The Twitter thread

[Retro]

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, the scandals just keep on coming and it's not gonna get any better. I therefore think it's now time to have a general discussion thread about Twitter.

You know how Musk claims to be all for free speech and has reinstated Trump among other unsavoury figures in its name? Well, he saw fit to permaban news companies simply doing their jobs without warning or explanation. Hypocrite much? I knew that Musk taking over Twitter was going to be bad, but it just keeps getting worse. I urge anyone still working there to get out if they can before the staff abuses get any worse and if it was possible to have everyone just permanently stop using Twitter and let it go down in flames, leaving Musk with a $44 billion dud, that would be best of all.

Twitter on Thursday evening banned the accounts of several high-profile journalists from top news organizations without explanation, apparently marking a significant attempt by new owner Elon Musk to wield his unilateral authority over the platform.

The accounts belonging to CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, The New York Times’ Ryan Mac, The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell and other journalists who have covered Musk aggressively in recent weeks were all abruptly permanently suspended. The account of progressive independent journalist Aaron Rupar was also banned.

Neither Musk nor Twitter responded to a request for comment Thursday evening, and the platform did not explain precisely why the journalists were exiled from the platform.

Musk falsely claimed that the journalists had violated his new “doxxing” policy by sharing his live location, amounting to what he described as “assassination coordinates.” CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan did not share the billionaire’s live location.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/15/media/twitter-musk-journalists-hnk-intl

 

[Arantor]

Ah, ElonJet, the gift that keeps on giving.

Yes, sharing data from *publicly accessible sources* is now a bannable offence. Also so is suggesting people go over to Mastodon in the wake of @joinmastodon being banned.

 

[Retro]

And now widespread condemnation, hardly surprising. I wonder if the pressure will actually work to have him reinstate the accounts. I wouldn't bank on it.

Twitter condemned by UN and EU over reporters’ ban

The United Nations joins the EU in warning Elon Musk over a "disturbing" move to suspend journalists.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Retro]

Those bans didn't last long. I'm not surprised.

Twitter reinstates banned journalists' accounts

Elon Musk suspended some journalists' accounts after accusing them of sharing location data about him.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Tiffany]

A catch up of headlines of the Twitter drama to this glorious new thread from @Retro.

Twitter will 'start selling blue checks as soon as MONDAY'

Musk had wavered throughout his attempt to buy Twitter on how many positions he would eliminate, originally saying as many as 75 percent could go, with reports later saying 25 percent.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Lawyer Suing Twitter Over Layoffs Says Musk Trying to Comply

Elon Musk sells at least $3.95 billion worth of Tesla shares after Twitter deal

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold additional shares of his electric car company after closing the $44 billion purchase of Twitter.

www.cnbc.com

Musk warns of Twitter bankruptcy as more senior executives quit

Twitter Inc's new owner Elon Musk on Thursday raised the possibility of the social media platform going bankrupt, capping a chaotic day that included a warning from a U.S. privacy regulator and the exit of the company's trust and safety leader. The billionaire on his first mass call with...

finance.yahoo.com

Two Weeks of Chaos: Inside Elon Musk’s Takeover of Twitter

SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk had a demand. On Oct. 28, hours after completing his $44 billion buyout of Twitter

dnyuz.com

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/how-to-****-away-2444-billion-an-elon-musk-timeline/ar-AA13YIKg

Twitter Workers Said to Resign by the Hundreds After Elon Musk Set Employment Ultimatum

The company followed up with practical details after Elon Musk challenged the remaining employees to be hardcore or leave.

www.wsj.com

Biden calls for federal investigation of Elon Musk over ‘relationships with other countries’

“I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at,” said answered.

nypost.com

Twitter has lost 50 of its top 100 advertisers since Elon Musk took over, report says

Half of Twitter's top 100 advertisers appear to no longer be advertising on the website. A new report states that these 50 advertisers have spent almost $2 billion on Twitter ads since 2020.

www.npr.org

EU warns Musk that Twitter faces ban over content moderation -FT

EU industry chief Thierry Breton made the threat during a video meeting with Musk on Wednesday, the FT reported, citing people with knowledge of the conversation. Breton told Musk he must adhere to a checklist of rules, including ditching an "arbitrary" approach to reinstating banned users and...

finance.yahoo.com

Hacked Twitter data includes phone numbers, personal emails for celebrities, prominent politicians

More than 5.4 million user records have been published online, exposing everything from private phone numbers to email addresses.

www.dailydot.com

Elon Musk says Apple never considered removing Twitter from App Store

Elon Musk on Wednesday tweeted that the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from Apple Inc's App Store was resolved following his meeting with the iPhone maker's Chief Executive Tim Cook.

www.reuters.com

Jack Dorsey says the Twitter's failures are HIS fault, and investor's

In a blog post, Jack Dorsey took the hit for Twitter's many failures, but also blamed activist investor thought to be Elliot Management, whose managing partner Jesse Cohn tried to oust him.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Arantor]

And I still have people telling me that this was just Elon 'trying to work for the side of freedom'. Like, no, it was never about 'freedom' at any point, and if you think what he's selling is freedom, maybe I don't want to have that conversation with you.

