Elon Musk now officially owns Twitter.

It’s official?

4 billion dollars??

I still gotta work tomorrow. That's what.

Funny, you don’t hear anything about it on Twitter. As I thought: there is a limit on free speech when Musk is involved. I guess I’ll be deleting.

It's all over twitter and has been for the last 30 min, r3.

He now calls himself Chief Twit.

Update one minute ago

^^^If he fired her, then he's going to let HIM back

I hope someone offs him.

R2 - You and me, BOTH!

r1 Yes.

Karma's a bitch, r8. Wish murder on someone else and you can expect a 'return on investment' of pain and misfortune.

But you do you.

[quote]NOW WHAT?!?

Rent is still due Nov 1st.

[quote]If he fired her, then he's going to let HIM back

Trump rn...

Twitter is actually a great source for financial news if you follow the markets daily. I love twitter and am on it constantly from Pre Market through After Hours.

Fintwit rocks! sorry wokesters - Don't let the door hit you in your implanted ass ....

Oh stop with that hippie shit R11. Trump's continued existence disproves Karma.

Did this fat fuck eat beloved DL heartthrob Jack Dorsey?

They're celebrating

Elon has got Tesla progammers in to analyse what's been going on "under the hood"

[quote] NOW WHAT?!?

Sit back and laugh at the unemployed executives no longer being in control over who they choose to deign access to the twitter audience.

Bump . This is huge

Twitter was a at 53.86 at after hours close.

I'm buying calls in the morning! 🚀🚀🚀🚀

Firing executives and escorting them out of the building. This is akin to a real life soap opera. J.R. and Alexis would have been proud.

I feel bad for the regular non-executive Twitter employees. It’s a bitch getting fired/laid off.

Not trying to be hyperbolic, but if Trump is allowed back on, I’m out. I’m getting too old for all this stress. And he really brings out the worst in people.

Also, any people of color or Jews in America, my heart breaks for them. Women have already been betrayed with the overturn of Roe v Wade. This country is a mess

[quote] Firing executives and escorting them out of the building.

Elon let them off too easily

He fired off a rocket to celebrate.

That’s awesome 👏☝🏼

And after deploying over 50 satellites Elon's rocket returned to make a perfect landing.

He's on a roll.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN????

Time for me to leave Twitter

Will I get banned if I talk about the trans daughter he never speaks of?

R30 You mean the one who “wants NOTHING to do with him” but is happy to live in the mansion his $$ paid for? That one?

I doubt he’d give a shit if you talk about “her.”

I really don't see anyone leaving Twitter. They'll make a fuss, but won't leave. And, in all honesty, is Musk any worse than Zuckerberg?

Now what?

Now Twitter's Nazi infestation gets worse as it becomes even more of a weapon against democracy.

[quote] NOW WHAT?!?

Now some fool plays a trick on bigger MSNBC fools

MSNBC was duped into repeating a hoax statement from former President Donald Trump, which said his Twitter account would be reactivated by Monday.

" Congratulations to Elon Musk on his purchase of Twitter. Many people are saying that change was needed, as the old management was too concerned with the woke agenda. I have been told that my account will be back up and running on Monday – we will see. Happy to be able to engage with an African-American owned business!"

The show quickly apologized for sharing the fake quote.

Others also fell for the hoax on Twitter, and many more deleted their posts before Mediaite could save copies of them:

R34 Ahahaha, these idiots.

What r33 said

[quote]Not trying to be hyperbolic, but if Trump is allowed back on, I’m out.

Me too.

Woke up to this! Now he needs to start firing the employees who banned women for stating biology is real and that men cannot be women. And he needs to unban those women.

R3 Limit to free speech?! Where have you been for the past decade? Women have been banned for stating biology is real ffs! How is that free speech?

Firing 75% is not enough. EVERYONE there needs to go and to be replaced.

R40 Repug "job creator"

[Quote]Now Twitter's Nazi infestation gets worse as it becomes even more of a weapon against democracy.

At least women won't be banned for staying biology is real and people won't be banned for misgendering.

R40 Yup.

R33 Do you support women getting banned? How can Twitter be any worse than it already is?

Since the beginning, my only response is "How much did Trump pay him?". Or offer him (VP? Ambassador?).

[quote]Also, any people of color or Jews in America, my heart breaks for them. Women have already been betrayed with the overturn of Roe v Wade.

Hate to break this to you, but Hispanics/Blacks/Jews/Women having been supporting Republicans for over 20 years. These folks are the TRUE enemy.

[quote] The moderation tools are still working for now but I expect them to degrade from attrition and massive influx of trolls and unleashed bigots. This is just a preview of how bad things can get. People won't put up with this, they'll leave.

R45 are you fucking kidding me with shit?

R28 Look who replied.

Well, he can't stay in California so he's definitely going to move it somewhere, r50. I was assuming Texas.

Fascists flocking together.

That was quick.

The funny thing is, with all this mania happening, when the real violence starts, these Republicans and MAGA bitches won’t know what hit them, urban armies are salivating to unleash Hell upon these old white motherfuckers. You think any of these smug DL Repugs know how to actually fight?! HAH! They will shit in their caftans the second they fell a punch to their bloated guts. Beware you teeny racist shits, a storm IS coming…

Twitter is hilarious tonight. The entire world seems to be there sharing their Unpopular Opinions.

It's already more fun and its only been a few hours.

r54 Yes, they'll be smothered by the pungent smells of the chronically unbathed as collapse and die on the street from anxiety attacks and morbid obesity... you've ever been down wind of a rotting whale?

“Moderation is different than free speech….it’s an art, not a science”

Have any blue marked celebs announced their leaving?

Will they be leaving the nation as they've promised every election, too?

^ they're

Fun fact: sex was never a protected characteristic in the twittee guidelines so people could say all shit about women without getting banned. This also led women who stated biology is real to get banned. However, gender was a protected characteristic. This means misgenderering someone got people banned. Absolutely ridiculous.

Fuck Libsoftiktok and fuck you, R56.

I could see a market for a moderated twitter-like platform. Advertisers and a lot of blue tick accounts would definitely prefer it. However, it's really hard to get a switch like that happen.

You people don't realize why Elon wants twitter! He wants inside your phones! This is his way in, without trying to convince people, all over the world, to download a brand new app!!! (IE TikTok)

Everyone already has Twitter on their devices and now he will know, what everyone, allover the world, is doing, or saying (or plotting).

He is an evil genius and WAY SMARTER than Shitler!

Cry harder, Taylor at r62

Just had a look and people are already touting alternatives. Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia) has something called WT.Social, someone else has something called TribelSocial.. I wonder if one of them will take hold.

Eat shit and die, R65.

#Twitter the official platform for Nazis.

Here's another interesting case for Musk. As noted in other threads, Jordan Peterson trashed Elliot Page for his trans surgery. Peterson was locked out of Twitter unless he deleted the offending tweet. But Peterson said "over my dead body," so he has not been able to tweet anything since.

Peterson is famous enough to Musk (they both are friends of Joe Rogan) that Musk could be willing to unleash Peterson yet again upon the world and let his transphobic tweet reappear. But that would actually be spitting in the face of Musk's own son/daughter who now identifies as trans.

So what will Musk do? It ain't easy being Musk, self-described "Chief Twit."

Yay I can say faggot again.

Poor r67. Even ultra-Leftist Hasan Piker disagrees with you, and is calling for the return of Trump

r61 Aw, women do actually have agency, can be responsible for their rhetoric, and yes, even be bigots too. Who knew?

[quote]Firing 75% is not enough. EVERYONE there needs to go and to be replaced.

R71 you have no idea how much of a fuck I don't give about that.

r73 relax now., It works out the best for Pres. Biden. This is what we call job creation.

You care enough, r74, to keep commenting (and commenting and commenting).......

Uh Oh....

R76, one fights fascism where one can.

Hopefully, he brings the needed reforms to the company.

Tim Pool's podcast broke open a $6000.00 bottle of Louis XIII to celebrate.

The End of Twitter is here!

R79, If by reforms you mean "more Nazis" then yes.

Let's see who will delete their Twitter accounts!

[quote] #Twitter the official platform for Nazis.

And worse

It would be great if the kind of people who would threaten to leave Twitter over this actually do. It would get rid of a lot of the hate on the platform.

Fuck off, R84.

The world is ending! Trannies no longer own Twatter! And you can't even move away from Twatter! Oh my lawd in heaven above. There might no longer be a hugbox for shitlibs.

Twitter has a lot of important information posted there.

DL Nazis as far as the eye can see tonight. This place needs a good fumigation.

How many people is he firing again? Will he sell the Twitter HQ in SF, too?

R69 How is what he said transphobic? Please define what transphobic is.

[quote]OP: NOW WHAT?!?

Stop reading it. Stop using it.

And Facebook. And Instagram. And TikTok. Etc.

We will never get a handle on disinformation and its radicalization of readers until social media is rejected.

Extremely bad luck that this happened 2 weeks before the midterms.

Ever notice how often right-wingers want you to define stuff?

I killed a little used Twitter account within an hour of hearing that Musk had fired the executive team and had them escorted out of the building. What a maniac. My main Twitter will go the day Trump is reinstated, which could be as soon as Monday, apparently.

Like I said, Nazis are going to come flooding back in. Every hate-filled, violent, racist, homophobic asshole Is going to have a shiny new megaphone to spread their bile with.

I’m tired of forcing Twitter and Musk down my throat! Seriously, it’s just another way to feed my internet addiction - specifically politics.

I’ll jump to another site or try my news reader app. I don’t like Apple’s aggregator and Google News is stale.

R100 is an example of targeting people for reprisal.

[quote] I killed a little used Twitter account within an hour of hearing that Musk had fired the executive team and had them escorted out of the building.

Generations yet unborn will praise your courage

The important thing is will there still be pornographic contents on Twitter.... I think last time they banned porn from Tumblr, it all migrated to Twitter.

So new Twitter is like born again Twitter?

I think I have two dead accounts on Twitter that I never post to... I do have some lists that I link to get a feel on what people are talking about regarding certain topics.

Twitter probably won't change much if you're not super woke, however if you are super woke, you probably will get a lot more shit from the Nazis. I don't really care either way. Whatever. It doesn't affect my experience online. In fact, it probably enhances it as I am more free to speak my mind in my takes.

WOW. The twitter executive escorted out by security was THE face of twitter admin.

R14 any good accounts you could recommend?

r98 I don't know what side of twitter you were on if you ever thought they left. Or is this just about the perception of rightwing bigots vs leftwing bigots. It's funny how that continues to play out. Left & Right in unison: our bigots are ok, it's the other side that is the problem. All that and more is flooding. I just wonder if he'll show the actually trending words and hashtags.. . it seems we're back to using ukraine as weapon and shield

And I do fear that Kanye's antics are working for a segment of the population... republicans that are idiotically embracing it, and of course, those on the left to which antisemitism is stronger than their convictions to vote democrat. it's not most, of course, but it is a significant percentage across a wide range of racial and ethnic backgrounds. It can negatively impact the midterms.

On the plus side, the Elon drama would likely lead more to the left in the states. He's something of a boogieman for the socialist leaning, and whether you believe it or not, there is a significant portion there, too, that will see it as symbolic of corporate corruption if he gives them anything less than 100% of their entitlements. If one was working a political strategy that would be the angle to go... but on a blue collar level rather than tankie.

if anyone wants to watch for correlation between twitter now and the public. I predict we'll see a significant rise of heart related and anxiety issues in emergency rooms. while tone is difficult to determine online.. it all seems more hysterical than usual. the night before an election level hysterics.

[quote]R110: Kanye's antics are working for a segment of the population... those on the left to which antisemitism is stronger than their convictions to vote democrat.

Yeah, that doesn't exist.

R110, you lost me at "left-wing bigots".

R72 Women fighting for their rights is bigoted now?

r111 HA HA HA HA HAAAAAA Ha HA HA HA

R114. which group of leftists was it that was marching around Charlottesville chanting "Jews will not replace us"?

r115, you ought to look up the recent history of Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour party, and Jewish people. Specifically look up "Why Jews are leaving Labour".

Oh look - here's one from your side of the pond.

I think that anti-Semitism shit they smeared Jeremy Corbyn with was mostly bullshit. If Bernie wasn't Jewish, they probably would have smeared him as anti-Semitic.

If you believe that, r117. Then YOU are also a Leftist anti-Semite.

But you already knew that.

Which is why you made that comment.

It's a sock of Matt A, people. Ignore it.

R116, wrong side of the pond.

I have been on this website since the mid 2000's and although I see the "Boris!" trolls constantly referring to "Matt A", I still have absolutely no idea who the fuck these delusionals are talking about.

R116. also you didn't answer my question. How about this one? Which group of leftists is this? It's an easy one.

Here's my answer: Go ask Ayanna Pressley, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib.

Hmmmm.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Only hours after officially taking over Twitter, Elon Musk has taken action on firing underperforming employees. After reviewing the metrics on individual employee productivity, Musk abruptly fired 3,200 Twitter team members and replaced them with Amar.

"Amar is a hardworking immigrant from India who can easily do the work of 3,200 Silicon Valley millennials," said Musk. "Once we filtered out all the breaks for meditation, wine-on-tap, matcha sipping, shuffleboard, and corn-hole, we discovered that these employees could all be replaced with Amar, who will outperform all 3,200 of these employees by at least 9%."

Amar's resume includes a steady stream of success at several call centers in Mumbai, and since his start date on Monday, he has already outworked 2,973 of the employees in weekly productivity. Sources say he works 18 hours per day, sleeps at the office, and takes baths in the bathroom sink, all of which he says are much better working conditions than where he came from.

