Twitter May Soon Launch a New Feature 'Paywalled Video'

According to a recent Washington Post report, Twitter is developing a new feature called "Paywalled Video" that would enable users to charge for access to films. More bluntly, this is for porn - people will start charging for porn on Twitter.

About Twitter's new feature Paywalled Video

According to an internal email regarding the new feature, "When a creator composes a tweet with a video, the creator can enable the paywall once a video has been added to the tweet," the Post reports. Furthermore, it's interesting to note that the rates are fixed. Producers may charge $1, $2, $5, or $10 for access to the video, with Twitter deducting a percentage of the transaction fee using Stripe. According to the Post, Twitter will likely launch Paywalled Video, which would put it more directly in competition with websites like OnlyFans, in as little as two weeks. It's unclear, however, whether Paywalled Video was in the works prior to Elon Musk's last-week completion of his acquisition of Twitter. [caption id="attachment_58181" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] image credit: freepik[/caption] Moreover, the majority of attention has been focused on a new membership model for verification, which Musk just tweeted would cost $8. Musk has been very publicly attempting to figure out methods to extract money from Twitter. But despite the fact that current advertisers are growing increasingly wary about Musk's aspirations for the site, Twitter now depends on advertising as its main source of income.

More details

Musk, who refers to himself as a free speech absolutist and said that he wants Twitter to be the proverbial "town square," suggested that users who have been previously banned, such as former President Donald Trump or conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, may soon be allowed back on the platform. But as anyone who watched the Fox News commercials can attest, it's little more than advertising for the elderly and doomsday preppers at this point. Any move to marginalize average people and let neo-fascists like Trump become the main voice on the platform would be detrimental to business. [caption id="attachment_58180" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] image credit: investorsking[/caption] However, Musk stated in a tweet sent early on Wednesday that he was still developing a procedure for restoring previously banned accounts to Twitter. "Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on the platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks," Musk tweeted.

What's more

Currently, pornographic content is permitted on Twitter, which sets it apart from other social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. However, Twitter's so-called sensitive media is already blurred by default, so it's unclear whether the Paywalled Video will make mainstream marketers even warier of the type of content that's allowed there. [caption id="attachment_58179" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] image credit: mid-day[/caption] The obvious second problem with charging for video is that it might turn into a copyright nightmare in terms of moderating. Many of the videos that are currently being posted on Twitter are permitted by the "fair use" clause of American copyright law, which allows for the sharing of a specific amount of a copyrighted work for the purpose of commenting. Additionally, copyright owners can submit a DMCA request to Twitter to have the content removed if they believe it is being disseminated too widely. But if the content is protected by a paywall, it will probably be more difficult for copyright owners to detect instances of unauthorized, improper use of their creation.

Conclusion

On another note, even though Musk is revered as a genius in some naïve quarters of the world, if only due to his immense wealth, the billionaire's most recent Twitter posts reveal a fundamental ignorance of how the world functions. For instance, when Brett Winton, a hedge fund "futurist," tweeted, "Lords have been knighted by the Twitter verification wand are upset that the proles will be able to buy status," to which Musk responded with a "bullseye" emoji. [caption id="attachment_58177" align="aligncenter" width="1600"] image credit: forbes[/caption] But, at least as it is generally perceived by users, that is a gross misinterpretation of the motivation underlying verification. Verification was designed to make it more difficult for dishonest persons to impersonate others. The system doesn't genuinely provide a layer of trust if anyone with $8 can buy verification. Simply put, it enables dishonest people to imitate whomever they want for $8. In fact, verification on Twitter will still be important even if it starts to charge for it.