Good or bad news? Elon Musk reportedly contemplating monetizing Twitter

Elon Musk is trying to figure out how to make Twitter more money — and his proposed solutions include charging users for ‘viral’ tweets as well as charging to embed tweets on websites.

According to Complex:

Reuters reports that sources say the billionaire might try to make money from tweets and slash executives’ salaries. He reportedly notified the banks—which helped him purchase Twitter for $44 billion on Monday—about his tentative plans earlier this month. 

To pay for the purchase, he secured $13 billion in loans and another $12.5 billion margin loan fixed to his Tesla stock; he recently sold $8.5 billion of his Tesla shares. He paid for the balance in cash. In addition to potentially cutting salaries—which he’s said could amount to $3 million in savings—he’s considering monetizing tweets “that contain important information or go viral,” the report writes. 

He’s also contemplating having websites pay a fee to quote or embed tweets from verified accounts, but will keep “moderation policies on the social media platform…as free as possible.” 

He might also alter the Twitter Blue program, by decreasing the pricing, which currently costs $2.99 a month; prohibiting ads, and allowing users to pay in Dogecoin. Musk issued a statement upon his purchase of Twitter on Monday. “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” he said. 

“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. 

Twitter has tremendous potential—I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”