Elon Musk Pauses Plan to Improve X

Elon Musk’s X had a good suggestion.

Until Elon Musk obtained concerned.

That seems to be what occurred over the past 24 hours: First, Musk’s head of product introduced a plan to discourage trolls and different unhealthy actors from abusing the service. Then Musk weighed in and stated he was going to shelve the plan.

We’ll clarify the small print in a minute. But the massive takeaway stays the identical: Elon Musk, who purchased Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X, stays an erratic proprietor who appears very troublesome to work for.

That’s what his former X CEO Linda Yaccarino learned during her tenurewhich lasted two years and ended with a tweet. now Nikita Bierwho joined as Musk’s head of product final summer season, is getting the identical lesson.

On Tuesday, Bier announced a change to X’s revenue-sharing system: It would encourage X customers who make cash by posting on the platform to submit about “content that resonates with people in your country, in neighboring countries and people who speak your language.”

That is: Bier’s plan was meant to discouraged X customers based mostly in locations like India, Thailand, and Eastern Europe from riling up huge audiences within the US with incendiary posts about US politics.

“While we appreciate everyone’s opinion on American politics, we hope this will disincentivize gaming the attention of US or Japanese accounts and instead, drive diverse conversations on the platform,” Bier wrote.

That looks as if a good suggestion. It’s additionally one which builds on work Bier had completed beforehand on the platform, when he began disclosing where X users were actually basedwhich made it clear that lots of accounts that purported to be very interested in American politics and culture wars were run by people outside America.

Bier’s plan would not stop these posters from weighing in on US elections or anything. But it might make it tougher for these posters to make cash doing that.

And now it isn’t occurring, per Musk. “We will pause moving forward with this until further consideration,” he instructed an X consumer who was complaining in regards to the new coverage early Wednesday morning.

This could have been information to Bier, who was on the platform on the identical time, defending the policy and telling some users they would make more money with the new system.

So what occurred? I’ve requested X and Musk for remark.

It’s onerous to think about Bier making a call that may have an effect on energy customers on X with out consulting along with his boss, who can be X’s largest energy consumer.

But who is aware of? Maybe he did, and Musk modified his thoughts — something he does all the time.

Or possibly he did and Musk forgot, as a result of he is obtained loads on his thoughts. For occasion, he’s preparing to launch what may very well be the largest IPO in historical past, when he recordsdata to take SpaceX public — one thing that would occur within the subsequent few days, per The Information.

That additionally means he can be taking Twitter/X public, since I have merged that company with his xAI business final 12 months, after which merged those companies into SpaceX earlier this 12 months.

I’ll be fascinated to see what the SpaceX submitting tells us in regards to the enterprise of X. What’s the form of its advert enterprise, years after Musk instructed advertisers to “go fuck yourself“And what sort of headway has Musk made at changing misplaced advert {dollars} with income from paid subscribers — the sort of super-users Bier’s coverage would possibly have an effect on?

But I’m additionally not anticipating to study that a lot: People who desire a piece of SpaceX need it as a result of they’re into the notion of an Elon Musk firm that mixes an current satellite tv for pc enterprise with the prospect of a could-be-big-one-day AI enterprise.

Twitter/X is a sideshow to all of that. And the truth that Musk, who purchased the platform as an impulse purchase, nonetheless treats it like his private toy — one thing to tweak, weaponize, or derail on a whim — tells you extra about X than any monetary disclosure will.