View Full Version : Musk and Twitter
Is it really that big a deal that Elon Musk owns Twitter? I’m hearing about all these third tier celebrities noisily terminating their accounts because conversations won’t be curated to their liking. Aren’t there plenty of other platforms where people can switch to? I’ll admit to being Twitter-illiterate. I may be a retired idler, but I still don’t have time for instantaneous updates of Shonda Rhimes’ political views.
frugal-one
11-3-22, 4:48pm
Yes. From what I am hearing… it will be the “misinformation station”.
iris lilies
11-3-22, 6:52pm
Yes. From what I am hearing… it will be the “misinformation station”.
Does one really look to Twitter for information?
I think it's good that one of the major social media platforms may not be censoring content that goes against their preferred narrative.
Yes. From what I am hearing… it will be the “misinformation station”.
Oh, it's long been a misinformation station, but maybe that's changing. The good news is that they've now added a community based fact checking feature that has already resulted in two fact checks of tweets from the White House propaganda machine, causing them to delete at least one tweet. I think that's a good thing.
Twitter adds fact-check to Biden White House’s tweet bragging about Social Security’s COLA of 8.7% (msn.com) (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/twitter-adds-fact-check-to-biden-white-house-s-tweet-bragging-about-social-security-s-cola-of-8-7/ar-AA13EV1F)
iris lilies
11-4-22, 8:42am
Oh, it's long been a misinformation station, but maybe that's changing. The good news is that they've now added a community based fact checking feature that has already resulted in two fact checks of tweets from the White House propaganda machine, causing them to delete at least one tweet. I think that's a good thing.
Twitter adds fact-check to Biden White House’s tweet bragging about Social Security’s COLA of 8.7% (msn.com) (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/twitter-adds-fact-check-to-biden-white-house-s-tweet-bragging-about-social-security-s-cola-of-8-7/ar-AA13EV1F)
that is hilarious, yet Democratic loyalists will still think the SS increase was due to President Biden’s largesse.
littlebittybobby
11-4-22, 9:00am
Okay---what there needs to be is on the order of 2,678,970 "social media platforms". That way, there's at least one, for everyone. Yup. That way, clueless hyper-idealistic & unrealistic hollyweirdos(for instance), can tweet & chit-chat all day, every day, without anyone calling them on their hallucinations and delusions asbout ray-cizzzm, sex-izzm, misc. other izzzms, plus phobic public policy, and of course---Mr Orange, whom they hate with religious zeal. Even though they hate hate. See?. But yeah----as soon as I find the right platform where participants will mock those who drive-n-eat for something to "do" or have to have the very latest vehicle loaded up with cutting-edge technology, manufactured by couintries we helped to evolve into our adversaries or vice versa, and ridicule those who boast of being a member of a church that claims toi liove jesus that seats 20,000 with a huge crucifix out front and a "pastor"(i.e. lunatic orator) who rants and raves platitutudes, catch-phrases, double talk, cliches' and mumbo-jumbo, but clearly states in no uncertain terms that its "Our" responsibility to protect and support a certain country halfway around the world that does NOT fit into the scheme of things, or forum threads on why why I-wah agerculture is so screwed up it's THE major environmental and social problem we have, why----I'll be fine. See you there. Ok?
frugal-one
11-4-22, 6:39pm
Wasn’t there fact checking done by the gov that you dispelled but now you think twitter fact checking is ok? huh?
Facts are out of fashion these days, anyways.
Facts are out of fashion these days, anyways.
Except for the "alternative" ones.
Wasn’t there fact checking done by the gov that you dispelled but now you think twitter fact checking is ok? huh?
I'm in favor of open information involving back and forth discussion where all sides are welcome to contribute, I'm not in favor of officially approved information. Twitter is approaching it in the former manner, the government was approaching it from the latter. See the difference?
ApatheticNoMore
11-4-22, 8:03pm
Does one really look to Twitter for information?
yes of course, it's the main reason to even bother with Twitter, other than that it's largely a waste of time (perhaps sometimes an amusing waste of time, but nonetheless). But information oh yea, it's a firehouse and you have to sift through it, but definitely.