At publishing time, Twitter employees had announced they all found jobs working for the DNC in Washington, D.C.

Fuck the babylonbee.

How long til Roseanne is back on openly using the n-word and gloating about using it?

R123, oh well if the right-wing National Review says it ....

[quote]R121: I have been on this website since the mid 2000's and although I see the "Boris!" trolls constantly referring to "Matt A", I still have absolutely no idea who the fuck these delusionals are talking about.

If that were the case, you'd know perfectly well who Matt A is.

Just as is the case with DeFacto socks, Anscher socks always deny knowing who he is.

I have no clue who the fuck they're talking about either and I've been reading or on DL for several years. It's bizarre.

Repugs are celebrating the return of the Leader.

If lifetime bans are reversed, these will be back: Donald Trump, Jordan Peterson, Tommy Robinson, Katie Hopkins, Alex Jones.

Who else?

Adolf Hitler

If he wasn't dead.

[quote]I have no clue who the fuck they're talking about either and I've been reading or on DL for several years. It's bizarre.

I remember Matt, but that was so long ago that references to him make even less sense that ones to the mythical Boris.

Thank you, r130. It really is bizarre. I wish we could have old Datalounge back.

Poisoned Dragon, I've been watching you for years with amused interest. You have always struck me as someone who is genuinely clinically insane.

I hope you are getting help and benefitting from it. Good luck.

[quote] If that were the case, you'd know perfectly well who Matt A is.

Not necessarily. . I've been here since Blue Agave and when I see bunch of idiots going on their witch hunts against each other I move to a more interesting thread. Such flame wars are too much like the monkey cage flinging battles at the zoo.

Trolls come and go. I've been here forever and can't remember more than a couple from the past, and that's only because their names got repeated so much.

Good. Let the little SJWs have nervous breakdowns. Let the goddamn thing imploded on itself.

SJW is a right-wing buzzword.

This site has been infested by right wing trolls today. Yuck.

There are, per capita, relatively few SJWs compared to 'normal' people. It's just that the SJW's were given complete power by the recent Twitter regime.

Twitter won't implode, twitter will thrive. Because the Pink-Haired Pogromistas will no longer have any power there, the platform will be finally allowed to function as it was originally intended to by its inventors.

The twitter ecosystem will recover its original balance, and it will return to being the great site it was in the beginning.

Hear hear r141

R141, full up on Nazis again, you mean.

SJWs are for real not just a "buzzword". They set themselves up as the moral police to harass anyone who has a different opinion than them.

You don't have to follow them, r143, and so they need not ever show up in your timeline.

Block anyone you don't like. Follow people you do like.

It's really not that hard.

The 'SJW' fear isn't even true. I mean, JK Rowling criticises trans issues all the time and she hasn't been banned from twitter. It's those spreading misinformation and the real nasties who get banned for the most part.

I assume Twitter now owned my Musk still has to abide by State and Federal laws? He cant just run carte blanche over previous T & C's.

He said he'll follow national laws. In America that means the first amendment.

This day will be remembered in infamy

By the Pink-Haired Pogromistas, yes, r149.

Are there Tesla ads on Twitter yet?

R145 doesn't matter if I follow them. It's about giving fascists another platform to destroy our democracy. It's straight out of Putin's playback. That's why Musk got Russian money to close the deal.

R152 The Russian propagandists and trolls are definitely cheering today.

Thing is, Elon buying Twitter just doesn't make financial or business sense to me. So I find all of this pretty suspicious and I think it may be a national security issue.

Sure Jan. It's a "national security" issue to allow people to speak freely.

Do you people ever actually LISTEN to yourselves when you open your mouths?

Yeah, sure R155, that's what he meant.

/massive eye roll.

That's EXACTLY what he meant, r156.

R155 You don't think that it's weird that not long ago Elon tweeted out what Putin wants from Ukraine (which amounted to capitulation)? Why is Elon Musk of all people doing that? And opening up Twitter to misinformation and nasties is exactly what Putin wants too. What is the source of the funding Elon has suddenly managed to secure?

Something seems a bit off here and it should be checked at minimum.

No, not even remotely what he was talking about. R157. Why do you have to be so dishonest?

Oh please. One more American billionaire with an opinion you don't like.

Why not just jail him, since you don't like his opinion and thereby deem him a "threat to national security"?

No, seriously. If he's a danger to national security why is he a free man?

You perpetually outraged people constantly calling for more and more cancellations are more full of shit than Matthew Perry was when his colon exploded.

[quote]No, seriously. If he's a danger to national security why is he a free man?

Sorry but that's a terrible argument...

[quote] Sorry but that's a terrible argument...

Answer the fucking question.

Oh that's right, you can't.

One more billionaire, backed by Russian money, giving fascists a giant platform to destroy our country, and you're okay with that, R160.

R162 What I mean by that is that I don't know! I just want it to be checked out. And of course, if someone is working for a hostile foreign state against American interests, then that is a national security issue.

Musk built his companies backed by U.S. Government money, not Russian money.

R165 We're not talking about those businesses but about this deal. Remember that for months Musk couldn't secure funding and people were saying he probably wouldn't be able to?

R165, he purchased Twitter with Russian money.

Fiona Hill: ‘Elon Musk Is Transmitting a Message for Putin’

Oh I see, r166, so you think that this massive, high profile, months-long acquisition deal has been being put together under the intense scrutiny of the FEC, but actually with "secret Russian money", despite the purchaser being the richest man in the world. Except that nobody but you knows it.

Is that it? Is that what you're trying to say?

Can you prove this allegation?

Odd Repugs are so quick to celebrate this. Do they not know Elon is an Atheist? There are lots of things they are going to discover they do not like about him. He's an opportunist and when the Democrats do something he likes he will make it known and Repugs are going to be pissed. He swings both ways, only a matter of time once the dust settles.

Like putting a highly qualified trans person into space for example. Watch heads explode over it. They all have to share the same bathroom, oh what will they do? What will little Johnny do about his new space hero. I am not saying he will actually be about trans, it could be something entirely different but equally upsetting. Just wait.

R169 you don't seem to understand how funding works. It's not as if his wealth is liquid and he can just buy twitter outright like that. He has to borrow money offset by his other companies and whoever lent him it is 100% taking a big risk in doing so.

I understand perfectly well, r171. The richest man in the world is under added scrutiny from financial authorities as a matter of course.

I'm telling you that the entire scenario is unlikely to the point of preposterousness.

R172, there was nothing secret about the Russian funding. but without it, he wouldn't have been able to buy Twitter.

R172 It's not really though, given what we know and have confirmed about the Russians. They often use intermediaries to funnel funding to politicians, campaigners and other people they find useful for their propaganda war. And there are teams of professional, paid trolls (also proven) working actively to try to divide the West and make it fall.

Who are the Russian funders, r173? Name them.

How did R175 have a WW the second he posted?

R175 Not everything, obviously, and like I said, I don't know for sure which is why I would like it to be checked out. There are many proven things that the Russians do do, however, so comparing it to Q Anon is ridiculous.

R176 Like I say, they usually use intermediaries to conceal the true origin.

R175, not at all. Russian election meddling and backing bad actors financially is a proven fact.

I am r176, r177, and I liked r175's post as soon as I read it.

Because it's true.

[quote]The funny thing is, with all this mania happening, when the real violence starts, these Republicans and MAGA bitches won’t know what hit them, urban armies are salivating to unleash Hell upon these old white motherfuckers. You think any of these smug DL Repugs know how to actually fight?! HAH! They will shit in their caftans the second they fell a punch to their bloated guts. Beware you teeny racist shits, a storm IS coming...

Are you for real?

If it came down to a civil war between liberals and conservatives, the latter would easily win, because they have big guns and know how to use them.

While the Left has spent the last several decades eschewing/vilifying guns and promoting pacifism, the Right has been arming themselves and learning how to shoot.

I don’t see a WW. You’re insane with the idea that WWs equals Russian bots. Qanonish.

Also, in general, conservative men are more masculine than liberal men.

Ok r178, so from that I take that you have no names, and zero evidence.

Proving r175's point. "Russia is behind everything I don't like really *IS* the left's Qanon.

R184 How the fuck do you get that from me saying more than once that I don't know and would like it to be checked out? I think some things seem off about this. Especially Elon's pulling of Starlink support and then the message from Putin.

‘See You In Moscow’: Elon Musk And Former Russian President Medvedev Engage In Odd Twitter Exchange

You have no evidence and yet INSIST you KNOW. Just like Qanon.

The Twitterverse is not the universe. Everyone so wrapped up on Twitter to realize is nothing more than a public bitch fest of the loudest freaks in America. It is NOT an accurate sampling of what the majority of people think anymore than getting a bunch of loud chefs in a kitchen arguing about the best way to present an amuse-bouche. The rest of the world doesn't care.

R188 Twitter is mostly important because it's where a lot of journalists and academics, politicians congregate to share news and views.

Misinformation ^.

Various groypers and crypto scammers have been given back their accounts, but I'm guessing people like some friends of mine and Michael Musto, who were banned for no reason, won't get their accounts back.

Again, R187, Russia meddling in US elections, financing Qanon, the NRA, the GOP, and other threats to Democracy are facts, unlike Qanon's made-up bullshit.

[quote]Elon Musk And Former Russian President Medvedev Engage In Odd Twitter Exchange

They're trolling. It's like Trump back in 2016 when he was trolling about being involved with Russia and Putin, thinking he was so safe he could joke about it out loud, and also could just shrug everything off as "just a joke to own the libs." Notice that once everyone got closer and close to proving he really was a Russian stooge, Trump and his hired social media bots stopped trolling about it.

Musk is doing the same thing. He thinks he's going to get away with it like Trump, but he doesn't realize that Trump may not have actually gotten away with it, and if he does, it'll ONLY be because he's a former president. Musk isn't. He's just a businessman.

A big reason why rightwing nutjobs want Twitter is because there are a lot of normal, regular, everyday people on there that they can troll. It's not fun to go to Parler and just sit in an echo chamber. Their entire political platform is "own the libs" and if there aren't any libs to "own" nearby, then they get frustrated and restless.

Unfortunately for them, Musk is going to immediately drive off a lot of users, and over time others aren't going to want to bother trying to sift through the porn and crypto scams and groypers just to get real content, so they'll leave, too. Twitter was already dying out before Musk came along.

Sure, Jan. That's exactly how its going to work. Twitter will just 'wither away' and no one will use it anymore....

That's obviously why everyone is freaking out tonight.

We know Musk got money from the Saudis, at the very least. This has all the hallmarks of a billionaire Saudi filtering money from other investors through his own investment. Time will tell.

Btw: I tried the WT social thing but couldn't get past the Please Donate screen.

OH! I See.

So now it's "filtered" so THAT'S why there is zero actual EVIDENCE of your claim that the deal was financed by Russia.

Do I have that right, r196?

Just like Qanon...

R198 Why would they do it directly? (And it's been proven that they don't do it directly in other cases - often they recruit a regular person to make the donation/funding for them.)

Twitter has fallen, but something else will take its place. That's the way it is.

No evidence, just evidence-free FAITH.

EXACTLY like Qanon.

R201 Are you slow? I've said multiple times that I don't know for sure either way and that I'd just like it to be checked out because it seems a little sus to me.

What makes you think the funding of the deal has *not* been "checked out", r202?

Seems to me that funding for a deal of this size would most certainly be "checked out". Or is the US Government filled with secret fascist Hitler nazi Russian lovers too?

Which is it?

Check out this NYTimes story about how it worked in Slovakia. It's a pretty good read.

[quote] Also, in general, conservative men are more masculine than liberal men.

Bwahahaha!

I see Fearful People. Truly secure, non-fearful people don't have to go around armed to the teeth.

We're not talking about Slovakia. we're talking about the United States and whether the US government oversees large corporate aquisitions.

I believe they do. You seem to believe that they do not.

Which conveniently allows you to believe that "Russia is Yet Again Behind this Thing You Do Not Like", in the 'faith not facts' style of a Qanon freak.

You know who will be back on again...Kanye, too. I'm going to try to avoid altogether, but it's hard when the media shows every stupid tweet.

R206 The principle is similar. Using an intermediary to funnel money and inserting propaganda here and there. I don't know how far the US would trace the money or even if they are able to. Other things may have been promised in exchange for the donation too - for example it's reported that the Iranians gave Putin drones in exchange for work and intel on developing nuclear weapons.

Of course the sad pathetic bigots and homophobe trolls will be flooding back to Twitter. Their jaws are sore from sucking each other off and circle jerking on their failed alternatives to it.

Say goodbye to the likes of "truthsocial" and "parler"...

This is a very Elaborate Scenario, r208, for someone with no actual evidence to back it up.

R210 And yet it has been PROVEN multiple times that it's how the Russians operate. It's not crazy to think that they may have done so here when it definitely benefits their interests to.

That's fine, r211, but there is NO EVIDENCE - as in NONE - that it happened in this highest of all high-profile corporate acquisition deal.

Focus: Provide actual evidence. For THIS specific accusation you're making.

Otherwise you're just a Dem Qanoner.

R205 most men in the military/police force/fire department lean right/conservative.

It’s interesting that Putin spoke at a “think tank” yesterday, and now this. Maybe a coincidence.

Uninstalled lmao. Now we wait for the drama.

Also, it would be very smart for tumblr to allow porn again.

I think it's hilarious. People are just finding out that they are the product. Leave Twitter behind and it has no power. China's spy app TikTok should be next.

Unfortunately, Twitter still has the power to start people on a path to right-wing radicalization, and that bleeds over into real life all too often.

So, r113?

