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The firestorm that Elon Musk’s decision to make Twitter Blue Tick for verified accounts had started had not even begun to slow down when a new rumor about another key feature being placed behind a paywall started to rile people up even more.
Elon Musk and Twitter are planning to make DMs a paid feature. Jane Manchun Wong, a security researcher and blogger has revealed in a tweet that soon, Twitter will be working on “Paid DMs.”
Wong has a proven track record of reporting about the latest developments in platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, which have turned out to be true. Furthermore, her expertise and experience as a front-end developer and security researcher have helped her amass a sizeable online following.
Earlier today, Elon Musk doubled down on his announcement of making verified account holders with Twitter Blue Tick pay $8 a month for the service, along with a bunch of other features. As with Tesla, Musk has started placing some previously free features behind a paywall.
Musk’s idea to place DMs behind a paywall makes sense if we take his vision of making Twitter a bot-free, scam/spam accountless platform. However, with every decision he takes, he seems to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Restricting DMs in a particular context will make Twitter a better and much safer place. The offensive and revolting messages of many active and vocal women on social media platforms are horrifying.
At the same time, seeing a free feature and a cornerstone of a particular social media platform goes behind a paywall and be made into a premium feature is saddening and alarming.
Twitter is going in the direction that LinkedIn went years ago.
Currently, there is little to no detail on how Twitter plans to make “Paid DMs” work. There is speculation that this might become a feature accessible to people with Twitter Blue Tick verified profiles or who have subscribed to Twitter Blue. It is also unclear whether Twitter charges users for every message they send, like SMS, or if it will be a one-time payment that will last users a lifetime.
It will be exciting to see how Elon Musk deals with the furor that such a decision is bound to make.
