I’ve been documenting Twitter’s great improvements since November 2022 and it’s amazing how much positive progress happens in real-time.  In this article, I’ll bring you up to date on the last few weeks’ great changes from my perspective! 

USERS LOVE TWITTER, EVEN THOSE WHO DON’T

This is ironic, I know, and honestly Twitter is a great place to come and interact in a positive way or a complaining way as well.  This funny observation was made by Twitter account BillyM2K when he noted how many people love to come to Twitter to complain about it, rather than take to another social site to complain about it.  

This elicited a hilarious reaction from Elon Musk, who replied, “lol they should keep doing it all day.”  

HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE WILL EARN A LIVING ON TWITTER…  SOON! 

Can you make a living being on Twitter all day?  Not really… yet!  And you may be able to soon! 

Being a creator of any sort on Twitter will take a lot of hard work just like any other successful endeavor.  This was emphasized by Elon Musk this week when he commented in a tweet under BillyM2K’s subscriptions, “Growing subscribers requires work. No way around it.”

I believe thousands of people will soon earn a living on Twitter, bringing opportunity to all corners of the world and giving creative people hope and an important sense of value. In the coming months, we will see many creative ways to use subscriptions.  

A good friend of mine, Johnna Crider came up with an idea I had not thought of for restaurants.  Owners could enable subscriptions allowing people discounts and special deals on dine-in or delivery.

When I think of making a living, something that comes to mind is security and this is another area that Twitter is working on, the enabling of secure messages when needed.

TWITTER’S VISION FOR SECURE MESSAGING

There are many reasons for secure messaging, such as protecting private information and sensitive data.  Encryption converts all data into a string of unreadable numbers before sending it over the internet, it protects you from a wide range of cyberattacks.  Elon Musk clearly intends to provide this for Twitter users in the future. 

In an interview with Tucker Carlson that aired in April, Elon said, “One of the things that we are about to release is the ability to encrypt your DM‘s. We’re moving to be able to have DM’s be optionally encrypted. You know there are a lot of DM conversations which are just chatting with friends.  Elon explained that end-to-end encryption will come out by the end of May and will give users the ability to toggle encryption on or off.”

“If you are in a conversation that you think is sensitive, you can just toggle the encryption on and then no one at Twitter can see what you’re talking about. They could put a gun to my head, and I couldn’t tell. Sort of, the gun test. If somebody puts a gun to my head, can I still not see your DM‘s? That should be the acid test. And that’s how it should be.” 

Our conversations should be private if we need them to be. 

Blending characteristic humor with the ability to make a strong point, Elon explained to Carlson, that if the US government were to ask him to do something unconstitutional, his reply would be to “send them a copy of the first amendment, and just say, what part of this are we getting wrong?” 

TWITTER’S ROLE IN ELECTIONS

Lately there has been a lot of talk about possible presidential debates being hosted on Twitter. My thought on that is it’s entirely up to the candidates. I think it is a wonderful idea. 

When Carlson asked Elon about Twitter‘s role in the upcoming presidential elections, Elon stated, “I think it will play a significant role, not just domestically, but internationally.  The goal of new Twitter is to be as fair and evenhanded as possible, so not favoring any political ideology, and being fair to all.”

TRUST AND TWITTER

Trust must be earned, and I believe Twitter is already the best place to get news and information. I think humanity will benefit from discovering, having conversations, and being exposed to different viewpoints in an open and fair way. Elon explains,

“We’re trying to make Twitter the most trusted place on the Internet, the least untrustworthy place on the Internet. I don’t think anybody should trust the Internet. But maybe we can make Twitter the least untrustworthy like I said, try to get the truth to the people as best we can.”

CONCLUSION

In December 1992, Marc Sautet started the idea of philosophy cafés in the Place de la Bastille neighborhood of Paris at the Café des Phares. Sautet would gather friends at his “café philo” each Sunday and have philosophical debates.  

I imagine this happening on Twitter and in Twitter Spaces.  

I’ll leave you with this quote from President George Washington, 

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

^{𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘣𝘺 @𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘭𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘹 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 @𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘌𝘖 𝘰𝘧 @𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘩𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘍𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘤𝘩.  𝘐 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘪𝘰. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 @𝘫𝘰𝘩𝘯𝘯𝘢𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳1 𝘢𝘯𝘥 @𝘉𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘺𝘮2𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦. 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘺 @dvorahfr}