Twitter Receives Public Criticisms and Suggestions From Biggest Shareholder Elon Musk

Twitter is already looking at criticisms and possible changes just after it has appointed its newest board member in the company, Elon Musk.

Just recently, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO and founder have recently bought the largest stake in the social media company. After buying 9.2% of shares, the new Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, invited Musk to be part of the company's board members.

Elon Musk Tweets Again

Musk tweeted multiple ideas and hot takes about the social media company on Sunday, April 10. Musk has always been well known for being an influential figure who tweets his ideas — even though controversial at times.

Elon Musk's tweets are also popularly known to move the prices of certain cryptocurrencies.

In addition to that, just recently, Musk tweeted saying that the company should get into a paid subscription for Twitter Blue, and any player who does, should get an authentication checkmark.

Twitter, among other tech companies, relies on their company's revenue through advertisements. With that, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO clarified that he would like the platform to have no ads. As reported by ABC News, he reiterated that the authentication checkmark for Twitter subscribers should be different from the ones for public and official account holders.

Musk added: "And no ads. The power of corporations to dictate policy is greatly enhanced if Twitter depends on advertising money to survive.. But should be different from 'public figure' or 'official account' checkmark."

Another Twitter user replied to Musk about his idea and asked for the subscription to be affordable for everyone to be able to subscribe. The new Twitter board member agreed and also suggested maybe accepting Doge coins as payment.

Musk tweeted multiple times in response, "Yes, should be proportionate to affordability & in local currency," "Maybe even an option to pay in Doge?"

Another Twitter user also agreed with Musk stating that by doing the paid subscription, it would be easier to get verified and avoid bots on the platform. And Musk also responded, "Exactly. It would massively expand the verified pool & make bot armies too expensive to maintain."

Twitter Subscription

Assuming that this idea would be implemented by the company, a Twitter user raised the question of what will happen after that monthly subscription ($3/month) comes to an end or is over? Would "people" still be able to keep their verification checkmark? Or the subscription has to be renewed in order to get that checkmark back again?

Musk tweeted in reply that it should be removed, or scammers will exploit the system by signing up for a short period of time. The price should probably be $2/month, but it is paid in advance for 12 months, and the account does not get a checkmark for 60 days (be on the lookout for credit card chargebacks), and it gets suspended with no refund if used for scam/spam.

On the other hand, Elon Musk also expressed dismay at the annoying reader bar on Twitter that pops up below every tweet. Musk iterates this publicly as one of his concerns.

Musk said: "But it's not very useful. I turned it off. Also, there is this annoying 'Reader' bar that now shows up below every tweet."

Lastly, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO also tweeted a quite controversial poll, trolling Twitter employees who work from home.

Musk made a poll saying "Convert Twitter SF HQ to homeless shelter since no one shows up anyway." As of writing, the poll garnered 1,864,884 votes, 91.5% favored yes, and 8.5% voted no.