I would love to see Elon Musk convert Twitter into a 501(c)(3) non-profit with a diverse board and a membership model. This would improve his image and that of Twitter, be more attractive for advertisers, help to retain users, and is a better model for a niche product.

Twitter is a text-based niche platform that is not valuable for advertisers the way Facebook is. It doesn’t seem reasonable to expect that Twitter will grow by having everyone become an active user and thus become a more attractive for advertising. How will Twitter make money? One option is to not even try. I suggest that Musk not look at Facebook as a model, but Wikipedia. I suggest he one-up another billionaire, Paul Huntsman, who turned the Salt Lake Tribune into a non-profit.

The idea: Musk buys out the other owners, then converts the company into a non-profit with a board that is diverse enough to appeal to a wide range of people. Journalists, the political left, the right, and free-speech advocates should all be able to find someone appealing on the board. Musk loves publicity, and this would likely bring a positive spotlight. If there’s enough positive publicity from such a large donation and reason to expect the platform to be neutral, advertisers will return, and users will be more willing to consider paying a membership fee, especially if it’s tax-deductible.

There are all kinds of problems with this: Is Musk willing to make such a massive donation? Who will pay the debt: Musk or the non-profit? Would the negative publicity and chaos that have surrounded Musk’s acquisition be reduced enough to bring back advertisers? Steve Waldman is concerned that such a non-profit would induce a bias to the algorithmic feeds to satisfy big donors, or otherwise be corrupted by them. This is a raw, crazy idea that I guess will not happen. Musk loves raw, crazy ideas; I hope he does it.