X will charge users ‘a small monthly payment’ to use its service::X owner Elon Musk today floated the idea that the social network formerly known as Twitter may no longer be a free site. In a live-streamed conversation

  • @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    Look, we can hate Twitter and Musk all we want, but (a) the headline is absurdly false and (b) charging small amounts from every user instead of having an ad-funded business is probably the most honest and fair way to have a healthy internet and I for one would welcome the change. If Twitter becomes paid-only and removes all advertising and tracking (that’s the the big if) it can find its way to become the only sustainable and (dare I say?) ethical social media network around.

    I strongly believe that a lot of the decline in the quality of civic debate and the increasing polarization of our society is unhealthy and can be traced back to the point where online media started depending on “eyeballs” and advertisers. (Don’t believe me? Just check the headline and read the article, now see how it outright LIED in the headline to make you click). Every news media channel became more and more tabloid-like in a desperate attempt to keep their viewership numbers, quantity over quality became the norm and everything became a “market audience” segmented to perform well to specific editorial guidelines.

    To have meaningful change and actual progress, we need to have a healthy media that is focused on pursuing the truth. The current landscape is just a popularity contest. If people are able to vote with their wallets and if they become more than just a number , the people holding the megaphones will win more by paying attention to us than by treating us as cattle who can be milked out.

    • @[email protected]
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      201 year ago

      charging small amounts from every user instead of having an ad-funded business is probably the most honest and fair way to have a healthy internet

      I agree, but wouldn’t you think it’s far more likely that they would charge small amounts from every user AND have an ad-funded business?

      • @[email protected]
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        41 year ago

        This is why I am not holding my hopes up for Twitter, but I do believe that the Fediverse can work because we can have many different small service providers that would all compete for its customers, and not having ads would be definitely an advantage.

    • @[email protected]
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      141 year ago

      He still shows ads to Twitter blue subscribers, of course he would keep showing them to everyone if he charged them

    • @Blinx615
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      1 year ago

      Lol but it will still be owned by Elon so I’m out. He draws the wrong crowd.