I don't think #ElonMusk is a force for good, and I'm not particularly a fan of #Twitter. But I do think it is a good thing to move to a subscription business model, where the the customer is the user, and away from the #SurveillanceCapitalism business model Twitter currently has.
@eighthave, what if I tell you the subscription business model and surveillance capitalism are not mutually exclusive?
@cnx Sure, there are no magic bullets. The key is that tracking users to sell their attention will never turn out well. Subscription business models aren't in themselves harmful to the user, from what I've seen. Companies find all sorts of novel ways to do harm, regardless of their business model. Moving away from #SurveillanceCapitalism does make it a choice the company makes rather than inherent to the company.
I’m out of the loop, @eighthave, what makes you think Twitter is backing out from profiling its users?
@cnx YouTube Premium is another example of the cracks forming in surveillance capitalism. Google is the biggest "innovator" when it comes to developing surveillance capitalism as a model, and has probably done the most to make it look "respectable". They were generally true believers in that model, but now, even they are exploring ways out.
I like your optimism, @eighthave, but I’ve yet to see sign of the general public changing their mind on spyware, be it a webpage, an application, an OS or an IoT device. Until there are more evidence, I would think of the subscription model as an additional source of revenue like YouTube Premium.