Musk considers putting Twitter behind paywall after advertisers pull away
Christopher Hutton
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Elon Musk is considering implementing a paywall on Twitter as a way to generate revenue after several major corporations temporarily paused their advertising campaigns.
Musk has been in discussions with investor and ally David Sacks in recent meetings about a proposal requiring users to pay a premium subscription to access the website, according to Platformer.
Subscriptions would help recoup the revenues lost when companies such as General Mills and Pfizer withdrew their marketing campaigns over concerns about content moderation.
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At least one plan proposed by Musk and Sacks would allow users limited access to the website on a monthly basis but require them to pay if they want to access it all the time. It is unclear how serious Musk and Sacks were about the idea, or if it would be implemented soon.
The Twitter Blue team has been working nonstop since Musk’s takeover to help launch the billionaire’s proposed updates. While it was initially thought to launch on Nov. 7, the company reportedly delayed the launch until Nov. 9. Some staff have been sleeping on office floors to ensure they can make deadlines.
Many on the team are not aware of Musk’s plans. There have been no internal communications amid Musk’s effort to reorganize the company, according to staffers.
The company has attempted to assuage advertisers’ concerns by claiming it added 15 million daily users since the end of the second quarter. Musk claimed Monday that Twitter’s usage was at an “all-time high.”
However, many advertisers pulled their campaigns last week amid a push from civil rights activists for Twitter to uphold its old content moderation standards rather than lessen them. Musk slammed these efforts, claiming that these “activist groups” hurt Twitter’s revenue.
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Musk announced on Sunday that Twitter would ban accounts that impersonate others after several celebrities decided to mock the billionaire by parodying him. The sudden change to Twitter’s policy on parody was the first significant content moderation decision made by Musk since his takeover on Oct. 26.