There are other platforms but not really with the twitter functionality which is the ability to follow people much more famous than you (this will be interpreted as being hollywood and politicians - and yes sure that if that's what you want, but also journalists, scientists, advocates, academics, authors, whatever)
iris lilies
11-4-22, 8:09pm
yes of course, it's the main reason to even bother with Twitter, other than that it's largely a waste of time (perhaps sometimes an amusing waste of time, but nonetheless). But information oh yea, it's a firehouse and you have to sift through it, but definitely.
i had a twitter account but never looked at it.
Maybe if it becomes an open forum, there will be so much disinformation junk that the conspiracy theories will be diluted out with other conspiracy theories.
flowerseverywhere
11-4-22, 9:18pm
After his first week he cleaned out the corporate suite and today laid off half the workforce. He must be a genius to tell where to make the cuts and which employees were the ones to cut. Software engineers, sales force, content moderators.
I’ve been at a company that reduced 25% of the workforce. They sent in a manager who spent a few months evaluating then a bunch of suits came in on layoff day. It was awful. They disabled the computers of those effective and had a Human Resources team they had to meet with them one by one. The longest day ever for those let go. It doesn’t seem to me it is the way to make a company function smoothly and have a workforce with good morale.
the kicker was the next day they laid off the manager who was in charge the layoffs and brought a home office guy in.
I can’t imagine there will be much control over the kooks out there. Nor advertisers who will go along with the chaos.
iris lilies
11-4-22, 9:23pm
After his first week he cleaned out the corporate suite and today laid off half the workforce. He must be a genius to tell where to make the cuts and which employees were the ones to cut. Software engineers, sales force, content moderators.
I’ve been at a company that reduced 25% of the workforce. They sent in a manager who spent a few months evaluating then a bunch of suits came in on layoff day. It was awful. They disabled the computers of those effective and had a Human Resources team they had to meet with them one by one. The longest day ever for those let go. It doesn’t seem to me it is the way to make a company function smoothly and have a workforce with good morale.
the kicker was the next day they laid off the manager who was in charge the layoffs and brought a home office guy in.
I can’t imagine there will be much control over the kooks out there. Nor advertisers who will go along with the chaos.
Wow, that’s dramatic! Yes it will be interesting to see what the advertisers do.
All this drama makes me want to go fire up my Twitter account to see what’s going on over there. Twitter Jack, A young man from my neighborhood in St. Louis, started the company. I wonder what he thinks about it now.
flowerseverywhere
11-5-22, 6:45am
Also, keep an eye on the vested stock payouts. In these tech companies part of payout is stock that needs to be vested before payout, like four years in Twitters case from what I can find on google. But someone who has greater knowledge can probably explain the ramifications better. It amounts to big money for employees.
flowerseverywhere
11-10-22, 10:50pm
Anybody keeping up with good old Musk and Twitter. Not looking too rosy. It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
Anybody keeping up with good old Musk and Twitter. Not looking too rosy. It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion.
I can't wait to see how his Mars Colony works out...
I can't wait to see how his Mars Colony works out...
Mars-a-Lago? I’m hedging my bet and just buying a time share.
I read today that in addition to the three officers of the company responsible for compliance and data security and privacy resigning last week the Irish person responsible for GDPR compliance has been let go. Failure to comply with GDPR can result in a fine of 4% of annual revenue by each country that finds noncompliance. In other words, if every EU country finds twitter to be non-compliant they could face fines of 108% of global annual revenue... Of course as fast as advertisers seem to be leaving the platform that may not be a significant amount of money!
I read today that in addition to the three officers of the company responsible for compliance and data security and privacy resigning last week the Irish person responsible for GDPR compliance has been let go.
I think you may have mis-read, or perhaps it was me. As I understand it Twitter's CISO, who is responsible for general data protection, resigned and the Irish bureaucrat responsible for overall EU GDPR compliance oversight has requested Twitter let him/her know their plans for maintaining compliance going forward.
Seems like a nothing-burger to me.
