Twitter's new owner Elon Musk supports an idea saying that the social media platform should be divided into "game modes" like PvP and roleplaying. Well before his endeavor to take ownership of Twitter, Musk has believed in dramatic changes being necessary for its future. Further, Musk is known to make references to video games and gamification often in his Twitter communications. Now that Musk's Twitter acquisition has culminated, those ideas may now be put into motion.
For background, Musk has previously described himself as a "free speech absolutist" and has been a harsh critic of what he describes as "censorship that goes far beyond the law" on Twitter. However, he has also set a limit on these views, recently confirming that he doesn't want Twitter to become a "free-for-all hellscape" in a promise to advertisers wary of what Musk will do. What Musk's Twitter vision actually looks like remains a mystery, especially considering Twitter's continued issues with moderating bigotry and misinformation prior to the acquisition.
A tweet from asking Musk to give Twitter "different game modes" may offer an idea of what the billionaire has planned for the social media platform. The tweet mentions "modes" including PvP, "where you can start beef and mob each other on verified personal accounts," roleplaying "for anon accounts with minimal moderation," and normal Twitter "for everyone else with heavy moderation." The idea is to create partitions among the Twitter userbase with different tiers of moderation depending on an account's level of verified personal information.
Calling a subsection of Twitter with no moderation "PvP" is an ironic and perhaps unsettling joke. The video game industry has gone to great lengths to minimize toxicity in competitive games, as well as to foster healthy communities. Even with heavy moderation, studies have shown a majority of video game players have experienced harassment online, and more than half have been targeted based on bigoted views.
Suffice to say, fostering a community with no moderation would in no way be similar to PvP in video games. That's not really the intention of the comment, however. It's not about gamification of social media so much as a concept described as the "marketplace of ideas." Users would put forth their political speech in a contest against each other, with the "best" ideas "winning." Musk has already used this language, telling advertisers Twitter should be a "common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence." Musk referencing PvP may seem a contradictory sentiment.
For the time being, Musk has made transparent changes to Twitter's moderation policy. However, he has already removed Twitter's content moderation chief and posted a tweet saying, "Comedy is now legal on Twitter." Musk has also announced plans to form a content moderation council of "widely diverse viewpoints" that will oversee major content decisions and account reinstatement. Much remains unclear regarding Twitter's future.
Source: ADL