I have to say, this was a bit unexpected, but we are a material species which puts the pursuit of profit above principle so it’s logical that this occurred. I pray to God that this move by Twitter does not become our collective undoing.
Word has undoubtedly reached you that Twitter announced Monday morning that the sale to Elon Musk had gone through. The Republicans started dancing in the streets earlier in the month when it was announced that Musk was on the board of directors. They saw that as their go-card to post hate speech and as the door opening to Donald Trump’s reinstatement on the social media platform of his choice.
The expectation is that Musk will reinstate Trump and and turn Twitter into a right-wing sewer. I posted the image I did at the top of this piece because it’s being snarked now that maybe Musk would make Kanye West the CEO.
If the Tesla self-driving car is any indication, Dear God help us. We are in for a rocky passage I fear. Here’s the only mitigating information I could find from a Washington Post article earlier in the month.
Musk’s sudden transubstantiation from a Twitter critic to a Twitter leader has naturally sparked speculation both within and outside the company as to just how the outspoken tycoon might wield power over its policies — and whether he might cajole it into reversing its ban on Trump.
Twitter wasn’t the only platform to punish the president, but it was Trump’s digital megaphone of choice. The company’s decision on Jan. 8, 2021, to permanently ban him, following the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, was a watershed in the history of social media and American politics. Twitter’s ban went further than its rivals Facebook and YouTube, whose indefinite suspensions left open the possibility that Trump could return for a 2024 presidential run.
Musk has already said he plans to enact “significant improvements” at Twitter and has polled his gazillion Twitter followers on whether they think Twitter does enough to uphold principles of free speech. […]
While bringing back Trump could perhaps help ensure Twitter’s place in the political spotlight in the event of a successful Trump 2024 campaign, it would alienate large swaths of users and employees, and perhaps also advertisers, who are the company’s main revenue source.
But all of this assumes a level of passion for reinstating Trump that Musk has given no evidence he possesses. Though he has on several occasions shown support for the general idea that Twitter should promote free speech, he has said nothing of note on the Trump ban since that January 2021 tweet.
In fact, Musk has said what he thinks is the “single most annoying problem on Twitter” today, and it has nothing to do with Trump. Rather, the target of his ire was “crypto spam bots.” He’d probably find far more support, both inside Twitter and on its board, for prioritizing better anti-spam systems to clean up the platform than for bringing Trump back.
Your guess is as good as mine. The story is still fresh and we’ll revisit this topic as the day progresses. But I have to tell you, if my gut is any indicator, I honestly lost my appetite when reading this this morning. I fear that this is a dark day for democracy.
TWITter, as with Fakebook, and other “social media” sites main problems are the hate speech, incitements to violence, and disinformation that flows through these sites like a fetid and festering sewer! These sites will not police themselves, because they profit from the the hate speech, incitements to violence, and disinformation that is so prevalent on these “social media” (data collection) sites!! I think that these sites need to be completely removed, and all collected data deleted!!!
PS. Saying the above is probably what got me banned from that other site.
I will make book on this: as soon as that p.o.s. musk takes over the board, the orange shit-gibbon will be back on that social media platform. I have never used the crap and never will. Unfortunately, musk thinks shit sells and therefore he shovels. We will be subjected to shit until someone has the sense to either shoot the dumb son of a bitch or take over the shit media platform and hopefully put it out of its misery.
No good has come from social media. NONE whatsoever. This is not up for debate–it is a fact.
Has everyone already forgotten that Musk already bailed on Trump fairly early with the Council of Economic Development (I believe that was it; please feel free to correct me)? As such, why should we expect him to do Trump any favors? However, I would keep a wary eye on him doing solids for the likes of Liz Cheney, Belarussia’s Lukachenko (AKA the smarter version of Putin) and more successful villains. Consistent pattern: he likes cozying up/coopting winners.
I don’t twitter, my wife does to keep up with the latest on The Walking Dead. I can see the damage musk can cause. Interesting that the moderation is what keeps twitter going. Telegram evidently already has the niche as the free for all no moderation model. If twitter moves more into that space they will lose a lot of people who just hang around keeping up on sports or their favorite shows or whatever.
The main thing is that it will be different. Musk, for all his “free speech”, is probably thinking mostly that it is a platform for his business. Sure, things will change, some aspects may be good, others bad. After the honeymoon is over, at the extreme ends of the Twitter-sphere, everyone will be unhappy for some reason. Musk is about Musk, that’s what you have to remember.
Maybe a positive point, if he really sticks by it, which is hard to know, is that he wants to get rid of the spambots, requiring real human accounts. To some extent, perhaps having one’s name attached to one’s vomit might help put a stop to so much puking in public places.
I’ve been hearing arguments that he has no idea what he’s walking into…and that it will make him retreat when it stops being fun. I have to agree with that assessment. His business will suffer for that miscalculation, I fear.
There is always data mining from users. That is where the real money is at.
I’ve read that the former guy isn’t interested in the tweety place; he’s still sure that his own is a big success, even though he doesn’t use it himself.
I will wait before I decide to leave, though, because I don’t think Musk has a clue what he’s getting into, and he made the offer because he didn’t expect to have to pay up on it, like all his other offers of money.
I never liked Musk, especially his arrogant attitude. If he does allow these miscreants back on the platform, the world should simply boycott and cause him untold financial distress, even with his billions. It is past time for the KARMIC lessons to begin for a whole raft of oligarchs. At least the EU has given Musk fair warning about consequences for possible violations of their expectations.