Andrew Selepak, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Media Production, Management, and Technology instructional assistant professor, is quoted in “Pay to Post? Elon Musk talks About Charging X Users” published on thenationaldesk.com on Sept. 20.

The article focuses on Elon Musk’s quest to turn X, formerly known as Twitter, into a paid subscription social media platform. Currently, a paid premium service exists, but Musk is now considering charging all 550 million X users.

“He’s floated ideas in the past that never came to fruition, or he’s floated ideas that are quickly reversed,” Selepak said. “Musk is ‘not a politician, he’s not a PR person,’ and that means he sometimes speaks in the moment without weighing the impact of his words. I think he’s going to quickly hear from a lot of people (that), ‘this is a terrible idea.’”

He adds, “People have a hard time paying for something that once was free and every other social media platform would conceivably still be free, so people could easily jump ship. Putting X behind a paywall might really give Meta’s new X competitor Threads a big boost.”

Posted: September 21, 2023
Category: Alumni News, College News
Tagged as: Andrew Selepak, Elon Musk, Social Media Subscriptions, Twitter, X