I think you may have mis-read, or perhaps it was me. As I understand it Twitter's CISO, who is responsible for general data protection, resigned and the Irish bureaucrat responsible for overall EU GDPR compliance oversight has requested Twitter let him/her know their plans for maintaining compliance going forward.
Seems like a nothing-burger to me.
You may be right. This is just stuff I've seen from various sites I follow for work. I will say though that GDPR is no joke. Ignoring it isn't likely to work out as well as ignoring an FTC consent decree would in the US. I suppose we'll learn in the coming days/weeks if their GDPR compliance is as "rock solid" as the failed rollout of pay for play "verified" accounts was. In the meantime if I see a cyber insurance submission for twitter in my inbox I will laugh as loudly as every other cyber insurance underwriter on the planet is likely to do before I politely send a quick declination to the broker.
And now we learn that all of payroll and most of finance quit yesterday, apparently taking the generous 3 month buyout musk offered. I assume pretty much the only people left at this point are people with H1-B visa issues making it difficult for them to find other work and people who are weak performers worried that they wouldn't be able to find a comparable job. Two weeks from now I expect we'll be hearing about how payroll didn't happen and those remaining people are pissed that they worked their asses off 14 hours/day for zero pay. This disaster is going to be an MBA school case study for years/decades to come.
All the best people think Twitter is dead, they keep saying so on Twitter. NPR had a podcast on Twitter being dead, and at the end asked listeners to follow them on....Twitter.
So then I guess all the worst people think Twitter is doing great? It’ll be interesting to look back in a few month’s time and figure out if the best people or the worst people were right.
So then I guess all the worst people think Twitter is doing great?
Oh, I don't know about that. I get the feeling new management felt it was bloated and too heavily influenced by particular ideologies and believed a good house cleaning and restructuring was in order. Maybe that will make it great, or maybe not, I don't know.
A lot of the big tech firms have been laying off staff in the last couple of months. Thousands have been discovering that they weren’t as essential as they thought.
I think there’s a significant difference between doing a restructuring and what has happened at Twitter over the last few weeks. When one uses the word restructuring it implies some sort of organized, coherent decision making process. Shedding 2/3 of a company’s employees through a fairly random process that includes large scale layoffs and large scale quits seems to be more of a destructuring.
Does Twitter boast so much cachet that experienced coders who could work anywhere (literally) would willingly put up with Musk's abuse and outmoded work rules? He sounds like an absolute ass, and I would hope the employees who can will abandon ship with all due haste.
I understand there's an alternative called Mastodon (who comes up with these names?) in the works.
Oh, I don't know about that. I get the feeling new management felt it was bloated and too heavily influenced by particular ideologies and believed a good house cleaning and restructuring was in order. Maybe that will make it great, or maybe not, I don't know.
Well, I've bought tech companies in the past and supervised the merger/acquisition process.
Generally, you don't get rid of your top talent in the first week or so - often that talent is most of the reason you bought the company in the first place.
Certainly, issuing an ultimatum of "click YES to sign up for even-more-hardcore work under New Management, or click NOPE to take 3+ months' of severance and get out" produces, well, predictable results. There's probably a Dilbert cartoon about it. All the good people take the bailout, all the people you want to get rid of stay, further dragging down the company. (Anyone remember when MIPS Computer offered a voluntary severance package when they were trying to "rightsize" after a takeover? Sun, Dec, Intel, AMD, and other companies had all of the good engineering, sales, and marketing folks in their pockets within a week, MIPS was left with, well, people who didn't know how to turn the lights on...)
Elon's sorta-insane email he sent yesterday demanding that anyone left who still had a clue about the Twitter technology show up at 2PM at corporate HQ, and to bring code samples for his inspection, seems to have produced remarkably poor attendance. Little birdies tell me that entire groups simply left. One group that I know of there had ~95% of its engineers leave. I wonder if anyone left knows how anything works at this point.
I think there’s a significant difference between doing a restructuring and what has happened at Twitter over the last few weeks. When one uses the word restructuring it implies some sort of organized, coherent decision making process. Shedding 2/3 of a company’s employees through a fairly random process that includes large scale layoffs and large scale quits seems to be more of a destructuring.
