Musk v/s Media: Elon Musk wants more video shows on Twitter. Will he start a new channel?

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner and former CEO of Twitter, wants the platform to be proliferated with video shows. Specifically, he wants the platform to be a home for video content, which is generated by people from all over the political spectrum.

Following this, a number of parody accounts, which emulate Musk, started tweeting out that Musk will be launching a new channel. The most famous of these parody accounts, Elon Musk (Parody), who has the user handle “@ElonMuskAOC” tweeted out as Musk, suggesting that he will indeed be launching a new channel. Ironically, the parody account, posing as Elon Musk, is verified on Twitter.

Should I create a Twitter TV Network?

Similar to major providers (Fox, etc.)

But it will be completely non-partisan and only state the facts.

— Elon Musk (Parody) (@ElonMuskAOC) June 6, 2023

The Elon Musk Parody account put into words what several followers of the one and real Musk have been thinking – that he should start a media channel of his own, which will be similar to major providers like Fox, will be non-partisan. Furthermore, the news channel would be a part of the app itself and would be a great source for ad revenue.

It will be interesting to see what Elon Musk, the real one, thinks of when he comes across the tweet from his parody account. With that being said, a few things have become clear about Musk and his vision for Twitter.

Musk’s shaky history with Twitter’s content moderation policy
Musk’s history with Twitter’s content moderation can be called shaky and inconsistent at best. Time and again, he has shown that he will give in to dictators and strongmen, under the pretext that he did so to ensure that Twitter doesn’t get banned.

Often calling himself a free speech absolutist, Musk has shown that he supports free speech, as long as it is not inconvenient for him or his business interests. To ensure that he and his interests are protected, Musk will not hesitate in bending the fabric of Twitter, as and when required.

Video is the future for Twitter
Going forward, video content will be massive on Twitter. This includes hosting live streams, allowing users to upload long-form content in the form of videos and much more. However, things haven’t been smooth on this front.

Would be great to have shows from all parts of the political spectrum on this platform! https://t.co/hrzEH31Pk0

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 6, 2023

Musk had Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis announce his Presidential bid for the 2024 US elections through a live stream on Twitter Spaces. The stream was buggy to say the least and was marred with issues.

Musk also allowed users to upload two-hour videos on the platform. However, several users, verified by Twitter, uploaded pirated copies of movies on the platform. Should activities like these continue, Twitter will be in a big trouble, unless it takes steps to ensure that pirated content such as moves is not uploaded and distributed through Twitter. However, Musk and Twitter have an even bigger challenge.

Hosting videos, especially high-quality videos, rendered at a good bit rate and with top-notch audio is extremely taxing, consumes a lot of data, and can be prohibitively expensive, something that a platform like YouTube is dealing with now. Given Twitter’s cash crunch, it will take a miracle to have Twitter be a viable

X.com or Platform X to centred around video?
For now, from what Musk seems to have planned for Twitter, it seems that Platform X will be very much centred around video as far as content and content consumption is concerned. Since Musk took over, Twitter has moved significantly away from being a microblogging, social media platform, to a do-it-all platform.

Musk has previously suggested that he finds the idea of opening or acquiring a proper media outlet, especially a news channel “interesting”. This was in response to a suggestion by author Dinesh D’Souza when he tweeted how Musk might be able to “dramatically change the political and cultural landscape” outside of simply firing off on Twitter.