. I'm not just talking about rudeness, but vitriolic racist, mysogenistic, bigoted and every other form of completely disgusting words are used - its like people in their cars behind their windows who think they are in a private space, and pick their noses - just that picking your nose is no where near as bad as the stuff being said. I highlight this because, its not like we have something amazing to protect - we need to change things up, and try something different, because the status quo sucks!

2) Elon makes products people love. The level of love amongst Tesla owners is through the roof - don't believe me, look at Consumer Reports ratings of customer satisfaction - Tesla has been #1 for years. SpaceX has the best rocket systems anywhere - its why NASA took the unusual step to sole source the moon landing system with SpaceX. Boring Company's Las Vegas Tunnel got rave reviews. How about PayPal - people loved that product when it came out . Bottom line, Elon Musk's companies have been focused on creating products people want to use, not just want to use, but love to use. What do you think his intentions are with Twitter? To make it a product people love to use!

3) Material flaws with Twitter are on the chopping block with Musk - lets start with Bots! Do Bots add any value to creating a positive experience on Twitter - you want to look at drivers of misinformation, think about how quickly bots can spread misinformation vs. individual humans. And how about scams - have you seen the level of bot activity trying to push crypto scams? If you haven't, just look at the responses to any Musk tweet - you'll spot them right upfront.

4) Removing the weaponization of cancelling accounts - yes, on all sides, the reporting of accounts for mis-behavior has been weaponized to shut down opposing points of view. No surprise, I'm an active Tesla fan - and on Twitter, there is a strong pro-Tesla crowd, and to be friendly, I'll call it a Tesla critical crowd - individuals on both sides target active users on the other side by reporting them to Twitter to have their accounts deactivated. Its a battle that will end with no Twitter, as everyone will be deactivated ... you may have people you think should not have Twitter accounts, but don't forget there are people you support, that others will want to cancel - it goes both ways!

5) Making people more real ... as noted above, many accounts act like they are behind a wall, and can say anything with no consequence ... what's the solution? Musk wants to allow for authentication of all users. What does this mean - this would not be required, but could I filter to only see authenticated people - likely. Will authenticated people practice a little more self restraint than anonymous users - I think so. Something changes when you can't simply hide behind a fake name and random avatar.

6) Removing (or reducing) the influence of advertisers - it will be interesting to see how Musk can do this, and still have an economically viable business, but if it can be done, I can only see goodness. Advertising is a necessary element in making many products/services available to the masses, and while this is good, they distort a companies behavior - the classic saying, of what is the product - with an ad supported platform, the users are the product, and the advertisers are the customer. The incentives are clearly in favor of ensuring your "customer" is happy, and the customer is not the public!

I'm sure there are more reasons - and for those that are concerned with a Musk Twitter, I have heard many of these concerns, I understand your concerns, and I share some of them, but for the reasons stated above, I am hopeful that the changes Musk plans will result in a social media platform that is a positive influence on society - call me crazy, and this blog may not age well, but that's where I stand today.