He conducted a round of layoffs at Tesla in June. I suppose starting out with a mass purge is one way to establish your control and clearing the board of bold rebels playing to the gallery. More quitters is helpful from an unemployment compensation standpoint.
That said, it does seem like a pretty chaotic transition. He seems to be enjoying the drama; as do our outraged chattering class and narrative gatekeepers.
flowerseverywhere
11-20-22, 12:17pm
he's back. Musk Reinstated Trump. Wonder how advertisers will react.
I heard about that. He held a vote, and then drew a pentagram in virgins’ blood to summon Trump back from the chthonic depths.
I glanced at Twitter and saw Trump's account go from ~2,000 followers to ~87 million followers in the space of a couple of hours. Just glanced again and see he has not yet posted.
I created a "burner" Twitter account a couple weeks back, followed a handful of popular TV and political figures, hit "like" one dozen times, and made one dozen short comments on timelines. I took no other actions.
Within a week, I had about 150 followers. About 15-20 a day were arriving when I shut things down. All with totally-empty cookie cutter accounts. Profile photos used were all Eastern-European-looking female faces. I suspect the bot population is huge.
I always think it’s funny when some figure or other tries to show their impressive power and reach by the number of their Twitter followers or YouTube subscribers.
I always think it’s funny when some figure or other tries to show their impressive power and reach by the number of their Twitter followers or YouTube subscribers.
And that's why everyone tweeting that they're leaving Twitter will not actually leave. The official CBS account tweeted the day before yesterday that they were "pausing" their account due to "an abundance of caution", but that only lasted a day.
mschrisgo2
11-21-22, 12:18am
Apparently every Tweet Trump has posted has been reinstated on his account. For all the world to see. Public information. Presumably also available to the special prosecutor… this is going to be interesting.
I see such dangerous types as Kathy Griffin, Jordan Peterson and the Babylon Bee are allowed back in now. Oh, the humanity.
he's back. Musk Reinstated Trump. Wonder how advertisers will react.
For the first time in his life trump actually won the popular vote for something.
For the first time in his life trump actually won the popular vote for something.
That’s because he could cast votes for himself in this one.
So apparently that "free speech absolutist" thing isn't working so well for Musk. In the past week he's tried banning any journalist that says mean things about him and today, banning anyone who even mentions any other social media platform in a tweet. If he still had some lawyers on staff they might have pointed out that that second one is a blatant violation of the EU's new Digital Services Act.
I suppose the next step will be Tesla going around and slashing the tires of Nissan Leafs, Chevy Bolts and all the other electric vehicles out there.
iris lilies
12-18-22, 7:31pm
So apparently that "free speech absolutist" thing isn't working so well for Musk. In the past week he's tried banning any journalist that says mean things about him and today, banning anyone who even mentions any other social media platform in a tweet. If he still had some lawyers on staff they might have pointed out that that second one is a blatant violation of the EU's new Digital Services Act.
I suppose the next step will be Tesla going around and slashing the tires of Nissan Leafs, Chevy Bolts and all the other electric vehicles out there.
I think this is the least important news coming out about Twitter of recent days.
But sticking to your story jp, I thought Elon banned all those journalists for relentlessly promoting his physical whereabouts and that of his family. That seems over the top behavior to me. I guess YE had to be deplatformed on Twitter, that is such a lot of crazy going on… I’m not sure about that one tho.
Unfortunately I think Elon Musk is learning there really are limits to free-speech When participants do not wish to play nice.We have had to learn that here on this site even though it’s very open. Certainly it is far more open than Mr. money mustache which I think of as being younger people, more liberal, should be tolerant.
What seems to be shaking out of recent years is the authoritarian speech clamping nature of the liberal left.
If you only use Twitter to follow Major League Baseball and your local news and traffic, you hardly notice any difference.
I think this is the least important news coming out about Twitter of recent days.
