Twitter will allow publishers to sell individual articles

Twitter will allow publishers to sell individual articles

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Twitter will allow media publishers to charge users for a single article with one click. This was announced by the owner of the social platform Elon Musk praising his idea and calling it a victory for both the public and the media. It must be said that not everything announced on Twitter translates into reality. Often Musk uses his social network to probe souls. But in this case there is a date. And so it should be taken a little more seriously.

How does it work?

The feature, which rolls out in May, will allow users who don’t purchase a monthly subscription to pay a higher per-article price when they want to read an occasional article. Other “details” were not disclosed. Such as, for example, which accounts will be able to take advantage of the function, i.e. if it applies to everyone or only to those with a paid blue check. It’s unclear whether this opportunity is the privilege of official media or is open to any user with subscription-based content on platforms like Substack or Patreon. It is also not very clear how the business model will work, i.e. which share will go to publishers and which to Twitter. c

Micropayments and journalism.

It must also be said that so far the publishers have not seemed very convinced of the future of micropayments. The trend is to sell all-you-can eat subscriptions within which users/readers can decide which content to prefer or premium services with news and insights into vertical sectors. You then buy the newspaper and not the single article. Closing the sale of a single article without opening a subscription is not a practice adopted, at least by the larger publishers.

But Europe has clearer ideas.

Meanwhile, in recent days, the vice president of the European Commission, Vera Jourova, criticized the platform in an interview for the world press freedom day. “There is still room for dialogue, I would love to explain our philosophy to Mr. Musk: we defend freedom of speech, we defend freedom of expression. That is why we have created such a complicated system, which is the code of conduct” on disinformation, but “freedom of speech in the EU is not unlimited”. In February, the European executive published a report revealing that Twitter is lagging behind in the fight against disinformation, despite having signed up to a code of conduct on the matter. Jourova reiterated her disappointment with the social network’s commitment to combating the spread of fake news, and she said she felt “uncomfortable on Twitter, in the neighborhood – she said – of aggressive unregulated Russian propaganda”. “I can’t predict what will happen to Twitter with the entry into force of the digital services law” continued Jourova, but “I would compare the situation with driving on the highway: if you exceed the speed, you get fines and one day you could be deprived of the driver’s license. This is a general view of how the Digital Services Act will be applied in the future in cases of non-compliance”.

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