That doesn't negate my observation at r205.

I know there are some truly good law enforcement officers and military who possess actual, real bravery.

And that's my point.

At least he ones I know don't have to go around engaging in militaristic training exercises to salve their masculinity, nor do they nurture moronic fear.

Do you think the likes of those right-wing guys in Michigan who were convicted of attempting to kidnap Governor Whitman are "tough"?

Quite the contrary. Besides Trump himself, they're among the most fear-filled, insecure cowards I can think of.

And speaking of Trump, one of the things I truly marvel at is how his cultists see a "tough guy".

Right.

Trump's been able to shoot off his mouth with impunity from the safe remove of a TV studio- "The Apprentice"- a podium flanked by the Secret Service, and from behind his Twitter account and perceived money.

My, how "brave" and "tough" of Trump.

And, of course, Trump's bravery in actual military combat ( 5 deferments) is only too well known, right?

It's all posing and why people fall for all this "tough guys" nonsense will be something I'll always marvel at.

My post at r219 is replying to r213.

Sorry, r113

[quote]At the end of the conversation, to the surprise of many in attendance, Mr. Musk proposed a peace plan for the war in Ukraine that would allow Russia to annex Ukrainian land, seeming to align himself with the Kremlin.

[quote]The idea outraged many at the event, according to attendees. The next day, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser to President Biden, gave a video talk at the event and a questioner raised the issue of Mr. Musk’s peace plan. Mr. Sullivan did not comment on Mr. Musk’s remarks at the event, according to a National Security Council spokesperson. Nonetheless, Mr. Musk revealed his plan 10 days later on Twitter. The Kremlin publicly supported the idea.

Why would you waste any time replying to someone who was trolling you by saying only rightwing men are truly masculine?

I’m seeing anti-trans people tweeting “TRANS WOMEN ARE MEN” and crowing about how their freedom has been restored, but hadn’t people been tweeting such sentiments already? Morons.

No, r225. People were getting bans for saying that. I guess if you're seeing those tweets, now they're not getting banned for it.

From three minutes ago

I was banned from twitter for speaking out against a Muslim gubernatorial candidate running here in my state , a white gay man reported me! Then I was banned.

Generally speaking, the anti-trans people on Twitter got banned when they went too far in replies to individuals, not for just blindly tweeting out "only women are women" or whatever. That's what got Linehan, for instance. He was singling people out who hadn't even interacted with him, and that finally got him kicked off.

Could I ask some dumb questions? How did he come up with $44 Billion in cash. Did he borrow the amount? Sell his Tesla stock? How did all the many Twit share holders get paid? I guess, what was the mechanics of cash payments for stock. Does Granny, who has 10 shares get a check?

Seems like a very complex transaction to all happen in a day. If this all can happen like lightening, why can’t he fix the door handles that don’t work when there is a battery malfunction? Why can’t he properly align the hood with the bumper?

I don't think we know how much he borrowed, r230, but you can see a list of some of the people who lent him money in the link at r196.

Pretty sure that's a mock account lol

R232 was meant for R227

D'oh I meant R224....when are we getting an edit button here?

I just deactivated my twitter accounts.

[quote]accounts

Naturally.

Love how Russia becomes the scapegoat anytime something goes awry. Can anyone prove Russia paid billions for Twitter? I’m waiting. Same thing with the midterms. If a repub wins a seat, it will be because “Russia interfered in the election”. If a dem wins it is “fair and just elections”.

R237 = Erna

r237 is correct.

Unfortunately, people won’t leave. Flame wars will just get stronger, making people angrier, and you can bet Elon will be banning anyone he doesn’t agree with. So *Libs*. I mean, what viable alternative exists? It’d be nice if there was one. But Twitter is too big.

Twitter is only useful for porn

R237 just Google it yourself.

OP asks,

[Quote]NOW WHAT?!?

The Twitter bot farm — which is the unofficial jobs program of, by, and for the Democratic Party — ends.

You're a nutball.

This shows how Musk financed twitter.

The right-wing publication The National Review lists a number of right wingers formerly banned by Twitter who may be returning soon:

[quote] Twitter has permanently removed a number of political personalities, many of whom are considered right-wing internet provocateurs or conspiracy theorists. They include Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Project Veritas Founder James O’Keefe, Steve Bannon, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, and most significantly, former president Trump.

I forgot all about Milo.

Elon Musk says: "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!"

I don't understand why Trump's account is still suspended but Ye's account is back, Marjorie T-G's account is back, etc.

The Twitter executives that Musk just fired are doing fine and send their love.

[quote] Elon Musk will have to pay three fired Twitter executives nearly $200 million

[quote] Added up, the [golden] parachute payments come to $121.8 million. Add on the $65.2 million for the purchase of the shares they already own and you get $187 million.

If you don't like Musk owning Twitter, stop fucking using it. Can it be any fucking simpler?

If enough people stop using Twitter, his investment goes south and becomes worthless. If he brings Trump back on, once again Trump will be preaching to a very limited audience, that will drive him fucking bananas. Two birds with one very simple stone. As a bonus, Trump and his buddy Devon Nunes and all the other assholes that invested in Truth Social lose their shirts. Win, win, win all around with very little exertion by anyone.

OR, if the bigots get the n-word trending the problem might take care of itself.

News Corporation owned MySpace for six years before selling it at a 94% loss on its original value.

Yahoo owned Tumblr for six years before selling it at a 99.7% loss on its original value.

Yesterday $80bn was wiped from value of Facebook and Instagram owner Meta after the company reported halving of profits.

The people who gave Elon funding for this are taking a HUGE risk.. from a financial/business perspective at least.

R237, as if calling all Liberals "commies" isn't the scapegoat for MAGAt's? Or calling us "nazis"?

Troll

R249, don't be surprised if this starts happening sooner than you think. I've worked in Digital Marketing for 21 years now. Twitter already has a problem on its hands with it becoming a hotspot for porn, add to that an influx of hate groups, proud boys, and other loons, and I guarantee you major companies are going to start dialing back their ad spend on there in response. They don't want their brands tarnished with that shit.

R253 Yeah, that's why Elon released a love bombing letter to advertisers. I think he's definitely been made aware of that.

Which is going to be interesting because there's a clash between his libertarian views on free speech and how he's a businessman too.. Which will win out? An in-between state? Which would actually be very similar to what Twitter already was.

Seriously I have never understood the appeal of twitter, people voluntarily surrendering any sense of private thoughts and time.

Never signed up for it and have no intention of doing so now. But the meltdown spectacle is entertaining as heck.

Man up Troy.

R255 why do you post on DL then? That makes no sense. Also, Twitter is at it's best when it's posting news in real time. It's also a hub for politicians to campaign.

Okay, so this is why realDonaldTrump hasn't been unsuspended yet.... CNN Business: "Trump won’t return to Twitter right away: Musk enlists panel to review suspended accounts"

I predict he will sell it in a year. I think it will lose a lot of advertisers and causing him a lot of money. Unless he doesn't care about money and hold on to it.

Interesting article from The Verge on business, advertising and hate speech. Author's working on the theory that Elon will eventually be forced to moderate Twitter content to keep advertisers. I wonder if Elon's just planning on taking money from whatever trash authoritarians are willing to keep him afloat.

Everyone should quit twitter and leave Musk holding his dick in his hand.

* cost him a lot of money

R258 Great article.. The point about other countries who have different laws is definitely going to be a problem as well. Elon is going to face a huge headache if he truly intends Twitter to be a free for all. This isn't tech, this is people, like the article says.

Just deactivated my account. I love Twitter but it’s the only way to fight back against these assholes.

"Build you own platform". Wasn't that what people critical of Twitter's former regime were told to do?

The smart money is on Twitter collapsing into a cesspool, frankly.

Nobody wants to hang out at a place where people are openly spewing racist invective and conspiring to commit treason. The idea appeals to Musk because he is an aspie libertarian. Most of us are neither of those things.

People will start to leave Twitter. And by people, I mean people with lots of followers. Companies with stop advertising. Twitter becomes Parler.

I give it a year, tops. And frankly it’s a good thing.

Not if he's telling the truth and comedy is actually allowed on Twitter now, r264.

That will make twitter one of the only places where one will be able to go for actual comedy. That alone will keep twitter in the pink.

I wonder how much Trump will charge Musk to come back.

Twitter will thrive now

If you mean be infested by violent Nazis, then yes it will "thrive".

Why hasn't Trump's suspension been lifted yet?

Elon wants it to be a public square....which he will own entirely without oversight. Mmm OK, Sure Elon.

The far right (including Musk's funders) are probably hoping for at least a small window in which to have an effect on the outcome of the midterms. They may not care what ultimately becomes of Twitter after that.

Those who deleted their account with great aplomb will be back in no-time, as they can’t help themselves. They must and will get into petty online arguments with random strangers. Keyboard warriors, the lot of them.

Allowing all extremes on twitter will be a good thing for twitter, believe it or not.

Drama = business.

[quote]Allowing all extremes on twitter will be a good thing for twitter, believe it or not.

No, it won't be. Would you tolerate those extremes (death threats, misinformation, hate speech) in your workplace or your home? You probably wouldn't. It's toxic.

Death threats are not covered by the first amendment, and the other two you mentioned, "Hate speech" and "misinformation are legal and are wholly subjective value judgements which have no place in any discussion about true free speech, r273.

If you really want controlled speech, you 194 other countries you can move to. The United States is the only country in the world which has enshrined free speech in it's founding documents, so if you don't like free speech, you probably would be much happier somewhere (anywhere) else.

R274 It's legal for people to choose what they tolerate in a space they own dumbass.

That's right, and free speech advocate Elon Musk owns it now. You DO know the story behind what prompted him to buy it, don't you, r275?

Long story short: People like you.

Enjoy twitter. You helped make it what it is today. Literally.

R276 Elon is already backtracking on his free speech, no limits idea for Twitter anyway. He wrote in his letter to advertisers: "That said, Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!"

And he hasn't unsuspended accounts yet because he's going to assemble a panel who will decide which accounts will be unsuspended.....

I don't believe that people like you truly understand what a toxic hellscape true 'free speech with zero limits' would lead to. I'm talking about extremes of trolling and hatred which drags everything down including productive, civil discussion.

r277, the First Amendment has not produced a hellscape in the country, but the enemy's of the First Amendment have made a decent fist ad creating one.

We'll see where wily Elon goes next. I have a feeling he did not pay 44 Billion merely to falter at the final hurdles in pursuit of his goal.

^^^ enemies

Elon will sell this ASAP and take a bath on it.

He made the offer when he was drunk/high and immediately tried to back out of it.

His idea of an "unlimited public square" is a 2am pothead brainstorm. The reality is advertisers don't want that, and the Proud Boys ain't buying ad space.

R278 The First Amendment doesn't apply to people being able to choose what is allowed to be said in spaces they own. That's why Datalounge is allowed to ban people and delete threads at will for example. The First Amendment doesn't mean that I am allowed to go to school and tell the professor that he's ugly and stupid and should kill himself. I would probably be disciplined for that and if I still didn't accept that I'm not allowed to say that I'd probably kicked out of the school. So there are very much real limits to 'free speech' in everyday life even in the U.S.!

He'll add a subscription option depending on how much/little moderation a user wants, and then re-add Vine to rival Tik Tok, then add shopping and various other interactive activities from which he'll take a cut.

I think he's planning on calling it "X".

R273, I wouldn't; but twitter is not a home or workplace, but more like a market square where every loon has their own soap box.

Well, Twitter is actually supposed to be a private business that makes profits from ad revenue (at present) as opposed to simply being a free public market square. So it needs to be somewhere advertisers want to spend those dollars on...

Elon is a good example of someone with far too much money and zero experience of running an online forum or social space who arrogantly assumed that this was a good idea. He is now learning fast about why every large online space ends up with moderation of some sort. People aren't logical cars and space rockets... they work pretty differently!

Here's a good example of the advertisers vs. 'anything goes' problem:

[quote]Some renowned advertisers like Dyson, Mazda, Forbes and PBS Kids have pulled out from Twitter after they found their marketing campaigns being showcased alongside tweets promoting child pornography. According to Reuters news agency, some 30 advertisers including Walt Disney Co, Coca-Cola Co and a children's hospital found their ads appearing on the profile pages of Twitter accounts soliciting the illicit material.

R284. I don't think his cars are particularly logical either. Unless killing people is actually the logical conclusion that AI is coming to.

Which wouldn't surprise me really.

Dyson, Mazda, Forbes and PBS Kids? Well, he's DONE!

74 million in the US and 35 million in Britain (the two countries I know) will go out of their way not only to boycott any company which stands against Free Speech, but to actively buy from those who advertise there and thereby signify that they stand with free speech.

There are lots of great alternatives to those companies to choose from, so I'll be interested to see how this shakes out.

^^sorry I forgot to point out that Disney and Coca Cola are already being avoided by the kind of conservative which will be populating twitter from now on.

I think his success will depend on how many conservatives there actually are in the West, and how pissed off they are by the idea of someone else telling them that their legal speech is "unacceptable".

We will see.

To be fair, that incident happened at the end of September.

However, GM Motors temporarily suspended their paid ads on Twitter in response to Musk taking over Twitter because they want to understand how he is going to change Twitter before they reinstate the ads. The pressure is already on Musk...

[quote]Late on Friday, GM Motors Co said in a statement it had temporarily halted paid ads on the platform as a "normal course of business" after a significant change in a media platform. The Detroit automaker said it was "engaging with Twitter to understand the direction of the platform under their new ownership", adding its "customer care interactions on Twitter will continue".

R287/R288. Does child pornography get categorized as free speech now? Who knew.