But sticking to your story jp, I thought Elon banned all those journalists for relentlessly promoting his physical whereabouts and that of his family. That seems over the top behavior to me. I guess YE had to be deplatformed as well on Twitter, that is such a lot of crazy going on… I’m not sure about that one.
.
No. Several of those journalists had not posted anything about his jet. they had simply written articles critical of Musk.
I think Elon is about to learn the lesson that ‘if you aren’t paying for the product you are the product’. Just from a very different perspective than most people.
I can see why you didn’t think this was such a big deal Iris. It’s reasonable that people would be more concerned with his call to prosecute the nation’s top public health official for some undisclosed reason. Authoritarianism from those like Musk on the fringey right just keeps creeping along.
So, is this the end of that whole stochastic terrorism thing the left has been going on about recently?
If you only use Twitter to follow Major League Baseball and your local news and traffic, you hardly notice any difference.
As long as they don’t commit the unforgivable sin of also mentioning their accounts on Facebook or Instagram or anywhere else that will likely continue.
iris lilies
12-18-22, 10:16pm
No. Several of those journalists had not posted anything about his jet. they had simply written articles critical of Musk.
I think Elon is about to learn the lesson that ‘if you aren’t paying for the product you are the product’. Just from a very different perspective than most people.
The articles I’m reading say that journalists violated Twitter’s terms of service by promoting the location of Musk and others. Doxing, not allowed.
here is one:
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/15/1143291081/twitter-suspends-journalists-elon-musk-jet
https://mb.com.ph/2022/12/19/musk-restores-some-suspended-twitter-accounts-of-journalists/
The articles I’m reading say that journalists violated Twitter’s terms of service by promoting the location of Musk and others. Doxing, not allowed.
here is one:
https://www.npr.org/2022/12/15/1143291081/twitter-suspends-journalists-elon-musk-jet
https://mb.com.ph/2022/12/19/musk-restores-some-suspended-twitter-accounts-of-journalists/
Here's a list of everyone taken down and the presumed reasons. Feel free to find the tweets where they supposedly posted his location. (hint - several of them didn't)
Aaron Rupar: Substack author and popular Twitter presence whose account was taken down for reasons unknown.
Drew Harwell: Washington Post technology reporter. Reason unknown.
Ryan Mac: New York Times technology reporter. Recently posted concerning the ElonJet story.
Donie O’Sullivan: CNN reporter. Last post was a story about Elon’s claim that a “crazy stalker” had followed a car in which his son was a passenger.
Matt Binder: Mashable reporter. Final post was noting O’Sullivan’s suspension.
Tony Webster: independent journalist.
Micah Lee: Intercept reporter.
Steve Herman: Voice of America reporter.
Keith Olbermann: former MSNBC host and sports journalist. Last post was retweeting those of suspended journalists.
And the original article where that list came from.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/15/2142134/-Thursday-Night-Massacre-Elon-Musk-indulges-in-a-personal-purge-of-journalists-from-Twitter
As long as they don’t commit the unforgivable sin of also mentioning their accounts on Facebook or Instagram or anywhere else that will likely continue.
I believe you're talking about those who use Twitter to promote other sites. We have a rule about that here too which I enforce, especially once our regular members start reporting those posts. Do you think it's wrong?
Here's a list of everyone taken down and the presumed reasons. Feel free to find the tweets where they supposedly posted his location. (hint - several of them didn't)
Aaron Rupar: Substack author and popular Twitter presence whose account was taken down for reasons unknown.
Drew Harwell: Washington Post technology reporter. Reason unknown.
Ryan Mac: New York Times technology reporter. Recently posted concerning the ElonJet story.
Donie O’Sullivan: CNN reporter. Last post was a story about Elon’s claim that a “crazy stalker” had followed a car in which his son was a passenger.
Matt Binder: Mashable reporter. Final post was noting O’Sullivan’s suspension.
Tony Webster: independent journalist.
Micah Lee: Intercept reporter.
Steve Herman: Voice of America reporter.
Keith Olbermann: former MSNBC host and sports journalist. Last post was retweeting those of suspended journalists.
