The Twitter thread

Retro

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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.

 

Arantor

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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.
 

Tiffany

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













 

Arantor

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.
 

Arantor

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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

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

Tiffany

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


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

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

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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

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

Tiffany

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