But I really don't think promoting CP is the platform that Conservatives want to die on. Or maybe it is. Projection seems to be part of their game.

Does anyone remember that Tumblr got destroyed because of CP? Twitter better be careful it doesn't go the same way.

Child porn isn't covered by the First Amendment.

You REALLY have absolutely no idea WHAT the First Amendment *IS*, do you, r290?

Are you sure you're an American?

I am not all that worried.

Twitter's user numbers are already vastly overstated as--in addition to millions of bot--they don't account for the multiple accounts many users have. Not maliciously either, but people have an account for their business, a personal account, maybe one for a hobby.

So numbers are already low and if iwere to turn into Parler or 4Chan then people would flee along with advertisers and he would not have a business.

Twitter is largely held afloat and is largely relevant because it attracts most every journalist and many have built their careers on Twitter.

If they were to leave and stop reporting on what's being said on Twitter the platform would go under.

Or Musk would keep it afloat using his own funds but no one would pay much attention to it.

Were that to happen, I would not be surprised if Alphabet or Meta launched a similar type of product.

R291.You really need to read the thread more closely dear. My statement was partly in jest.

R287 was pointing out that conservatives are boycotting companies that are "against Free Speech". But the reason for these companies withdrawing ad (as given in R285) is because those adverts are being displayed alongside solicitations for child pornography. You'll note that R288 also pointed out that many Conservatives are against Coca-Cola and Disney, who R285 also points out is against such illicit material.

That makes it seem that R287/R288 is positioning CP as a "freedom of speech" issue. If Conservatives are boycotting these companies because they want "freedom of speech", yet the stated reason for these companies withdrawing their support for Twitter is CP, then maybe Conservatives need to examine their reasons for these boycotts and what they want "freedom of speech" to include.

I wouldn't worry if I were you, r292, because there is nothing you can do about any of it, except to leave twitter.

The rest is possible, but certainly not the only possibility, or even the most likely eventuality.

The rage on here for 300 posts attests to the fact that losing twitter is something a certain faction in the United States positively dreads. If twitter is now so inevitably useless, I wonder why anyone has so much as blinked an eye at a change in its ownership?

R294. I mean, people will just leave Twitter. I have no doubt that's going to happen. I think the people cheering on this takeover are assuming that people will just stay out of habit (?) and listen to their point of view like some captive audience.

But why would people do that? I've left already because I have no interest in listening to Musk or his followers. I'll hop over to Reddit or some other platform.

I think you're misunderstanding what's so useful about the platform is it's reach. But people aren't bound to the platform more than any other. What people have constantly bemoaned about the internet, which is that you can find any point of view that agrees with you and latch on to it, is true for every side. That sword cuts both ways. Liberals will leave Twitter and find something else.

It's sad that we have to, just as I was sad when Tumblr went and destroyed itself. But it's the sort of sadness of knowing that a space or platform just doesn't appeal to you anymore and it's time to find something else. You're sad and then you move on. Well I have anyway. Mind you, I only used Twitter for porn so maybe it's more meaningful for others.

And 300 posts is really nothing. Seen how DL obsesses for 4300 posts over certain celebrities? This is barely a blip on DL's radar.

I honestly have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, r293. Your comments are the very first I've seen which mention CP as The Major Concern these companies hive, and I doubt , whatever they may say that that is true.

These companies want favourable treatment from the Democrats in power right now, and so they will say what they are told to say in exchange for favourable regulations and laws.

Do you think that situation will continue as is if the Dems lose the House and Senate on November 8th?

I wonder....

R296. I'm just pointing out what R285 said, and what R287 seemed to be responding to. Miscommunications tend to abound online and I find the absurdity of it amusing.

But I would hope that all companies, regardless of political affiliation, would be pulling out of a platform which allows solicitations of child pornography.

I really don't think it has anything to do with favorable regulations. Unless you're suggesting that Democrats want them to pull out because of concerns over CP, but if Republicans take over they would be fine with that?

Again, partly in jest just so we're crystal clear.

Is this the real reason Trump's account hasn't been unsuspended?

Wall Street Journal:

[quote]Mr. Musk said this spring that as owner of Twitter he would reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account, which the platform suspended indefinitely after linking Mr. Trump’s comments to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. That would be a red line for some brands, said Kieley Taylor, global head of partnerships at GroupM, a leading ad-buying agency that represents blue-chip brands. About a dozen of GroupM’s clients, which own an array of well-known consumer brands, have told the agency to pause all their ads on Twitter if Mr. Trump’s account is reinstated, Ms. Taylor said. Others are in wait-and-see mode. Ms. Taylor said she expects to hear from many more clients if Mr. Trump’s account returns.

WSJ say that Musk hates advertising and wonder whether he'll turn off ads completely and move to a subscription service for premium features. Advertising provided 89% of Twitter’s $5.08 billion revenue in 2021 so I wonder how lucrative that would be. I could see people being encouraged to leave for a free platform like TribelSocial also in such a case, and advertisers going there instead.

We'll see, r298. The midterms will determine much.

Re r245, how he financed it….obscene article….Larry Ellison wrote a $1 Billion check, numerous Saudi investors, Elon tossed in $15 Billion, institutional investors…such huge amounts so casually given…

Like the office where everyone tossed in $20 for Harriet’s retirement gift. The 1%ers really are in a world unlike ours. Not nice, but I hope this fails…..miserably for he and his friends…..

Ego Much?

Why aren’t you bitches talking about the demise of Ligma / Johnson?

I think the tell would be 'Daniel' claiming to not know how to make payments on his Tesla car. Hard to imagine a data engineer at Twitter not being paid big bucks - well unless 'Daniel' was spending it all on gambling, hookers. The three top Twitter executives whom Elon Musk fired Thursday will be leaving with about $187 million of Musk’s money.. I doubt they're heartbroken about being fired.

The Spectator

Sam Ashworth-Hayes Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover isn’t so bad 28 October 2022, 8:33am

It’s finally happened. After months of legal wrangling, Twitter has fallen. All hail King Elon; the 'bird is freed'. The executives running the show have been defenestrated, including CEO Parag Agrawal and head of safety Vijaya Gadda. Around the virtual watering hole, skittish packs of activists watch nervously as the ground shakes; Donald Trump, the biggest of the Twitter big beasts is set to make his return. And isn’t the wailing glorious? Well yes, but.

Basing your politics around things your opponents dislike is a trap that it’s easy to fall into. Conservatism is not a negative image of progressivism, but an alternative philosophical perspective with its own positive vision of what the world should look like. A movement based only in reaction to a cause will find itself defined by it, unable to escape the ideological limitations that that imposes, and doomed to failure.

With all that said, the hyperbole surrounding the takeover has been staggering. 'It’s like the gates of hell opened on this site tonight,' was the verdict of the Washington Post's Taylor Lorenz. 'A Musk-owned Twitter could be disastrous for women and marginalised communities already facing abuse and targeted harassment on the platform,' said Christopher Bouzy of Bot Sentinel, a bot-detection system.

In light of this reaction, it’s worth stepping back and remembering just how modest the goals set by Musk actually are. Musk believes that Twitter should serve as 'a common digital town square', where debate flourishes between left and right, bringing people together to discuss matters of interest. This doesn’t mean a conversation entirely unmoderated ('a free-for-all hellscape', in Musk’s words). It doesn’t mean turning the website over to the right of politics only; that would defeat the entire point of a digital town square. There are already right- or left-only apps which provide that service. All Musk is proposing is that Twitter takes its thumb off the scale. And that is exactly why some progressives are furious.

The view among some of those on the left when it comes to Twitter has long been contradictory. At the same time, it was just another private company quite entitled to ban anyone it liked and censor speech as it saw fit, and also a vital part of our democracy unique in its ability to shape political discourse. That these two concepts fit together poorly was not a problem, so long as the bans and censorship happened to favour shaping that discourse in ways helpful to the progressive project. If Musk manages to reshape the platform as he likes, then this advantage will be taken away. Progressive ideas will have to engage with criticism without being able to simply silence arguments they find too difficult to deal with.

That is, unless they can find another way. Deprived of the ability to outsource censorship to Silicon Valley, politicians may simply smuggle it into domestic law. Britain’s own Online Safety Bill – with its ‘harmful but legal’ provisions and attempt to ban ‘psychological harm’ – is just one example of the many ways in which even supposedly conservative governments can find themselves locking in progressive values.

This political battle is likely to prove a far harder challenge than reshaping Twitter’s internal culture. Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, responded to Elon’s announcement by reminding him that 'in Europe, the bird will fly by our (EU) rules', referencing new laws intended to ban misinformation, hate speech, and extremism – and exercise a vast and chilling effect on discourse in the process. If Musk is serious about his Digital Commons, his next step may have to be a more overt attempt to influence politics.

The Spectator is a rabid right-wing rag.

^^^ The comments below the article are great, all sides fairly represented and the commenters know their stuff.

No it isn't r306. No "rabid right wing" publication would have Julie Burchill and Julie Bindel as two of their star columnists.

Also, that was absolutely not a "rabid right wing" article.

Although I'm sure you failed to actually **read** the article, short as it is.

All I'm reading is that Elon is actually not going to find much speech to liberate that isn't toxic. Twitter wasn't even that censorious. IMO Trump trying to invalidate the fair result of an election to conduct an authoritarian coup was a pretty legitimate reason to suspend him. Even The Spectator believes in democracy and I remember reading two of their American citizen contributors (Lionel Shriver and Kate Andrews) saying that they would not be voting for Trump at the last election. So I wonder if The Spectator really thinks that's the kind of hill to die on and lose ad revenue over. It's not as if Trump doesn't have other places to go to continue to his claims (rallies, TruthSocial, Gab, Parler, etc)...

R306 is using a technique so many people on Twitter do: ignore the argument and attack its maker. This is a rhetorical feint that should have been drummed out of you in Freshman Composition, no, high school.

The Spectator has had the best year in the last 30, r309. Right now they're one of the most popular political magazines in Britain. They're not remotely worried, but it's sweet of you to care.

R311 Huh? I wasn't commenting on The Spectator's own sales. I was commenting on the article's argument about Twitter.

^^^I should add, one of the Spectator's longtime star columnists was kicked off twitter over the trans issue. Toby Young. The Speccie was not Best Pleased and campaigned to get him reinstated. He was, but I think they are less sympathetic now that one of their own has been on the receiving end of the kind of shenanigans the former Twitter owners regularly pulled.

R313 Do you have a link for the story about Toby Young being suspended by Twitter (I did do a search but couldn't find it). I'd like to see what he said. Especially when people like JK Rowling are able to talk about trans issues on twitter without being suspended.

R313 After searching some more, I'm pretty sure that you've got mixed up - it wasn't Twitter but PAYPAL who suspended Toby Young's accounts over his gender-critical views.

The funny thing is that when I search 'toby young twitter suspended' on Twitter I get some tweets from users saying that Twitter had temporarily suspended them for abusing Toby Young. But nothing about Young himself being suspended by Twitter.

Paypal was this year. Twitter was last year or the year before. It's why he started the Free Speech Union.

R316 Then why can't I find anything about it? No link or evidence? I'm pretty sure you've confused it with the Paypal story.

I can't find anything on google either, curiously, r317, but I am certain it happened because I subscribe to the Speccie and I've followed him on twitter for a few years.

R318 It didn't happen... I did a search on twitter as well as I mentioned and people 100% would have been talking about it there if he'd been suspended by them.

Sure if you declare it so then it must be true, r319 and there was no reason at all for him to start a FREE SPEECH ORGANISATION

R320 I can find no evidence that Toby Young has ever been suspended by Twitter and you can't provide any either.

Conclusion: IT NEVER HAPPENED.

Fine. It did happen, but I tend to not give a fuck whether you know that or not.

Nah, it didn't happen mate. There would be a Spectator article - at least - about it and people gloating about it on Twitter - at minimum. Didn't happen pal. Twitter really isn't as censorious as people think it is. They censor the most toxic stuff on the whole.

So many liberals are backtracking and declaring they will stay and fight the fascists lol

Of course they are. It's always the same the loudly dramatic "I'm LEAVING then" followed by the quiet crawl back.

r325 on the flipside the Nazis, QAnon nuts and racists are going to be very disappointed when Elon (likely) doesn't let them back. I wouldn't be shocked if Trump isn't unsuspended as well... too much ad revenue to be lost.

Dorsey is working on a new social media platform called blue sky. Currently in development

As many other have said, who the hell wants to be on a platform that is filled with toxic posts saying the n word, along with calling gays f*****s and condoning violence and murdering “libs”

This disgusting rhetoric, can very easily turn into real life consequences.

Musk is not going to get anyone to subscribe to Twitter.

The platform is only relevant because so many journalists are on it, posting the stories they and their colleagues write-once they leave there is nothing.

It has a much smaller user base than any other social media platform and, journalists aside, it is not popular with any particular group the way, say FB is popular with Boomers and TikTok with Zoomers.

Pressure from advertisers is going to be a huge issue for Musk.

Facebook is relatively immune to pressure from advertisers because most of its advertising comes from the SMB (small and medium business) sector not large corporations.

Twittter, OTOH, relies mostly on big companies. none of whom are going to want to see their messaging up against hate speech or against angry arguments and so there goes Twitter's revenue.

Doesey himself tweeted a Chick Fil-a coupon during gay Pride month. He “apologized”, but he knew what he was doing. He’s a jerk, just like Musk.

[bold]So long for now, TWTR[/bold]

Elon Musk did it. The billionaire Tesla CEO closed on his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on Oct. 28.

