Free speech my ass.
Elon Musk has launched a bloody purge of prominent journalists tonight, writers who had the nerve to write about his heavy handed remaking of Twitter into a platform for hate speech, conspiracy mongering and, of course, his own obnoxious political observations.
“Twitter suspended several high-profile journalists Thursday evening who have been covering the company and Elon Musk…
… The accounts of Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Matt Binder of Mashable, Micah Lee of The Intercept and independent journalists Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann and Tony Webster had all been suspended as of Thursday evening.
The Twitter account for Mastodon, a platform billed as an alternative, was also suspended early Thursday evening.
It was not immediately clear why the accounts were suspended, though some had been tweeting about the suspension of the Twitter account that tracked Musk’s jet, @ElonJet, and its availability on Mastodon.”
I suspect there is more to it than their tweets about @ElonJet, Olbermann and Aaron Rupar have been extremely critical of Musk, and, what is worse probably, made fun of him at every opportunity.
Rupar, particularly, took a meat cleaver to him yesterday on his SubStack
“Is Elon Musk evil or simply a fool?
Billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk officially took private ownership of Twitter on October 27. Soon after he fired around half his employees, including key executives. He also gutted its checkmark verification system by turning it into a paid subscription service; this was intended, he said, to raise much needed revenue to offset the $13 billion in debt with which he saddled the company. Instead, it made it easy for trolls to impersonate everyone from George W. Bush to pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly; after an impersonator tweeted out that the latter was no longer charging for insulin, its stock cratered.
The chaos has caused advertisers to flee Twitter in droves, which is a catastrophic threat to a company where advertising revenue is the core income stream. In addition, Musk’s frenetic thrashing has probably violated the company’s FTC consent decree. Privacy execs in charge of monitoring and implementing that decree fled the company last week, the FTC itself issued a sharp warning, and Twitter stands to be fined millions, if not billions.
Musk has been self-boosting frantically on Twitter itself. (“Twitter HQ is great” he said in one tweet.) But in communications to his remaining employees (instantly made public) he’s warned that the company could be facing bankruptcy.
Musk’s brief tenure at Twitter has been so farcically inept that experts have called it a “case study in failed leadership.” Many on social media, though, have argued that Musk hasn’t really failed. His handling of the company has been so incompetent, and his response to critics so openly hostile, that some have argued that Musk bought the company intentionally — or perhaps subconsciously — to destroy it.
Olbermann was suspended following his support of Rupar.
Keith Olbermann has been suspended following his support for Aaron Rupar. pic.twitter.com/ns7wEkbmkX
— [email protected] (@cmclymer) December 16, 2022
Twitter is a worldwide source for news and information and all these men were accredited journalists, who fomented no violence or sedition, who were guilty only of reporting on Musk’s many stupidities.
I suspect tomorrow we will hear from the companies that employ them.
No one man should be arbitrarily making these decisions as to what we are allowed to write and read, as Musk is doing.
Update: NY Times and CNN ask for an explanation…
CNN has put out a statement: "We have asked Twitter for an explanation, and we will reevaluate our relationship based on that response." pic.twitter.com/rffZJSoqY8
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) December 16, 2022
Questioning Elmo and his choices gets you suspended.
Congrats, Muskedime Whine. You just boosted the numbers of every Twitter successor platform out there. The owners and operators of Mastodon, Post News and Spoutible owe you a fruit basket and a thank you note l.
Musk increasingly shows Trumpian qualities. Given the way Trump chased models back in the day one wonders if Elon isn’t his “love” child. Or perhaps more accurately (to him) I fucked another hot model without a condom child. (I don’t know if she modeled back then) But he’s as thin skinned as Trump. But, for now at least a whole lot richer which has to drive Trump up the fucking wall. And, as I saw noted in another article here today it’s also driving him crazy that MUSK is the one grabbing all the oxygen on Twitter! He knows he can’t win a competition with Musk for attention there and that’s why he hasn’t gone back.
As a matter of fact, Musk’s mom IS an ex-model in addition to being a dietitian out of Canada. But that explanation is WAY too easy, ignores how Musk Sr ran an emerald mine in South Africa that gave Elon the wealth he needed to buy his way into public spaces.
I know she’s modeled in recent years (don’t know what kind of person she is but despite her age attractive) but haven’t a clue about whether she did when she was younger.
The latest is that now the suspensions are for a week and not permanent.
He stepped in a really big pile of his own shit and it didn’t take long for him to realize it. If I’m not mistaken the former head of twitter is working on some new project/platform. What do you want to bet that the heads of all the major news outlets were in touch with him to see if he had something similar to twitter that would be available in the foreseeable future? And if it’s true letting Musk know he was facing a mass exodus from not only them but their advertisers – even Fox? Even if there’s no ready replacement coming anytime soon major journalism outlets can put the screws to him awfully hard. Imagine the talking head brigade raking Musk, and more importantly corporations that advertise on Twitter over the coals? Did he really have any choice but to come up with this lame-ass face-saving “it’s only for a week” move? Oh, and I’ll bet he got a call on his Bat-Phone from Zuckerberg too. Z-man probably jumped in his shit about giving Congress, even with the GOP in charge of the House actually doing some meaningful REGULATION of social media! And again, that by pissing off journalists he could expect an onslaught of Congress moving to regulate social media, or questioning why the hell not? Again I say Musk had no choice in the matter. Not if he wants his toy to have any chance of remaining solvent.
Increasingly, I’m comparing what’s happening to Twitter to the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade. Thanks to a series of jaw-dropping blunders, that one wound up conquering the very Christian Byzantine Empire (which, fun fact, only got called that after, as they called themselves “Romans”, being a surviving remnant of the long-collapsed Roman Empire in the West). The conquerors styled themselves “the Latin Empire” but breakaway provinces formed a number of Byzantine successor states. That’s how I see Mastodon (which got smeared as unstable by Musk), Post News, Spoutible and all the rest shaping up. The day of a centralized platform like Twitter may well be done.
There is almost surely a non-compete clause in the contract selling the company that no board member or executive officer can set out to compete in the field. But those can be very difficult to enforce, especially talking about the sale of a corporation.
Too late…damage is done.
I wish my suspension was only for seven days. I didn’t do anything but was targeted. I only have (had) about 9,000 followers. I have begged, pleaded, beseeched to no avail. I even tried the guy who can get you reinstated. I am out with no one I can contact on twitter to fight for me. Oh, well. I’m on Post, Mastadon, and the others. I just wanted to leave on my terms, not by being targeted by right wing nut jobs who didn’t like what I said (truth)