Higher income and increased freedom for journalists: Elon Musk

Elon Musk has brought several changes to Twitter since its acquisition, all of which have been sudden and hurried into implementation. However, a sizeable chunk of users have also enjoyed these changes. Recent changes included the very name of Twitter to X, increasing the word limit, enabling editing of a tweet, and introducing the addition of long-form videos up to 2 hours on the platform to name a few, a new item joins the list.

Musk, has been pushing to remove headlines from news articles shared on X in the form of tweets, as a barter, he tweeted an offer to the journalists to report on X directly for a higher income as well. His tweet read, “If you’re a journalist who wants more freedom to write and a higher income, then publish directly on this platform”

Musk has been open about his desire to make X an ‘everything app’. Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X seems to agree however, they admit it is a challenge to make even one good social media network in their recent tweet. “We may fail, as so many have predicted, but we will try our best to make there be at least one,” he wrote. Re-sharing Musk’s tweet, X CEO Yaccarino wrote, “There is an important place in the world for X.”

Musk decided to scrape off the headlines to reportedly reduce clickbait and improve the UI (User Interface) design and overall user experience. This means any link shared will display the cover photo and URL overlay only. Musk did the same with the advertisers on X, who have reluctantly accepted it as the owner spearheads the decision regardless.

Several questions are still left hanging due to the inconveniently succinct tweet of the X owner, how can a journalist apply for remuneration? What parameters are to be met? What is the scale to ascertain monetary compensation? How will users distinguish reliable sources from non-reliable ones?  

 The Tesla Founder had earlier talked about plans to allow media publishers on the platform to charge users to read their articles. Users will be charged on a “per article basis” and will end up paying more if they don’t sign up for a monthly subscription, he had said. However, this was never substantiated.

Meanwhile, X now faces a copyright case in France by the AFP news agency, which comes in the midst of calls from media groups to share profits from social media posts. AFP shared that it has lodged the case to force X to hand over data that would allow it to estimate a fair level of compensation.

Rumours have it that Musk may also bring about features in X that facilitate job search and job hiring thereby directly competing with LinkedIn. The competitiveness will only increase now that X has proved its mettle against a lazy attempt by Zuckerberg’s ‘Threads’ introduction.

Please, have a look also : Women of Asia at higher risk of breast and cervical cancers: Study