Musk has promised to take the social media company private, which means Twitter, which went public on Nov. 7, 2013, will soon exit the stock market after a nine-year run.

Trading in the stock was halted ahead of today’s session, and the New York Stock Exchange notified regulators that it intends to delist Twitter shares on Nov. 8.

[bold]What happens to Twitter as a private company?[/bold]

It’s been a bumpy ride for Twitter shares from the start, and certainly this year, both in the months leading up to Musk’s takeover bid and the months that followed, in which he attempted to terminate the merger.

When Musk officially takes Twitter private, the stock will be delisted from the NYSE, shareholders will be paid $54.20 per share, and the public board of directors (currently helmed by Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor) will be dissolved.

Musk will have rid himself of the pressure of being a public company—namely, the quarterly financial disclosures—but he’ll face new pressure from his investors.

The world’s richest man wasn’t liquid enough to buy Twitter outright, so he took $12.5 billion in debt financing from banks including Morgan Stanley. He also raised another $7 billion from equity investors, including Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the crypto firm Binance, and Oracle founder Larry Ellison.

[bold]Elon Musk will presumably find an exit for Twitter eventually[/bold]

While Musk has stated that he didn’t buy Twitter to make money, his investors will surely have an expectation of profit. So Musk will likely try to make an “exit” eventually, like most private startups do in Silicon Valley: either through a sale or by taking the company public again.

So it’s goodbye for now, TWTR, but maybe not forever.

Forgot the link.

R330

On top of all this Elon Musk is really ugly. I'm not looking forward to seeing his pie face everywhere.

R304/R305. That article is silly.

Firstly, Conservatism may be what they describe (an alternate vision of the future) but that certainly isn't what MAGA or Trump's followers seem to think it is. I'm fairly certain their entire platform is based around reactionary politics.

Second, I really don't think many people saw Twitter has some "vital part of democracy", just that it's a public platform which reaches quite a few people. And like any public platform, people may mistake something said loud and long enough as more influential and popular than it is.

But seriously, who is having deep, thought provoking political conversations on Twitter? It is hardly the bellwether of the political zeitgeist. I do think there's a responsibility to make sure that the loudest voices aren't the one's spewing hate speech but was Twitter doing much more than that when it came to policing behaviour?

And that brings me to the next annoying part of the article; the drive-by on Britain's new Online Safety bill and Europe's stance on disinformation. Why do the authors just casually critique those policies without deeming any further explanation necessary? Because it sounds a lot like a dog whistle for "free speech" advocates to find a new enemies in their endless crusade for more "free speech".

Finally, the article concludes with a paradox of its own; one it has previously tacked on to "liberals" as a point of criticism. Namely, that Musk is "freeing the bird" by turning Twitter into the open and 'balanced' public forum they believe it should always have been. Yet the article notes that because of domestic laws which exist outside America (I'm aware Musk is from South Africa and Twitter is multinational I just find this whole business ironic considering how American-centric Twitter seems to be), there will still be curtailing of some forms of speech in areas, and the article encourages Musk to make "overt attempt[s] to influence politics".

How are they proposing he does that? Manipulation of Twitter? Hardly a fair and open form for public debate then if you're looking to influence politicians to get an outcome you want. And worse, it makes it sound like they want to take their crusade for "free speech" to other countries in some sort of bizarre twist on American Imperialism.

Honestly, I'm with R306. Seems like a right-wing rag article to me.

R332 Have you seen his weird chest as well. It just doesn't look normal; it looks almost alien. Fat guys have bellies but there isn't a belly here...

You’d think the richest man in the world could afford better hair plugs.

Suit yourself, r333 The Spectator is the oldest continuously published magazine in the world, and no one but the progs on this board have ever called it a "rabid right-wing rag", but ok.

Lol. The Spectator had multiple columnists supporting Truss's plans.

No more bans for "misgendering" serial rapists? Please explain how this is bad. I don't use Twitter privately either way but it can't possibly get worse than it already was. I'm really interested though - and I wonder if Musk is ever going to publish it - how many accounts were bots after all. My hunch is that he will claim he was duped because he didn't get what he paid for if he finds out.

This the one that went INSANE with "N****er" posts as soon as Elon took over, right? (That is how it immediately got worse, R338, show just a smidgen of awareness.)

Never had it, never will, it's the most ridiculously stupid thing around along with the rest of social media. The DL is irritating enough, thank you.

R338 Elon already tried to get out of the deal with the bot argument but it didn't work.

R339 You're right. I looked it up and the use of the N-word increased by almost 500% since Elon took over. Those are the people whose 'free speech' was being curtailed on Twitter. Advertisers are going to love that.

Washington Post:

"“Elon now controls twitter. Unleash the racial slurs. K---S AND N-----S,” said one account, using slurs for Jews and Black people. “I can freely express how much I hate n-----s … now, thank you elon,” another said.

Racial slurs were posted rampantly. One single-word tweet, showing a single racial slur in all capital letters, was retweeted more than 700 times and liked more than 5,000 times. It was tweeted Thursday night and remained online more than 16 hours later.

One account, created this month, included a Nazi swastika as its profile picture and retweeted quotes from Musk alongside antisemitic memes. Another tweet, showing a video montage glorifying Nazi Germany with the comment, “I hear that there have been some changes around here,” was liked more than 400 times.

The Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), a group that analyzes hundreds of millions of messages across social media, said use of the n-word on the app spiked nearly 500 percent over the 12 hours after Musk’s deal was finalized."

Free Racism! Free Prejudice! Free Bigotry! Free Homophobia!

Free the scum to freely demonstrate their scumminess! Anything else is an intolerable curtailment of their right to be disgusting fucking lowlife swine and inflict that blatant nastiness on everyone else. Yay.

So this is going to work out well, what could go wrong?

I wonder how many of the accounts posting the N word are anti-Musk people doing sabotage. We've seen so many cases in real life where racist graffiti was actually done by activists on the left trying to generate outrage.

First you thought he couldn't afford to buy it. Now you think he won't be able to make any money off of it. All of this is just wishful thinking on your part. Elon has proved everyone wrong again and again.

Elon is heavily into his drug addiction. He's only going to survive that for so long and then he's Matthew Perry.

R342. Or, the simpler explanation is that these are really just the sort of people Musk attracts; alt-right figures eager to have a platform to spew their hate.

I guess denial really isn't just a river in Egypt.

r345 Realistically, it's probably a mixture of both with the vast majority being bot armies from the left. The fact that some were created just this month should make a thinking person pause. But very few thinking people exist on DL. It's mostly reactionary senior citizens running low on their beta blockers.

r346, thinking about the fake fired Twitter employees who reporters immediately believed without verifying their claims, if something occurs that fits people preconceived notions, they don't question it.

oh FFS, there's no conspiracy. And the fake employee prank was corrected pretty quickly.

There really are tons of nasties out there who see this as a liberation. However, I'm pretty sure that Elon is going to have to choose. Either he lets Twitter be truly 'free speech' or he takes the business consequences that will come with that.

r346 Lolllll true

r347 Or the fake statement from Trump that was immediately believed as authentic and subsequently published by fucking MSNBC.

We live in an age where people no longer seek facts and truth. They seek to confirm their biases, guided by raw emotion, devoid of logic and reason. That is all.

R346. Why would it be strange that they were created this month?

The argument is that alt-right people, banned from Twitter because of "censorship" of hate speech, are joining or rejoining Twitter in droves. This is because they feel free to peddle their horrible beliefs now.

Of course they would all be created in the last month or even few weeks or days.

There's a poster here trying to push the narrative of that you can't believe anything. Known troll tactic.

Why did Twitter have moderation in the first place if it wasn't a problem? And anyone who has run a site that takes comments from the public or a large social media space knows that those people absolutely do exist and make things toxic.

r352 and r351 immediately believed Jussie without question. Bet.

Oh, R352 is just a troll.

Blocked and their history was very telling.

Musk fired the executives "for cause" so those platinum parachutes will not be paid after all and they walk out with NOTHING.

No wonder Chief Censor Vagina God was crying and had to be escorted out by security.

I smell a legal challenge to that then.. I don't fancy his chances too (otherwise people would do it all the time).

Yeah, that article notes that those executives are planning their next steps.

But weren't they also significant stockholders? Surely besides these "platinum parachutes" they also got a significant payday when Musk bought their shares.

Depends on what the "cause" ism r356. If twitter was, in fact, lying to Musk and to the public about how they actually operated behind closed doors, there will be no lawsuits.

R358. If that were the case then Musk probably would have been better off taking Twitter to court so he could back out of his deal. Then he could have bought them at the lowered stock price.

That he didn't shows he doesn't have a case, in either the acquisition or the layoffs.

[quote] Surely besides these "platinum parachutes" they also got a significant payday when Musk bought their shares.

The 3 ex-execs got payments for their stock totaling $65 million (that's the total for all 3, not each).

The golden parachute payments that Musk may or may not pay amount to $121.8 million for the 3.

This info at r248

R360. So, I'm no lawyer but there seems to be a contradiction in how this is portrayed.

The executives are definitely getting the payout for their existing stock (around $65 million). Now there seems to be a distinction between the "golden parachute" payouts (around $2 million) and accelerated stock vestment payout (worth $120 million).

If they're fired "with cause" I'm sure they won't be getting the golden parachute payout (the $2 million). But I think the accelerated stock vestment is on murkier ground. Especially as the NY Times is reporting that employees will be paid out for the planned stock grants on 1st November under the terms of the merger agreement. So I'm thinking the merger agreement protects the accelerated stock vestment and requires the payout.

Maybe it's a different set of rules for floor employees and executives but I'm guessing that Musk is going to have to pay that $120 million if it goes to court.

r359 You're discounting the possibility that Musk only found out about the "cause" once his engineers looked under the hood on Thursday.

Well, is Grandpa Dum Drump back on there yet, talking about covfefe and the fine young men of the Oath Keepers?

[quote]R336: Suit yourself, R333 The Spectator is the oldest continuously published magazine in the world, and no one but the progs on this board have ever called it a "rabid right-wing rag", but ok.

Only someone so far to the right themselves that they have lost all perspective would think that.

"𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫 is a British 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭-𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐞 currently edited by Fraser Nelson. In 2004 it was bought by David and Frederick Barclay, who also own the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph (David died in January 2021).

Although early in its history it supported the Liberal Party, since the 1950s it has been closely linked to the British Conservative Party, initially on the moderate wing, but 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐟𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭."

Ugh, Taki is creepy and a straight-out racist. I don't understand the appeal.

r364 "Rational Wiki" is not a legitimate source.

But you knew that.

Find a better source. What does the UK press regulation authority say about the Spectator?

[quote]R366: "Rational Wiki" is not a legitimate source. But you knew that.

There's nothing wrong with Rationalwiki. Trying to poison the well against it is not a legitimate argument.

But you knew that.

Wiki articles are only as good as their sources; none of them are sources in and of themselves. If you take issue with Rationalwiki, you're attempting to dismiss the underlying sources, which I can guarantee you haven't even looked at (there's facts there; can't have that).

Nope. Keep repeating it all you want "Poisoned Dragon". All your comments are certifiably insane anyway, so I suppose it's no matter.

[quote]R368: Nope. Keep repeating it all you want "Poisoned Dragon". All your comments are certifiably insane anyway, so I suppose it's no matter.

That tells me it's the same troll cohort responding as always. No answer apart from ad hominem.

Omg

Posted by Elon 2 hours ago

R334 He is grotesque.

I’m sure most celebrities, journalists, etc., have a love/hate relationship with Twitter. I think it would take a lot to bring about its downfall. Morally you might hate or not agree the garbage spewed by the far right, but what current alternative exists where you can still reach your audience? You’d need a mass exodus to a new platform that happens essentially overnight, and how likely is that to occur?

Very likely R373

In case you all did not click on R371, Musk reposted a story making the rounds of right wing media that Paul Pelosi was gay and the guy was a male prostitute he picked up in a gay bar....

For realz.

STOP.

P.P. is well known in certain corners of SF, and has never hurt anybody during that long tenure.

Let it go.

Let it all go.

If we never talk about it, it never happened.

Everyone please just stop. He's a lovely man who is just like us and does not deserve this.

☝🏼 the original narrative is suspicious. DL even has a thread on this topic

The fucking newspaper that Musk tweeted is not a real newspaper - it's a blog of sorts that has also reported that Hillary is dead and is a one man show created by an Insane Person who gave it a legit sounding name

R374 - MySpace was a different time. Twitter is a pretty big beast. I’m all for a new platform where everyone leaves Twitter en masse. We just need the platform and the organized exodus. I think people have just become too complacent with Twitter. I have a profile under a fake name, and I only receive the content I want. Unless Musk changes the algorithms and pushes a right-wing bias, I have to actively search for the right-wing stuff now. Like I said, it’s a love/hate thing.

Why are you for any “platform”? ^ what’s happening to society.

Some people with lives will quit. But some people live for validation from their peers and will stay for the likes from other liberals every time they tell off a conservative. Hardcore twitterers won’t quit; it’s a drug to them.

R377 yeah, an utterly bullshit conspiracy thread that wasn't worth the electrons wasted in sending over the internet.

The Santa Monica Observer is notorious for false news and once claimed that Hillary was dead; another time falsely reported that Trump had appointed Kanye to a high level appointment in the Interior Department.

I don't get this guy. I figured he was a new type of capitalist, concerned for the environment. Seems somewhere he turned into a nazi qtard, Lump worshipping oligarch intent on establishing a Putin like government.

R383 That's because the "Santa Monica Observer" is the work of a single right wing nutjob who was clever enough to try and make the site look like it's a legit newspaper, right down to the name.