And the original article where that list came from.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/15/2142134/-Thursday-Night-Massacre-Elon-Musk-indulges-in-a-personal-purge-of-journalists-from-Twitter
As I understand it, the majority of those people were either reporting on real time location information of Elon Musk, or providing links for people to find real time information on his location. It was reported that this information was used by someone who then attacked a car containing Musk's son.
Others were suspended for other violations of current terms of service.
Again, I'll ask, do you think it's wrong?
As I understand it, the majority of those people were either reporting on real time location information of Elon Musk, or providing links for people to find real time information on his location. It was reported that this information was used by someone who then attacked a car containing Musk's son.
Others were suspended for other violations of current terms of service.
Again, I'll ask, do you think it's wrong?
At the risk of repeating myself, no, not all of the banned journalists had done that.
I believe you're talking about those who use Twitter to promote other sites. We have a rule about that here too which I enforce, especially once our regular members start reporting those posts. Do you think it's wrong?
Everyone who uses social media for the purpose of promoting themselves cross promotes on multiple sites. And given twitter’s strict limit on the length of posts the main point has always been to post links to elsewhere. But I suppose if Elon wants to further drive his product away from the site that’s his choice.
As I understand it, the majority of those people were either reporting on real time location information of Elon Musk, or providing links for people to find real time information on his location. It was reported that this information was used by someone who then attacked a car containing Musk's son.
From today's Washington Post:
A confrontation between a member of Elon Musk’s security team and an alleged stalker that Musk blamed on a Twitter account that tracked his jet took place at a gas station 26 miles from Los Angeles International Airport and 23 hours after the @ElonJet account had last located the jet’s whereabouts.
The timing and location of the confrontation cast doubt on Musk’s assertion that the account had posted real-time “assassination coordinates” that threatened his family and led to the confrontation. Police have said little about the incident but say they’ve yet to find a link between the confrontation and the jet-tracking account.
It seems to me that Twitter has little real value and is a time sink for people who have cell phone addictions. It's popularity is odd to me, but I'm not of that generation I guess.
It seems to me that Twitter has little real value and is a time sink for people who have cell phone addictions. It's popularity is odd to me, but I'm not of that generation I guess.
I tend to agree with you. It seems like the argument is over what kind of echo chamber a private organization wants to maintain. I do think that if the guy wants to keep people from using his own platform to dox him, he should be free to do so. I also think it creepy that a platform would meet weekly with the FBI about which stories to promote or suppress.
I see that now both the "mean journalists ban" and the "don't link to my competitors" ban have been lifted. I imagine that business schools in years to come will be teaching their students about the brilliance of using a Calvinball style of management.
iris lilies
12-19-22, 12:43pm
It seems to me that Twitter has little real value and is a time sink for people who have cell phone addictions. It's popularity is odd to me, but I'm not of that generation I guess.
I signed up for Twitter years ago but never ever looked at it until Musk took over. I thought it might get interesting. I’m reading Bari Weiss’ posts but that’s about it.
iris lilies
12-19-22, 12:47pm
I tend to agree with you. It seems like the argument is over what kind of echo chamber a private organization wants to maintain. I do think that if the guy wants to keep people from using his own platform to dox him, he should be free to do so. I also think it creepy that a platform would meet weekly with the FBI about which stories to promote or suppress.
The FBI stories are the real meat of the Twitter news stories. Journalists trying to divert attention from that with their Elon doxing and whining seems deliberate, and seems that they are well aware of that first Amendment problem.
Twitter really has varied uses. Good for breaking news. Some airlines use it for addressing immediate customer service issues (travelers have reported that’s the quickest way to get an airline to respond). Local Tv/radio stations use it for important traffic news for the daily commute.
I generally like FB a lot better and have only ever followed some people and never posted anything, but even a comment, I don’t think.
Demonizing social media as the refuge of those with smartphone addictions is ridiculous.
Demonizing social media as the refuge of those with smartphone addictions is ridiculous.
It makes sense to me. Although demonizing is not quite the word I would use. I'm fine with other people using their time on social media, but perceive significant overuse problems.
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