Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter last year added billions of dollars in debt to its balance sheet, showing why the social media platform is now desperate to break even, even at the cost of user safety and experience.
Twitter boss Elon Musk doesn’t agree that user security has to be paramount in the digital age. It is a basic element of any product and not a paid feature. And this is why most users are not able to digest Twitter’s new move to limit SMS two-factor authentication to paid users. While across the world internet services use two-factor authentication to secure their services for users, Musk seems to think this is a good way to increase his revenues on the platform.
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Two-factor authentication or 2FA is an extra layer of security that verifies your identity and ensures that only you have access to your information. The additional layer of security is basically a time-based one-time password (TOTP) generated from the authenticator app.
Until now a basic component of security, accessible to all users, Twitter’s policy change has made two-factor authentication “exclusive” to a privileged few who can shell out Rs 900 a month for the subscription service. Musk’s move also suggests that Twitter is okay with having two layers of users — the secured and the vulnerable.
While Twitter claims the move is prompted by chances of abuse by “bad actors”, it contradicts itself by limiting this to its most valuable Twitter Blue service users. If text-based two-factor authentication isn’t sufficient to protect users’ accounts, then wouldn’t it be better to come up with a stronger replacement than make this a premium feature?
The real reason behind Twitter’s move is the fact that there is a cost associated with each SMS message sent with an OTP. Under Musk, Twitter has been cutting costs and at the same time looking for avenues beyond advertising for revenue. Musk’s takeover of Twitter last year added billions of dollars in debt to its balance sheet, showing why the social media platform is now desperate to break even, even at the cost of user safety and experience.
Perhaps the move also stems from the realisation that a blue tick alone might not be a good enough reason for users to pay over $10 a month to Twitter. Since the micro-blogging platform does not have features that users might be willing to pay for, the attempt seems to be to make basic look like premium features. This is unheard of in the tech sector.
But Musk’s ideas seem to be finding takers among other companies. Meta has just announced its move to allow Facebook and Instagram users to pay for a verified account. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg called this an effort to “increase authenticity and security across its services.” The fact is that Meta and other social media platforms are following Twitter in moving away from the free-to-use model and trying to project themselves as services. This means subscriber-only features and content will only increase in the near future as it gets harder to serve ads based on user behaviour or preference. The ever-increasing popularity of influencers and the centrality of branding on the platforms has created new revenue streams that didn’t exist before.
From reach over revenue, the social networks have clearly moved to revenue over reach. What needs to be seen now is if users will engage.
anuj.bhatia@indianexpress.com
nandagopal.rajan@indianexpress.com