This is a not uncommon practice for spreaders of fake news.

[quote]First you thought he couldn't afford to buy it. Now you think he won't be able to make any money off of it. All of this is just wishful thinking on your part.

Oh honey. You do know that making money and laundering money are two different things, right?

R386 I'd love to know who is funnelling money to that guy. It smells like that Slovakia story posted in R204. Fake news dressed up as real/legitimate news.

Why did Elon post a transparent message from Putin and now this? I'm not saying that I know anything (he could be a 'true believer') but I think it all seems fishy.

^^ Sorry, meant that for R385.

Musk must've gotten quite a stiff one over posting lies about Nancy after he dismantled any system or controls to hold him or anyone else accountable.

I know nothing about Pelosi, though most 80 year old men I know are in bed that time of night and as others have noted, you have a right be as drunk as you want in your home (though if he was truly intoxicated, it's hard to imagine he could've fought off the guy), but this is right out of the Fox News/MAGA playbook: relentlessly dehumanize someone & then when they inevitably bad thing happens from some delusional fool, they create some lie indicating that this person brought harm on themselves, thereby absolving them of any responsibility for their hateful & incendiary speech.

Sure, honey.

You don't sound ANYTHING like a political money washer.

NEW: Elon has deleted his tweet................

[quote]NEW: Elon has deleted his tweet................

Content moderation! Literal [bold]VIOLENCE[/bold]

Wow, so interesting to see how much troll 5997 dominated this thread. Including post R376 which has lots of W&Ws. Worth pointing out because people do make things up on here.

I don’t use Twitter so it doesn’t matter to me. He’s still an asshole.

People who are saying "stay and fight" annoy me no end. The SECOND Trump is back on, I'll delete my account and never give it another thought. Make the platform fucking worthless like Truth Social.

This thread has more trolls than Twitter itself. Agree with R395, the minute Trump is back I delete. Remember when Facebook ruled the world? Not so much now. Once the popular perception about a social media site becomes negative, the slide downhill is inevitable.

R396 The now redlined troll had 90 posts in this thread.

There are bots coming from foreign countries on every site right now trying to make waves before the midterms.

I used to enjoy Twitter for the intelligent, witty comments in response to all the current events. Now it's trashed with misinformation and childish MAGA idiocy. He's managed to completely destroy it in a matter of one day.

In three months, Twitter will be worth as much as Truth Social.

I decided not to wait for Musk's reinstatement of Trump. His tweeting a homophobic conspiracy theory about Paul Pelosi's vicious assault did the trick. It's all downhill from there. Burn down the motherfucker.

Musk didn't destroy it in a day. Twitter was already a cesspool before he bought it, which is why his offer to buy it was so ridiculous in the first place. What happened is that, like every other time people thought Musk had bought the site, is that the trolls, racists, groypers etc. spammed the place with slurs and said it was because Elon had "just unsuspended them" when, in most cases, they hadn't been suspended at all. They're trolling. They want you to think that Elon is all about flooding the board with "free speech" which will "own the libs."

On top of that, Elon himself is a very stupid man, despite what the publicity has told you, and he's a shitposter himself, and he just discovered what happens when the owner of Twitter promotes fake news QAnon content, and I'm guessing he's a little taken aback. He had to delete his tweet. I'm sure he's rethinking a LOT of things right now.

R402 Given that he's just insinuated that the NYT publishes false news, I'm thinking not by much...

R402. It's disgusting. Musk's followers are so desperate to feel some kind of 'victory' that they're spamming hate, even though nothing has really changed.

I mean, congrats to them I guess. They've poisoned the thing they were so desperate to takeover in the first place. Like buying a house so you can burn it down.

I actually think he's concerned though. A few news articles I've seen on Twitter seem to be emphasizing that "moderation rules haven't changed". Presumably that narrative is primarily for advertisers.

Musk can push that story as hard as he likes but if his own followers are indicative of Twitter's future, I would be pulling ad revenue ASAP.

R403, are you suggesting everything the NYT publishes is 'the' truth? Seriously, no bias at all?

R405 They don't publish fake news (reporters are required to confirm with multiple sources if possible and they have fact-checkers). Which is pretty different to bias. The Santa Monica Observer on the other hand DOES publish fake news.

Twitter users: approximately 240 million worldwide.

World population: 7.8 BILLION.

Actually R400 in less than 2 weeks it will be delisted from the NYSE . You're probably right :)

R406, that was funny.

Everything R402 said is correct.

R409 Funny how? Publishing fake news and bias is pretty different a thing. You can spin something in very different ways - Fox News and CNN buy the same (truthful) reporting from AP and Reuters but spin it in very different ways. But actual false news? That's a whole different ball game and it's not what the NYT does.

Elon is going to start charging people $20 a month for a blue tick (verified account). Crazy. With the number of subscriptions and bills people have I can't see many taking that up.

If Musk wanted to trash Twitter on purpose, he'd have left his Santa Monica Observer tweet up. He doesn't want to trash the business, at least not yet, though I suspect ultimately he'll realize he's no good at running Twitter, so he'll just break his new toy and go home. Since he's so emotionally unstable, I can see him deciding to burn it to the ground by the end of the week.

Twitter is so 2015.

I closed my Facebook account years ago and stopped tweeting around the same time.

Where is this idea coming from that Twitter is so all-powerful?

I think people realize it's a paradise for right-wing nuts, just like Facebook. But on Facebook, they're your relatives. On Twitter, they're strangers and bots.

The lazy, greedy media uses Twitter to gin up fake news, that's the problem. People can leave in droves but as long as the media finds one stupid tweet from a nobody to write an article about, Twitter is going to continue to have power.

Elon is shitting all over that by criticizing specific news outlets, though.

I’m not discounting the bad experiences people report about Facebook, but mine is so completely benign I don’t understand it. It’s all family snapshots, chat about TV shows and movies, Wordle scores, etc., and ads for real estate, food, and men’s underwear. What am I doing right?

Now he's getting ready to gouge people for verification $20 per month. More cancellations coming! Eventually it'll be almost all trolls and bots.

This should clear up a few things for people who actually want clarity.

Those who want chaos…

The people that are gonna suffer for reduced advertising revenue are working stiffs at twitter (or contractor employees they employ). They’ll all get a quota and if they don’t meet it, will be fired for cause. Twitter HR will respond to their unemployment claims with “performance” as the cause.

I know it’s just a spit in the ocean, but I’ve deleted my Twitter account.

R411, The NYT did not report the truths about the pandemic. They didn't question anything Fauci or the CDC said, and certainly didn't ask why Pfizer needed 75 years to release FOA documents related to their vaccine. They didn't question the insanity of the Defund the Police policies, nor other uber-liberal ideas. You can poo-poo this all you want, call me a Maga-whatever (which I'm not -- Trump should rot in jail, literally) but it's a major reason why many former Democrats won't be voting Democratic next week.

R421 That's still not actual fake news.

Elon now denigrating The Guardian.

"@elonmusk

The Guardian used to have balance (moderately left) and integrity, but now it is a far left wing propaganda machine. I hope they get back to where they were one day."

Again, I don't understand the business case for this when these publications provide content for Twitter.. This seems to be ideological.

Staying on Twitter is like staying on Parler. If liberals and leftists were to leave en masse - so would advertisers.

Grow a pair and delete your account.

The challenge for Musk:

[QUOTE]Mr. Musk, who loaded $13 billion of debt onto Twitter for the buyout, faces financial pressure to turn its business around so he can pay the interest — about $1 billion a year — on the debt. It will be a challenge. Twitter has not turned a profit for eight out of the last 10 years, and the broader digital advertising market has been hit by global economic fears.

^^ Challenge accepted! I'll be charging $20 per month for verified user status, and that will save us. That's the amount people are already used to paying monthly for Netflix, but they'll get Zero movies and shows. It's quite the deal!

Can I finally post that I hope Ms Lindsey gets food poisoning without being suspended again?

He will play around with it, get tried of it and sell it when he finds out Twitter won't give him the ego boost like his other companies.

r421 Full of shit. Fauci is the highest authority on infectious diseases. Real Democrats will be voting for Democrats on Tuesday. Don't count your chickens before they hatch.

Fauci can go fuck himself.

R424 The people who really care about this are all annoying anyway, so I am glad they are leaving.

Oh look, another Ant-vaxxer loon at r430.

[quote] r421 - Trump should rot in jail, literally) but it's a major reason why many former Democrats won't be voting Democratic next week.

Hi Boris. Did you get tired of "I'm a Democrat but..."? So now it's other Democrats wont be voting Democrat? Yeah, that's even less believable than your old line. 🤣😂🤣

Destined for Great Things

[QUOTE] You can poo-poo this all you want, call me a Maga-whatever (which I'm not -- Trump should rot in jail, literally)

R433 nails it

This is the current version of "I am a lifelong liberal Democrat, but...." which succeeded "I voted for Hillary..."

Elon Musk is so corny.

A Troll has bought Twitter. Now you all have to live with it!

Serious question since I don't know how these things work. If Elon is has a net worth of $224 billion (per Forbes) why does he have to buy Twitter with $13 billion of debt that he has to pay about $1 billion interest on a year? Couldn't he just sell some shares if it was a liquidity problem?

That Troll who bought Twitter is thinking about charging for use of that service. 🤣🤡

Good luck with that. The only reason it's so popular is because it's a free shit show with no repercussions for the verbal diarrhea people want to spew. Repugs love to shot all over everything including the Capital but one thing for sure, they don't like to pay to shit.

R438. I doubt people many here would be able to give you a good answer but my understanding is that he can sell shares he just doesn't want to. Obviously he needs those shares for control or whatever, but I think selling shares also devalues them and by extension the company. And if shares devalue it might make other people think they should sell.

So maybe some kind of run on shares would take place?

R440 Thanks. It makes me think that his - on paper - $224 billion net worth could potentially collapse quite fast then if quite a lot of it it relies on the confidence of the Tesla fanboys.

It can r441, if it’s tied up in paper, which Musk’s is. I posted this elsewhere—I still don’t get how he’s the richest guy in the world. He sold PayPal for a lot of bucks but nothing close to what he’s accumulated. Tesla cars suck and it takes months to order one, so he can’t be making a mint. How did that make him rich? And his rocket company blew up a lot of rockets before one worked.

R442 My thoughts exactly too - I think a lot of it is based on fanboys overestimating him as opposed to fundamentals.

Yes r443. His wealth seems to be mainly his ownership in Tesla. And if his cars keep on sucking that won’t be good from CBS News: Musk's remarkable jump in wealth is linked to his ownership stake in electric car maker Tesla, and to a lesser extent his holdings in ventures including Space X and Boring Company. Tesla, though, has been his primary vehicle for wealth creation, with the company's stock surging more than 1,100% in the past five years as investors rewarded the company for its huge growth in vehicle sales. Tesla's revenue jumped from $12 billion in 2017 to $54 billion in 2021.

Tesla and Musk's other projects get a lot of government subsidies too right? I've seen more than one politician comment on that recently. So that probably explains a fair bit of it too.

Elon is America's Great White Hope... We're doomed!

R445

[Quote]"When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it's electric cars that don't drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he'd be worthless and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, 'drop to your knees and beg,' and he would have done it," Trump wrote.

........

Okay, I've finally seen a reason how Musk's $20 a month fee may make sense - politicians may claim it on expenses, organizations such as universities may pay it, publications like the NYT may pay it for their journalists... The bill seems like it may be big for them though.

Elon is bargaining with Stephen King now. It's so funny. He's cut the monthly fee to $8.

Top firm advises pausing Twitter ads after Musk takeover

[quote] One of the top four largest advertising companies — IPG’s Mediabrands — is advising its clients to suspend their ads on Twitter for the next week due to trust and safety concerns under the leadership of its new CEO Elon Musk, according to a person with direct knowledge of the decision.

[quote] This marks the largest group of advertisers calling for a halt in business with Twitter since Musk took over last Thursday.

[quote] Advertising is Twitter’s lifeblood — making up 90% of revenue. Musk has said the platform’s “commitment to brand safety is unchanged” since he took over five days ago. But over the past weekend, he tweeted — and then deleted — a false story about Paul Pelosi’s attacker, touching off a flurry of controversy.

Concerning the increase in hate speech:

[quote]It’s the kind of dramatic uptick that could drive lucrative business away. “When big advertisers leave over brand safety concerns, no one really wants the dubious honor of replacing them,” said Nandini Jammi, co-founder of the watchdog group Check My Ads Institute.

The only thing that hurts people like Musk and orange asshole is losing a lot of money.

I hope Musk loses his shirt

It’s quite obvious that Musk is a foreign agent owned by Putin and now Saudi Arabia.

He's literally a furriner, and he's definitely takin' our jerbs.

…and how the fuck did Iran develop attack drones all of a sudden. All they can handle is playing with courier hawks. Isn’t it obvious that Shitler/Kushner sold our technology to Saudi Arabia, then sent to Iran as a decoy, than from Iran to Putin. Seems more than plausible to me.

I just want to watch Elon's continued slide into drug addiction, getting taken by various baby-mama-ho's and watching him piss away his entire fortune in the process. Didn't the facebook fuckhead just lose something like 80 billion?

Good times.

I thought Elon was gay?

Saudi Arabia and Putin kicked in $$$billions$$$ for musk to buy twitter. Gee, wonder why?

MARY TRUMP discusses musk.

1hr+running time.

[quote]organizations such as universities may pay it,

Uh, NO. In that case why not also pay for TikTok and IG or even 4Chan. Heck, why not Lipstick Alley. Universities need to stay out of this.

I would not donate to any university that begs for money all the time for scholarships and then turns around and blows it on subscriptions to social media.

