Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, has stated that for government officials around the world, including President Muhammadu Buhari, and business ventures to use the micro-blogging site, they will have to pay for it.
Since Twitter board agreed to sell the platform to Musk on Monday, April 25, 2022, there have been concerns from the tech community and users, as many expressed worry that the company’s new leadership will charge for its usage.
BizWatch Nigeria had reported that Musk became the new owner of Twitter with almost $43 billion in cash.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk was quoted as saying in a joint statement announcing the takeover.
Addressing the commercialisation concerns, Musk said aside from casual users, commercial and government users, including Buhari, will pay for using Twitter.
Justifying his designed business model for Twitter, the billionaire investor stated that free services led to the downfall of great businesses.
His tweets read: “Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users.
“Some revenue is better than none!
“Ultimately, the downfall of the Freemasons was giving away their stonecutting services for nothing.”
Concerns about Twitter and the business model of Musk
For many critics, Twitter has acted very unfairly toward political leaders in the past, particularly under the leadership of Jack Dorsey, who bowed out of the company in November 2021.
Under Dorsey’s leadership, Twitter ousted the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, on a claim that he incited his followers to cause a riot in the capitol.
In a similar vein, the micro-blogging site deleted a tweet made by Buhari, on a claim that it is hate speech, referencing Nigeria’s historical genocide.
BizWatch Nigeria understands that the two aforementioned events have made a lot of people more critical of Twitter. However, with Musk’s strategy of charging government officials, there are concerns if the micro-blogging site will be able to maintain its energy as it relates to sanctioning governments around the world.
