Twitter has just been taken over by Elon Musk - and the American billionaire has already been threatening some sweeping changes. The Tesla boss completed the purchase of the popular social media platform on Friday for in a staggering $44bn (£38.1bn) deal - and confirmed the news by tweeting "the bird is freed".
There have been many months of speculation, controversy and legal wranglings, but Musk turned up to Twitter HQ on Thursday carrying a sink and finally agreed on a deal which has left us with lots of questions over the platform's future. A number of top executives have reportedly been fired already, including Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, but this seems to be just the start of his Twitter revolution.
Payments and advertising
Musk has claimed that he bought Twitter to "help humanity" rather than for any financial gain.
"I didn't do it because it would be asy. I didn't do it to make money. I did it to try and help humanity, recognising that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility," he tweeted.
Twitter is already extremely reliant on advertising, but Musk believes it needs to be "done right" and wants a push on "high relevancy ads".
"I also very much believe that advertising, when done right, can delight, entertain and inform you; it can show you a service or product or medical treatment that you never knew existed, but is right for you," he explained.
"For this to be true, it is essential to show Twitter users advertising that is as relevant as possible to their needs. Low relevancy ads are spam, but high relevancy ads are actually content."
One of Musk's biggest issues with Twitter has been the number of spam bots on the site - and his big plan to get rid of them is creating a paywall.
He previously toyed with the idea of making users pay a small fee to send messages, but later said this idea wouldn't work because "the bandwidth and latency requirements cannot be supported by a peer to peer network".
But it looks like he is keen to create some sort of subscription service with premium features for 'power users'.
Twitter Blue, the company's subscription service that offers exclusive features like bookmark folders and ad-free articles for $4.99 a month, already exists but Musk once dubbed it "an insane piece of s***".
Jason Goldman, a member of Twitter's founding team and ex-board member, thinks more premium features world work but it risks alienating many users.
"The problem is those power users aren't going to want to be on a platform, nor are advertisers, where discourse is looking more hostile [...] and all of these user safety issues become more foregrounded," he said.
"The real issue that surfaces with subscriptions is access," added Aaron Green, director of media and connections at R/GA London.
"Many users may not be able to afford a paid model, risking a loss of its current user base."
Musk is also famously a big fan and investor of cryptocurrency - and could turn Twitter into a place that accepts these this form of payment.
While it would be good for crypto users, ir's risky and unregulated, with no protection if things go wrong.
Editing tweets
Musk is keen to introduce a way for Twitter users to edit their tweets - with many pleading for this function for years.
In April, the billionaire tweeted a poll asking whether people wanted an edit button, with 74% saying they did.
One person replied saying they would agree under two conditions, that it's only available for 5-10 minutes and there's a small linkto the edit to keep a public record.
Musk repliede: "That sounds reasonable."
Twitter did begin testing an edit button last month and gave Twitter Blue members in Canada, Australia and New Zealand early access.
They promised that subscribers in the US would be able to edit their tweets soon, but Musk may speed up the process.
There are obviously fears that en editing feature could be used in malicious ways - with people thinking they're retweeting one thing and suddenly it changes.
Banned accounts returning
Musk is determined to preserve free speech on Twitter - and he is not a fan of banning accounts.
"There is currently a great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society," he tweeted on Thursday.
This looks like he's referring to two of his pals who have been banned from Twitter and gone on to launch their own social media platforms.
One of those is former President Donald Trump, who was permanently suspended last year after it was deemed he used his account to incite the US Capitol riots.
Trump set up his own platform, Truth Social, promising a safe space for users to "share your unique opinion", but it's yet to really make a splash.
"I think Musk will restore his account immediately, the second that he gets the keys," said Angelo Carusone, president and CEO of non-profit media watchdog Media Matters.
Musk previously told Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal via text message that he wanted to reverse all permanent Twitter bans "except for spam accounts and those that explicitly advocate violence".
There's also Kanye West, whose Twitter and Instagram accounts were banned this months over vile antisemitic posts.
When the American rapper briefly returned to Twitter on October 8, Musk tweted: "Welcome back to Twitter, my friend!
"Talked to ye today & expressed my concerns about his recent tweet, which I think he took to heart."
This warm welcome makes many people believe he would get Kanye's account back up and running.
'Wild West' for free speech
A self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist", Musk has previously stated that he thinks Twitter's content moderation has been too heavy-handed.
While many are calling out for more intervention to make Twitter a safer space, particularly for women, LGBT users and victims of racial attacks, it seems Musk wants to go in the wrong direction.
"If in doubt, let the speech exist," Musk said in an on-stage interview in April. "If it's a gray area, I would say, let the tweet exist. But obviously in the case where there's perhaps a lot of controversy, you would not necessarily want to promote that tweet."
Musk has used the site for his own controversial tweets, from challenging Vladimir Putin to a single combat fight to proposing we "nuke Mars".
With fewer guardrails against misinformation and extremism, it's feared Twitter will become a 'Wild West' where anything goes.
"It's going to dramatically scale the number of extremists that are on the platform," Carusone says.
"Not just by restoring accounts, but also by signaling to a whole bunch of other users that don’t currently use the platform that it’s open season."
Employee changes
And after capturing Twitter Inc on Friday, Musk reportedly terminated the contracts of some of the key players.
According to Reuters, Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde all got the boot.
Agrawal, who took the helm last year after co-founder Jack Dorsey stood down, and Segal were in Twitter's San Francisco headquarters when the deal closed and were escorted out, sources added.
Twitter, Musk and the executives have not yet commented on the reports.
This all comes as no surprise, as Musk had been openly critical of the Twitter execs.
He once tweeted a meme about the company's top lawyer Gadde that cast her as an icon of "Twitter's left wing bias".
While Agrawal told Musk in April that his habit of tweeting negative things shc as "Is Twitter dying?" was "not helping me make Twitter better".
"Fixing Twitter by chatting with Parag won't work," Musk texted Twitter board chair Bret Taylor.
It's likely that those that have reportedly been given the boot will be replaced with Musk allies.
Morale at the company is reportedly low - made worse by claims that up to 75% of staff might lose their jobs - and an Insider report in September alleged many workers had already headed for the exit.
Robert McCann, an adjunct professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, believes there has been a significant erosion of trust.
In July, he told TIME : "At Twitter, it's hit employee morale significantly, spooked advertisers and I think the deeper issue is that it has created a sense of confusion."
Super app
The most elaborate scheme that Musk has discussed is the creation of 'X', which he has dubbed "the everything app".
While there have not been substantial details, it seems the Tesla boss wants to form an all-in-one 'super app' that has the capability to have multiple functions.
It would be along the lines of China's WeChat, which has been described as a combination of Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Paypal in one package.
Meta is the only company that comes close to doing this right now with Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram - but they are all still separate apps.
"Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app," he tweeted this week, adding that it would accelerate his plans by three to five years.
Musk's super app could be the place to go for social media, messaging, finances and food.
In a town hall with Twitter employees in June, he said: "I think an important goal for Twitter would be to try to include as much of the country, as much of the world, as possible.
"You basically live on WeChat in China because it’s so usable and helpful to daily life, and I think if we can achieve that, or even get close to that at Twitter, it would be an immense success."
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