 

[Tiffany]

I agree with both of your sentiments on what's unfolding with Twitter. That's why I've personally been watching it with a very skeptic eye too. You see what's in the headlines, but I suspect there's something far deeper going on. As you memtioned @Arantor, the "freedom aspect" is in question totally. As for Musk reinstating the journalists by polling, as @Retro shared, I'm not even sure that's the way to run a website of Twitter's magnitude....reinstatement by polling??

 

[Arantor]

Given Melon's propensity to bullshit poll in the first place?

In case you didn't see it, there were a bunch of accounts banned in the wake of ElonJet, and Musk put up a poll asking when they should be unbanned - 4 options starting with 'now' and outlining further and further time periods.

When 'now' won, he decided that 4 options was too many options and put up another poll for essentially 'now' and 'later' and naturally 'now' won.

The whole 'vox populi, vox dei' attitude is also only fine if you trust the memberbase not to be easily exploitable - but it was convenient how the bots were only an issue *before* he bought the place. The polls are easily gameable with bots.

 

[Tiffany]

I didn't know the outcome of the banned Elonjet accounts, thanks for that update!

Also an interesting phrase for Musk to use vox populi, vox dei.

“Vox Populi Vox Dei” is a Latin phrase that translates to “the voice of the people [is] the voice of God”.

Your point made about trusting the member base was exactly my concern too....when you are that big and with the bots, anything can be manipulated.

Integrity out the window.

 

[Arantor]

The thing about 'vox populi, vox dei' is that it isn't what Musk is making it out to be.

Probably the best reference is in the year 798, in a letter to Charlemagne:

Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit.

And those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness.

In other words, listening to the crowd is a bad idea because it's full of dissenting voices that can't agree on things.

 

[Retro]

Every single piece of news about Musk and Twitter is bad. There's just nothing good about this guy.

Twitter to remove posts with links to other social platforms

Move will affect content linking to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post

www.theguardian.com

 

[Retro]

Another twist in the Twitter saga. I can't believe Musk is actually offering to step down. And will he really do it? Makes no sense.

Elon Musk: Twitter users vote in favour of boss resigning

Some 57.5% of users voted "yes" when Elon Musk asked them if he should quit as Twitter's chief executive.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Arantor]

Well... there are a couple of ways it makes sense.

Firstly, if you genuinely thought you were doing a good job and your loyalist fanbase would save you, you'd put that up to validate your fee-fees. This is a man who is very much in thrall to his fee-fees.

Secondly, and perhaps more relevantly, he was at the world cup, in a private box with some *very* wealthy people. Not him-wealthy, mind, but people whose wealth isn't quite so on-paper, shall we say. There is speculation that he's been offered money to prop up Twitter by the Qataris in exchange for him stepping down as CEO.

 

[Retro]

Maybe it's that, I wouldn't know. Sounds shady though. Let's see how this story develops.

 

[Retro]

Wasn't hard to see this one coming.

Elon Musk: Twitter users vote in favour of boss resigning

Some 57.5% of users voted "yes" when Elon Musk asked them if he should quit as Twitter's chief executive.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Tiffany]

I DO think Musk is up to something....this is all orchestrated.

 

[Tiffany]

So....the latest Twitter drama has me confused as to their TOS in sharing links from a website.

Twitter bans links to other social networks – maybe

Soooo......can we share links to our websites and other websites? Or does their new rule prohibit link sharing entirely?

Really, what's the sense of posting on Twitter if you can't share what you're reading that you like, whether it's from another website or your own?

 

[Retro]

A news article clarified that accounts / posts posting solely to promote some other social media website would be shut down. However, if a subject is being discussed say and a link made to some relevant site, then it should be ok. That's not so different to how I'd handle it here, otherwise it's just spamming.

I suspect that it's not as reasonable as this, though.

 

[Tiffany]

Thanks for the clarification. Yes, I feel the same as you....much left to interpretation.

 

[Retro]

Musk kept his word. Now, if only he'd sell Twitter to someone less mean than him, that would be great.

Elon Musk to quit as Twitter CEO when replacement found

Elon Musk says he will resign as soon as he finds someone "foolish enough" to take over the job.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Tiffany]

I guess "to be revealed"..... I suspect he already has his replacement planned too?

 

[Retro]

Yup, Musk 2.0: a better psycho.

 

[Tiffany]

Brilliant @Retro

 

[Arantor]

Elon Musk was never a liberal, and his plans for Twitter were never benevolent | Thomas Zimmer

Tech barons’ lip-service to democracy and pluralism was always conditional on preserving their own positions at the top

www.theguardian.com

 

[Retro]

It's unsurprising that Twitter's psychopath owner has removed a suicide prevention feature.

Elon Musk ‘orders Twitter to remove suicide prevention feature’

Sources say new owner sought removal of the #ThereIsHelp feature which appeared at the top of certain searches

www.theguardian.com