An idea for Jack

In many respects, Twitter has become the single greatest source of information ever created. From government officials, to companies, to citizens all around the globe, anyone with access to Twitter can get a good glimpse of what has happened and what is happening right now. That said, Twitter is far from prefect. Plagued with bots, phishing accounts, and rage-inducing users, it’s not hard to find yourself surrounded by hatred, fake news, and an utter lack of accountability. The objective here is to redefine how users interact with Twitter by creating a place with accountability at the centre - something society in any medium needs more than ever these days.

Introduce a membership program by charging a small amount on a monthly or yearly basis (such as $2/month). The idea here is to place some kind of financial buy-in to being a contributing member of our digital society. Members on Twitter will see no promoted tweets and will largely continue using the platform as they do right now. From a socioeconomic point of view, the fee needs to be affordable in every region. Not so cheap it’s easy for the general public to throw away but not too much that it creates a digital society of haves and have-nots. From a business perspective, the fee needs to keep Twitter profitable and make up for the lack of direct advertising. More on the financials below.

Users without a membership, called non-members, can still login to the platform. They continue to see promoted tweets but their contribution to the platform is limited. To start, they cannot tweet or retweet. They can follow and unfollow users but hovering over any user’s followers should reveal the percentage of members and non-members. They can like (heart) tweets and participate in polls but hovering over either elements should also reveal the percentage of members vs non-members. This keeps the incredible amount of information on Twitter available to anyone with an email address but limits the direct impact they can have on the digital society.

Simple right? Well, you may be asking “What stops a motivated person with ill-intent from paying for their account?” At the moment, Twitter has very little verified information on each user. While it might be able to see the IP addresses, location, and the users-supplied account information, it’s difficult to say with absolute certainty that one account is linked to another. Additionally, banning a Twitter account has little to no impact as it’s trivial to simply recreate one. With a credit card attached, Twitter suddenly has a user-supplied and 3rd-party verified form of identity. So, for those abusing the platform, Twitter can now ban the account, or the credit card, or the billing address. This would quickly reduce the number bots, phishing accounts, or those violating the ToS - even if they were willing to pay at the beginning.

Onto the Terms of Service (ToS). Something part of the world seems to have forgotten is Twitter the platform is owned and ruled by Twitter the company. Twitter, the company, is the all-mighty creator of this digital island and, if we choose to land our ship here, we follow their rules. It’s no different than travelling from country to country or state to state - you follow the rules local to your current location. Twitter the company - that also means we the people look to you to set an example and hold us accountable. You can’t absolve yourself of the throne without naming your successor and you can’t leave it empty just so you can return when convenient. Rule or elect a ruler.

According to their Q1 2020 results, Twitter made 682 million dollars on 166 million users from advertising. If 25% of their monetizable daily active users (mDAU) switched to a membership, the could loose $171 million in advertising revenue within the quarter. But, if that same 25% payed the equivalent of $6 USD in membership fees over the course of the quarter, Twitter would gain $249 million in revenue. This is obviously some back-of-the-napkin math but there is reason to believe the model could work to Twitters advantage financially while also benefiting the digital society they’ve created.