Hilarious and predictable the usual suspects now howling about Twitter suddenly becoming a toxic hate-filled cesspool. Twas ever thus!

A good percentage of the blue checkmark accounts are things like local police and fire departments, school systems, etc.

Again, this was instituted back in the early days of Twitter as a troll check - no one could pretend to be the school board and say schools were closed, no one could pretend to be the police department and say that polling stations has been closed, etc.

But it is unlikely that most of those entities will feel the need to pay Twitter $100/year for the privilege of maintaining their blue check marks.

Everyone should get a life and get off Twitter.

Ha, Ha, no one is going to pay. Maybe like 1% of the trolls. People will leave in droves, it's not fun if it's not free.

News Flash: No one loves Twitter that much Elon. It's a dumpster fire people just love to throw trash in to see it burn. But if they have to buy firewood, forget it. They will move on to something else that is free.

And again R464, many of the Blue Checkmarks are not people but government or quasi-government institutions like the East Pleasantville Volunteer Fire Department or small businesses and they are not going to pay because the reason for those blue checkmarks was to protect Twitter from being sued when someone pretending to be the fire department posted false information.

R465 is right. Twitter already knew it was a cesspool. The blue check marks are for liability purposes only.

No one gives a fuck about Blue Checkmarks. People taking this shit WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. It's about as prestigious as being a Gold Star Gay.

Personally, I think being able to buy the blue checkmark is great! I'm planning on being TheRealJennaEllis and posting all day about how I love to put inanimate objects into my vagina. Rudy's farts got my cunt so wet! Read all about it!

Sounds great R468.

Then let's buy verification for @TheRealElonMusk and tweet about our alien pregnancy.

Stop buying Tesla, alrighty? Don't buy burning Tesla generators unless you want to die in a grease fire. If you do, than go righty ahead.

I'm going to be TheRealDanaLoesch and tearfully confess to multiple abortions.

I'm also going to be TheRealMitchMcConnell and link to endless gay porn clips.

I'm going to be TheRealMelaniaTrump too, and share my passion for drunk-dialing Laura Bush to ask her if her refrigerator is running.

Fight back hard!

[quote]Personally, I think being able to buy the blue checkmark is great! I'm planning on being TheRealJennaEllis and posting all day about how I love to put inanimate objects into my vagina.

Pretending to be someone will destroy democracy, or something.

I dropped my account and deleted all my contacts and bookmarks to Twitter.

I don't need another fascist-run company to shit on my country.

Anotherasshole

Delete your twitter account. Make Elon regret his overreach. Tear him and Twitter down! Neither has any redeeming value at this point.

heard they lost over a million accounts! good!

They lost mine and anybody with a conscience will delete as well. Fuck fascist Musk.

If Elon seemed so concerned and worried about the number of with bots on Twitter why are they still all over the feed? They seem to have moved to the top of the comments in every post.

Because he’s a lying POS!

More shit!

Bloomberg:

"Twitter Inc. was sued over Elon Musk’s plan to eliminate about 3,700 jobs at the social-media platform, which workers say the company is doing without enough notice in violation of federal and California law.

A class-action lawsuit was filed Thursday in San Francisco federal court.

Twitter intends to start cutting staff Friday, the company said in an email to employees. Musk plans to get rid of half the workforce, making good on plans to slash costs at the platform the acquired for $44 billion last month, people with knowledge of the matter have said.

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act restricts large companies from mounting mass layoffs without at least 60 days of advance notice."

Ha,Ha, Yep, Elon forgot to ask his legal team to check the laws. Really large companies with thousands of employee all know this. How did he not know this? Or did he do it on purpose for more publicity? Not making a lot of friends there that's for sure. And if you think that doesn't matter, moves like that scare away new talent.

It's just Brass Balls 101, R483: If you want to fire, say, 2000 employees, you go out saying you'll get rid of 3700 of them. You may end up with 2200, that's 200 more people than you wanted to fire in the first place.

That has nothing to do with it r484. Mass firing is not brass balls, it's a pussy move, especially when done by a zoom call. Anyways, it's irrelevant, large layoffs like that have to fallow certain legal guidelines which it appears he has ignored.

Wall Street Journal:

"Food company General Mills Inc., Oreo maker Mondelez International Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Volkswagen AG’s Audi are among a growing list of brands that have temporarily paused their Twitter advertising in the wake of the takeover of the company by Elon Musk, according to people familiar with the matter.

Some advertisers are concerned that Mr. Musk could scale back content moderation, which they worry would lead to an increase in objectionable content on the platform. Others are temporarily halting their ads because of the uncertainty at the company as top executives exit and Mr. Musk considers a raft of changes, some of the people said.

Representatives for General Mills and Audi of America confirmed the companies have paused Twitter ads. “As always, we will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend,” said a spokeswoman for General Mills, whose brands include Cheerios, Bisquick and Häagen-Dazs.

Many other companies are doing the same. An executive at one major ad agency said about 20 of its clients had temporarily paused Twitter spending. Ad buyers say that the platform isn’t considered a must-buy for many advertisers, with far larger budgets going to tech giants such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc., and that pausing makes sense during the bumpy transition under Mr. Musk.

Many executives on Madison Avenue are uneasy with the rash of sudden executive departures from Twitter’s advertising sales and marketing units. Among those who have exited are Chief Customer Officer Sarah Personette, Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland, and Jean-Philippe Maheu, Twitter’s vice president of global client solutions. Those executives helped reassure advertisers that their ad dollars were being spent wisely and appropriately on Twitter. "

^ and everyone else is busy updating their resumes. People like Musk don’t realize that their tactics are relics of a long-gone era. This shit doesn’t work in a company where skills are in demand. People will walk today.

Delete your Twitter account (you won’t miss it—I don’t and I was a daily user). And don’t buy his cars. That will take care of this asshole and we’ll move on to the next asshole.

Oh, and vote!!!

His cars are truly pieces of shit. No way would I buy one anyway, but after reading how horrible they are to maintain and how useless they are when they break down, I’m opting for a hybrid for my next car purchase.

He is about to get a class action suit for failing to provide notice . Good lord this man is trying to out do Kanye for destruction of one's wealth.

Elon just fired so many people that I suspect Twitter will go down whether we delete our accounts or not. Advertisers won't even get a chance to withdraw advertising because Elon has cut so many employees and skimped on storage and servers. Then when Twitter is nothing but a memory, he'll still be fighting the lawsuits from firing people without proper notice.

That'll be fun.

This is a stupid, stupid man.

When I logged onto my Twitter I noticed that Kathy Griffin, who I follow, had changed her account name to Elon Musk.

[quote]@elonmusk Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists. Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America. 2:28 PM · Nov 4, 2022

Elon now whining about advertisers leaving and not supporting free speech. Blames (without evidence) 'activist groups' for putting pressure on them. Even though if activist groups did do that they were exercising their right to free speech.... Even though he has fired Twitter's sales and marketing executives. Even though Twitter has one of the worst ROIs for advertising so it's no big deal for advertisers to suspend ads while they see whether Twitter is worth advertising on.

It's funny to see a libertarian businessman suddenly not liking market forces and other people's free speech.

Wow, he does have a Dump sort of way of posting stuff. I wonder if Dump’s social media person is writing stuff for the Chief Twit too.

Four people with knowledge of the situation told the NYTimes that an estimated 3,700 jobs (roughly half of the workforce) has been eliminated. The Guardian has been keeping track of what employees Elon has fired:

"The human rights team has been laid off, according to a now former employee, Shannon Raj Singh.

The ML (machine learning) Ethics, Transparency and Accountability team is gone, according to a tweet of a laid-off manager.

The “internet technology team”, which helps keep the site running, has been cut to “a skeleton crew”, two sources told the Times.

An accessibly experience engineering team has been cut, according to a laid-off engineering manager.

The curation team, responsible for the Moments feature on Twitter, has also been cut, former employees reported.

Twitter’s communications department is almost entirely gone, according to the Verge.

Other areas that have been heavily impacted, the Verge reported, include product trust and safety, policy, research and social good."

Eddie Perez, a former manager of Twitter’s civic integrity team, who quit in September, told the Associated Press he fears the mass layoffs so close to the midterms could allow disinformation to “spread like wildfire”, especially in the period after the election when votes are still being counted:

“I have a hard time believing that it doesn’t have a material impact on their ability to manage the amount of disinformation out there,” he said, adding that there simply may not be enough employees to beat it back.

Perez is now a board member at an election integrity nonprofit, the OSET Institute. He warned that “some candidates may not concede and some may allege election irregularities and that is likely to generate a new cycle of falsehoods”.

Another reason users may want to consider deleting their accounts after the firings (from the Washington Post):

[quote]One surviving employee estimated that half of the company’s security team of hundreds had been laid off, exacerbating fears that Twitter’s infrastructure and its users’ privacy could be put in further jeopardy.

The world goes on OP

Twitter's advertising revenue is way down since Musk took over. He's, of course, blaming "activists".

[quote] One surviving employee estimated that half of the company’s security team of hundreds had been laid off, exacerbating fears that Twitter’s infrastructure and its users’ privacy could be put in further jeopardy.

R498 Perhaps the Russian computer server rooms in Trump Tower can be shut down because now the data can go directly from Twitter to Russia.

I've been trolling him every day, trying to get under his pasty white skin. I know he doesn't read them, but still...

R502 He does seem to read some of them since he replies to randoms now and again. Although he might have muted you by now.. what kind of things do you think would get under his skin?

r503 I told him not to blame his failures as a father on his trans daughter's school (which he did). I told him nobody loves him, that they only see dollar signs. I told him he wasn't a genius, that he didn't invent the electric car and that he steals or buys other people's ideas. I also insulted his looks.

Good times.

I am surprised by how fast he seems to be taking Twitter towards its collapse.

R504 those are just random insults, some of which don't make sense. Are you tricking him at any point? Baiting him? Any parody or satire? You are telling jokes at his expense, yes?

[quote]@elonmusk Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation

[/bold] even though nothing has changed

KEY WORDS left out: FOR NOW.

Until I figure out how to let all the MAGAts back online including Trump and still keep the corporate money flowing. See that's the dishonesty here, Elon is basically saying he wants to make it a free for all Trumpian hell scape of verbal diarrhea but he knows in the short term he needs the money. Ergo, here's a cookie to choke on before the midterms, but as soon as I figure out how to profit from this thing, all hell will be unleashed into America via tweets from a power hungry bitter former president.

He's also fired half of the employees so that's a lot fewer people to moderate.

R429, thanks. That was funny.

Libertarians like Elon are all about freedom to do any damn thing they want until someone else does something they don't like then the insults and blame game comes out. Like children basically.

Bitch wants his $8.

Did 👏 you 👏 not 👏 hear 👏 me 👏 I 👏 said 👏$8. 👏

I don't see that $8 per month idea working. Most people will just tweet without paying, or if he makes people pay if they want to tweet, droves will leave.

Awfully close to "Google is your friend."

I like this guy, and you can't stop me.

What a stupid ass.

"Some of those who the company is asking to return were laid off by mistake, sources told Bloomberg, while others were fired before management realized their experience was necessary to build the new features Musk wants for the platform."

LMFAO, I hope no one comes back unless he doubles their salary. Make him pay for his brash public BS campaign.

He can't even fire people correctly. What an idiot.

Elon seems to be tweeting all day long. I wonder if he tweets from the toilet, like another one of our former tweeters. Hey Elon, those electric cars and rockets aren’t going to get built themselves. Back to work!

And yet his stupid fucking fan club is still insisting this peckerhead is a genius.

As opposed to the sort of feeb whose patient report reads NEEDS HELP SHITTING.

Such a pathetic snowflake.

Giant ego and egg shell fragile. I loathe this sniveling little bitch.

I just joined Mastodon, a/k/a Twitter minus the Nazis.

There's a bit of a learning curve to get on (you need to choose a server, you submit a request for membership), but the layout is just like Twitter. Minus the Nazis.

Other alternatives: counter.social, Bluesky.

Elon Musk Tells Twitter Followers to Vote for a Republican Congress.

I am done with his BS and as much as I hate to do it, I canceled my reservation for one of his Cyber Trucks. (I know, I know, but it's cool and I wanted it) California is probably his biggest group of electric vehicle customer base. I see at least several every day driving into work. I guess he thinks it will never stop but trust me, I have talked to a lot of other people who were once taking about getting a Tesla and now that he's turned on CA for the last year or so it's totally off their radar. There are about half a dozen other options coming online in CA that are actually much more attractive, can drive farther, like 500 miles on one charge. CA has a mandate to be the first state to sell 100% of all new vehicles electric or hybrid by 2035. He's shitting where he eats.

Rich people endorsing the Republican Party is not something strange. The GOP is easier to corrupt and it won't regulate big businesses.

Word

The GOP is why Arizona is going to have no water in five years. They deregulated everything and sold all the water to barons in the Middle East.

I hope this isn’t true as I like Twitter for certain things. I do hope he then buys TikTok and runs that into the ground.

Elon is having to sell billions-worth in stock to feed the monster that Twitter is. He has himself claimed that Twitter is losing $4m a day while he will have to pay almost $1bn interest on the loans he had to take out to buy Twitter...

[quote]AP: Twitter’s new owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sold nearly $4 billion worth of Tesla shares, according to regulatory filings. Musk, who bought Twitter for $44 billion, sold 19.5 million shares of the electric car company from Nov. 4 to Nov. 8, according to Tuesday’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

I hope this ruins him. It would be perfect karma.

Latest

R530. What a typical Silicon Valley mindset. Try everything, and break everything, until something works.

