Elon Musk toys with idea of possible fees on Twitter

Elon Musk has floated the idea of introducing a fee for Twitter once he has completed his prosepective purchase of the social media company for $44bn.

The Tesla boss took to Twitter to suggest that while “casual users” would not be charged for using Twitter, he may look to charge corporate users of the platform.

“Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users,” he tweeted.

Mr Musk made the prediction after earlier tweeting, “Ultimately, the downfall of the Freemasons was giving away their stonecutting services for nothing.”

Twitter’s board last week accepted Mr Musk’s offer of $54.20 per share in cash for total control of the company, that he has said he will take private.

The deal, which was unanimously recommended by the board, still needs to be ratified by shareholders and pass regulatory scrutiny.

The entrepreneur last week sold $8.5bn worth of Tesla stock, in a addition to $16bn of shares that he sold in 2021.

Mr Musk, who has not confirmed exactly why he sold the shares, already owns nine per cent of Twitter. He has put up $21bn of his own money to buy the social media company and is borrowing another $12.5bn, while Morgan Stanley is funding another $13bn.

Mr Musk will likely make some significant changes to the social media platform, having made several hints in recent months about what his intentions are. It comes after Musk’s friend Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO and Parag Agrawal took over.

Changes could include a new CEO, worker layoffs and even monetising tweets by charging publishers to embed them, according to some reports.

The billionaire took his mother to the Met Gala in New York on Monday night, and told Vogue’s livestream host La La Anthony about his goals for Twitter.

“[It] would be to make Twitter as inclusive as possible, and to have as broad a swath of the country and the rest of the world on Twitter, and that they find it interesting and entertaining and funny, and that it makes their life better,” Mr Musk said.