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‘I bought Twitter to help humanity’, says Musk while passing ads as content
Musk wants to help humanity and prevent dialogue from being lost in echo chambers... by selling more relevant ads.
Tweets by Elon Musk. Twitter accepted a $44 billion bid from Musk to acquire the company. Photo Getty Images/Scott Olson
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk took to Twitter on Thursday with a brief statement addressed to ‘Dear Twitter Advertisers’ in which he explained why he purchased the platform.
Musk wanted to set the record straight because “there has been much speculation about why I bought Twitter and what I think about advertising. Most of it has been wrong”.
The future of Twitter
Musk’s ‘digital town square’
He said the platform is “important to the future of civilisation” and envisions it as a “common digital town square where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence”.
Musk fears a future where social media “will splinter into far right-wing and far left-wing echo chambers”, which will only further divide society.
Moreover, he said traditional media, in a last-ditch effort to stay profitable, is catering towards those polarised extremes, and in doing so, “opportunity for dialogue is lost”.
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Watch: Musk at Twitter HQ
Musk said this is why he bought Twitter. Not to make a profit and because he thought it would be easy.
Instead, he bought it “to help humanity, whom I love, recognising that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility”.
Musk adds: “That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-fall hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences”.
He said netizens must still abide by the laws of the land while ensuring the platform is “warm and welcoming to all”.
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Don’t forget advertising revenue
He hopes for it to become the space where “your desired experience according to your preferences just as you choose –for example, to see movies or play video games ranging from all ages to mature”.
And here’s where the advertising push comes in.
Musk believes if done right, advertising can “delight, entertain and inform”.
“It can show you a service or product or medical treatment that you never knew existed, but is right for you.”
‘Ads are content!’
Advertising also requires the mining and acquisition of users’ data (in order to personalise those ads), but we assume Musk will get to those technicalities at some other point in time.
Musk concludes: “Low relevancy ads are spam, but highly relevant ads are actually content!”
“Fundamentally, Twitter aspires to be the most respected advertising platform in the world that strengthens your brand and grows your enterprise.”
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