Paid Twitter? Possible Premium Version Reveals Weaknesses In Big Tech
This YouTube video by Clownfish TV reports on the possible paid version of Twitter. The discussion unpacks several of Twitter’s problems over the years, like monetization through advertising, toxic users, censorship, the distortion of news media, and being ground zero of cancel culture.
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Twitter has confirmed it is developing its premium version, and may charge $2.99 per month for additional features. It’s common for apps and websites to have free and paid tiers, but Twitter had been free with ads for over a decade. The proposal is upsetting to vocal Twitter users. They feel entitled to the platform, and plan to mock anyone who spends money on it. But running an online service costs money in hosting and bandwidth.
Twitter and other tech giants have been revealed to gather users’ personal data through cookies, the better to serve targeted ads. Apple is cracking down on the practice on its devices, and many state governments are investigating or suing tech companies. Ad blocker apps continue to be popular, and the internet browser Brave blocks them by default. Facebook and its family of apps may be the only truly profitable social media platforms. YouTube is a loss leader for Google, and Amazon is mostly supported by investor capital.
Kneon and Geeky Sparkles theorize if people pay and have to verify their identity doing so, it will eliminate “sock puppet” accounts, bots, and other ways of falsifying public sentiment. In the past, they have identified Twitter as the origin of cancel culture, as well as the corporate media’s extreme leftist politics.