Seems more what you would do for a startup not a well-established company.

damn, advertisers aren't going to be happy with this either. As predicted, people are buying 'Verified' blue ticks and pretending to be companies. Which negates the point of having 'verified' blue ticks in the first place.

Can't believe that Elon tweeted this just 3 days ago:

"@elonmusk

Twitter needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world. That’s our mission."

R532. That's really bad. Can companies sue Twitter for allowing people to impersonate them?

I don't know. Elon has said that impersonators will be suspended. But that still means lots of people will pretend to be someone else or a company and spread misinformation. Especially going forward if anyone can buy a "Verified" blue tick.

[quote] I do hope he then buys TikTok and runs that into the ground.

He wouldn't dare do that. Tik Tok is Chinese and Musk is a Chinese asset.

R530, I laughed at this response to Elon's tweet:

"Yes, I believe we have noticed some of the dumb things."

R535. The ability to buy the "Verified" tick might be what opens him up to liability.

If he wants to sell the tick he needs to call it something else. And make it crystal clear that it isn't verification.

Does changing dumb things that don't work include the CEO?

[quote][R535]. The ability to buy the "Verified" tick might be what opens him up to liability. If he wants to sell the tick he needs to call it something else. And make it crystal clear that it isn't verification.

See Elon's intentional misrepresentation of "Full Self Driving."

[quote]What a typical Silicon Valley mindset. Try everything, and break everything, until something works.

It's Fake it till you make it.

And often times it's just Fake it.

[quote]Seems more what you would do for a startup not a well-established company.

Whew! If only you knew how many fairly big/mainstream tech products are running on mounds of broken code thanks in large part to a mixture of unrealistic deadlines, poor communication between developers, developer burnout, and good old fashioned laziness. You'd be surprised how much bad code actually gets pushed live to production for consumers to basically become unwilling and unpaid QA techs. A lot of the shit you use has bugs that are now "features." It's pretty fucking sad (coughMicrosoftcoughcough).

^ For example...

It was good to hear President Biden say that Musk and his foreign investors will bear looking into. He declined to comment further but I'm glad to know they'll be keeping an eye on that crazy fucker and his evil friends.

That's going to make Musk's head explode. He's already posted Mean Girl videos about the time he was not invited to the White House party, oh, uh, I mean summit on electric vehicles.

The vaunted option to “set your profile picture to an NFT you own” is deeply embarrassing.

Definitely OT but I do NOT understand how an NFT can’t just be copied. I can’t wrap my mind around them and why they’re worth anything.

NFT is all about ownership rights, not about the quality of copies. Think of it as one person or museum owns the Vincent van Gogh Iris, but there are millions of copies out there. Many even painted by hand as exact copies as good as the original but still worth nothing.

That still doesn't make sense, R548.

I don’t understand why you couldn’t use a picture of an NFT for your profile pic even without paying for the privilege.

NFTs are a giant pile of bullshit and that's why the market for them has completely fallen out.

Musk is the type of "immigrant" who should have their citizenship revoked and immediately deported. This guy has contributed to the political instability in this country with his current platform.

Here's how advertisers view Musk and Twitter:

Musk fans on Twitter wanted Musk to provide the list of advertisers who were "pausing" their ad buys so that they could boycott or write angry emails to them. Musk has about 115 million Twitter followers, so he could presumably unleash the mad-as-hell masses on the advertisers who backed away from spending money on Twitter. (More than 90% of Twitter's revenue comes from advertising, so you'd think Musk wouldn't want to fuck with that.)

Musk said that if the advertisers don't return, he might have to do a "thermonuclear name & shame” campaign against them.

From his tweet on this subject:

[quote] Elon Musk: A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues.

Vox says:

[quote]Musk announced last week that the company had suffered a “massive drop in revenue” because advertisers had begun retreating. In the same note, he blamed the advertiser erosion on pressure from “activist groups,” and later floated a “thermonuclear name & shame” campaign against marketers who pulled their money. That is: he threatened his would-be customers.

[quote] Which is exactly the kind of thing advertising executives tell me troubles them about Musk and Twitter — that no matter what he says when he talks to them, they’re worried about his behavior.

[quote] “His personal Twitter handle is introducing a level of reputational risk that in my experience, most Fortune 500 companies cannot accept,” says Lou Paskalis, an advertising executive who met with Musk and about 100 other industry officials via a Zoom call last week.

[quote] While Musk says that there has to be a distinction between Elon Musk, Twitter user, and Elon Musk, Twitter owner, advertisers won’t see any difference at all. Especially when he’s engaged in stuff like highlighting a gross conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi, via a tweet he later deleted, or threatening his advertisers. Who, again, are his customers....

[quote] Perhaps the biggest problem for Musk is the asymmetry between himself and his advertisers: He needs them because he owes more than a billion dollars in interest payments a year. But they don’t need him.

[quote] Remember that the reason Musk was able to buy Twitter in the first place is that while some people — most certainly Musk — think Twitter is very important, advertisers don’t. It’s a subscale digital ad platform, which is why it’s worth a fraction of Google and Meta — two really important platforms advertisers have to use. And digital advertising is already under pressure, so marketers would be happy to find a reason to pull back spending on Twitter.

More at link.

A dumpster fire.

Elon is such a bully, like a Trumpian figure threatening to sic his fanboys on the ad companies (the funny thing is that WSJ has long told us which advertisers have paused their Twitter ads, so the fanboys only need to do some basic research to find that out but they don't; they're waiting for Elon to give the green light).

Hey Elon, here's [[rummages in pocket]] six dollars. Can I take Twitter off your hands?

RIP Twitter

New in: "Multiple Twitter sources say Yoel Roth is leaving the company."

Roth is the guy who has been prominent putting out Elon's fires on Twitter so that's pretty big. If even he's had enough...

Bloomberg says that Twitter's head of ad sales Robin Wheeler has also resigned. So that's the chief information security officer, chief privacy officer, chief compliance officer, chief of Trust and Safety.. gone.

Elon getting rid of free food and perks.

No-one is going to want to work there if they don't have to.

"Musk is incinerating his new $44 billion toy like it's a self-driving Tesla, and the rest of us are engulfed in the flames.

He drove major advertisers away by tweeting outrageous conspiracy theories and reckless plans, allowing rampant hate speech to flourish, destroying verification, and summarily firing half of his employees via unsigned email before he understood the first thing about the business"

[quote] (Yoel Roth quitting) so that's pretty big

Roth leaving is big. I don't know the names of any regular staff at Twitter except for Yoel Roth because Elon kept retweeting Roth's posts about how things are all under control and Twitter is aware of and dealing with any reported problem. I thought Roth was one of those essential employees that a new boss identifies and does everything to keep in place, just by the way he kept retweeting him. Guess not.

[quote] Twitter’s content moderation head quits as departures alarm the FTC

[quote] Yoel Roth had become the public face of Twitter’s efforts to reassure users and advertisers the service would not become a ‘free-for-all’

[quote] Several top privacy and security executives resigned from Twitter on Thursday, citing fears over the risks from Elon Musk’s leadership in a stunning exodus that prompted federal regulators to warn they might step in.

[quote] Roth’s departure surprised many because he had been tweeting about product changes with Musk’s approval and because he joined the new owner in speaking to nervous advertisers about future plans just on Wednesday.

[quote] The agency (FTC) said that it was “tracking the developments at Twitter with deep concern” and that it was prepared to take action to ensure the company was complying with a settlement known as a consent order, which requires Twitter to comply with certain privacy and security requirements because of allegations of past data misuse. Three of the resignations Thursday were by members of a data governance committee established in the FTC deal, according to a former employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

Does anyone think that maybe Musk's drug problem is out of control? This seems batty even for him.

Here's Yoel reassuring everyone that hate speech and other problems at Twitter were under control.

And then he exited the building for good.

FoxNews hated Yoel and exposed him as a loud-mouth liberal in their reporting.

FoxNews 5/27/2020

[quote] Twitter exec in charge of effort to fact-check Trump has history of anti-Trump posts, called McConnell a 'bag of farts'

[quote] Roth has previously referred to Trump and his team as "ACTUAL NAZIS," mocked Trump supporters by saying that "we fly over those states that voted for a racist tangerine for a reason," and called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a "personality-free bag of farts." Last August, Twitter suspended McConnell's Twitter account, prompting the GOP to threaten to cut off advertising on the site until Twitter relented

How could he ever work for Musk long-term?

[quote] Roth has previously referred to Trump and his team as "ACTUAL NAZIS," mocked Trump supporters by saying that "we fly over those states that voted for a racist tangerine for a reason," and called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a "personality-free bag of farts."

Come to DL, Yoel, you'll love it here!

Who am I kidding, he's probably on the Tiffany Trump Wedding thread even as I type.

Heh, "bag of farts." Good description!

11-10-22 link:

Okay, children, we're going to need some hot dogs and some marshmallows to watch the Great Twitter Fire of 2022 burn and burn and burn...

11-10-22 link:

Can it ever be more obvious that Musk balls is a Russian operative?

I'm loving the crap out of this story more every day.

[quote] If you work from home you're FIRED. Half of the Twitter workforce is FIRED anyway. No wait, come back, we NEED you to make twatter run and install Elon's fascist shit on the platform!"

Meanwhile.... huge recalls at Tesla, cryptofascist currencies tank even more, and Mr. Amazon Rocketdick is doing great!

Aaron Sorkin probably had no idea what story to tackle next, and now he's furiously writing day and night. Elevator Pitch: It's Rain Man meets Donald Trump meets Being There.

Elon 40 years ago: I was bullied as a kid

Elon Today: I am going to sick my fans on you if you dont do what I say

I despise Amazon rocket dick

The sad last days of $8chan.

I honestly feel he bought it to destroy it. He’s twisted and a freak and loves stirring up trouble for the fuck of it. Jack built it but Elon will blow it up. Also, fuck that Aspie freak for suspending my anti MAGA Twitter! I don’t want to play on his right wing ass kissing platform anyhow!

Watch live as Twitter becomes the MySpace of social media.

Is there a quick answer as to why Jack stepped away from Twitter last year - and then, who sold it to Musk and why?

Apologies for asking - and if it's long and complicated, I don't deserve to be babied so just ignore me.

R576. Then he's going to need to come up with some cash really quick to pay off his lenders and investors.

Wasn't Saudi Arabia involved in the purchase? I hope he's got a good private security detail.

R578, I think he stepped aside because Twitter still wasn’t making money. They wanted to bring in people to help make it run like a modern money-making enterprise. Instead they got Musk 🤣🤣🤣🤣.

Getting close the 600 posts so here’s a new one to continue discussing the nutty Elon Musk and Twitter.

R578 Usually, there would have been a vote by shareholders in support of the final decision to sell by the board.

I read Twitter daily, but don't post hardly ever. Still, if I did post often, it would be tempting to buy a blue check, but for me, only if it were around $4 a month.

Tumblr will also sell you a blue mark! lol

Elon said years ago he wanted to leave Tesla, even hired a different CEO to replace him. But in true Aspie form with a god complex, he fired him shortly after claiming no one could do the job right like Elon. He still wants out though. Probably the reason he has no problem selling all his stock. It's not necessarily the fall or negative others are predicting in that sense. He wants out of that so he can focus on SpaceX.

R585 How cute. You make it sound as if it was all planned. But no. Anyone with any common sense can see that none of this was planned. Elon is completely out of his depth and is fucked.

It was planned. Elon always intended to buy twitter, and he never “over paid”. Look into Longtermism. He and Jack (I cant remember last name), are huge followers of this philosophy.

Yep, Elon may have a god complex, but he's not stupid. R587 is correct. Elon is looking at his long range goals. Dropping Tesla, maybe using Twitter somehow to leverage tax breaks for his other companies. Who knows, but I assure you Aspie types like him plan things out.

Dont forget, Trump used that whole tax break on loss thing for 10 years not paying a dime. Lots of rich people know how this game is played. Elon is no exception.

Putin is also huge in Longtermism. Joe Biden looking into Elon Musk (and hopefully Jack Dorsey) is important, and needed. Both are extremely, extremely dangerous.

He's not stupid?? God god, his fanboys are something else. He's about the biggest moron on the planet right now just based on the last two weeks.

Elon is god! All of this is planned! He is rich so that makes him smart, too! All praise our eternal overlord Elon Musk!!!

R385, for his own good, he better stay out of SpaceX. Btw met him once while they were trying to sell a rocket to my company. This was years ago, probably 8-10 years ago and the guy is smart but he seemed fairly normal, although you could tell he had a raging temper even back then. And also in the process, he was not involved at all, he was basically there every once in a while for window dressing, I guess.

The reason SpaceX is such a good organization is Gwynne Shotwell. He pretty much lets her run the company and she is very much a big reason it’s doing well. I would imagine it will not be taken well if he were to concentrate more on SpaceX

R588, R589 If you actually knew anything about Asperger's it'd be that they're great at details and seeing the trees but horrible at seeing the forest or the 'longtermism'.

One of you mentioned Putin - a dictator who is good at tactics but horrible at strategy. He likely has Asperger's too.

Has Musk come out as having Aspergers or is that more Datalounge misinformation.

According to DataLounge, basically everyone has Asperger's.

R594, R595 Elon himself has talked about being Asperger's.

R585 is like one of those fanboys claiming Kanye did and said all that in order to get out of the "bondage" of his contracts to all these brands so he could break out on his own and make even more money. Genius! It was all planned by Elon

Men ruin everything.

[quote] According to DataLounge, basically everyone has Asperger's.

Well, there's Matt Anscher and all his sock puppets. And a host of his personality/mental disorders.

Omg