Elon Musk Buys Twitter

[Edge-]

Just shows what free speech means.

Per Elon Musk's own comments, this has nothing to do with free speech. It's about "the future of humanity", and he's already walking back his earlier comments about caring about "freeze peach" in his bid to keep advertisers from fleeing the platform.

Really, nobody is "freaking out". Mostly folks are just dunking on the dude for making a hilarious bad purchase and having no actual plan for what to do with a social media company he never actually intended to buy.

Remember, his initial offer was $54.20 per share, which was purely a move to troll the SEC because he gets big mad that he gets slapped on the wrist when he breaks regulations.

[Rasulis]

Over at The Verge Nilay Patel kindly explains to MUsk what exactly it is that he has purchased, in words he just might be able to understand.

• You fucked up real good, kiddo.
• Twitter is a disaster clown car company that is successful despite itself, and there is no possible way to grow users and revenue without making a series of enormous compromises that will ultimately destroy your reputation and possibly cause grievous damage to your other companies.
• I say this with utter confidence because the problems with Twitter are not engineering problems. They are political problems. Twitter, the company, makes very little interesting technology; the tech stack is not the valuable asset.
• The asset is the user base: hopelessly addicted politicians, reporters, celebrities, and other people who should know better but keep posting anyway. You! You, Elon Musk, are addicted to Twitter. You’re the asset. You just bought yourself for $44 billion dollars.
• Here are some examples: you can write as many polite letters to advertisers as you want, but you cannot reasonably expect to collect any meaningful advertising revenue if you do not promise those advertisers “brand safety.” That means you have to ban racism, sexism, transphobia, and all kinds of other speech that is totally legal in the United States but reveals people to be total assholes. So you can make all the promises about “free speech” you want, but the dull reality is that you still have to ban a bunch of legal speech if you want to make money. And when you start doing that, your creepy new right-wing fanboys are going to viciously turn on you, just like they turn on every other social network that realizes the same essential truth.
• What I mean is that you are now the King of Twitter, and people think that you, personally, are responsible for everything that happens on Twitter now. It also turns out that absolute monarchs usually get murdered when shit goes sideways.

Basically, from a business perspective, Twitter is a one-trick pony.

On the other hand, Meta is an amalgam of products and services - Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Marketplace, Blueprint (free courses on Facebook and Instagram advertising), Business, Business Manager, Creator Studio, Crowdtangle, IQ, Gaming, Atlas, Messenger, Origami, etc. And, yes, the much-maligned Reality Lab.

[Hypasonic]

Who's "losing their minds"? We're mostly dismissive of the idea that anything meaningful is gonna actually change, and that this was a stupid PR move by Musk.

Also, "one side controls the discourse"? There's no "side" on this except keeping advertisers happy. There is no "control over the discourse", because Twitter is not "the discourse", nor even a meaningfully significant component of public discourse.

I feel like you have some issue with musk personally, otherwise I don't see why this would rile you up so to speak. Maybe it's a PR move? Personally I'm just happy someone has taken control and wants to grant people freedom to speak.

[Edge-]

I feel like you have some issue with musk personally

He's an obnoxious idiot with way too much money that sucks up way too much attention, mostly.

Maybe it's a PR move?

I work in that field, and I can tell you if this is a PR move then this is easily the most ineffective and expensive PR stunt in the history of the profession. And I've had the misfortune to be involved with some really bad PR stunts over the years.

Personally I'm just happy someone has taken control and wants to grant people freedom to speak.

Again, he doesn't, really. See his recent missive to advertisers telling them that he'll still have rules and please don't take their ad dollars and run.

[Draco-Onis]

I feel like you have some issue with musk personally, otherwise I don't see why this would rile you up so to speak. Maybe it's a PR move? Personally I'm just happy someone has taken control and wants to grant people freedom to speak.

But he isn't changing anything he said the exact opposite because twitter just like any social media is beholden to advertisers to make any money. There are places on the internet where you can say whatever you want but those are not multi billion dollar companies for a reason.

[jonnysensible]

I feel like you have some issue with musk personally, otherwise I don't see why this would rile you up so to speak. Maybe it's a PR move? Personally I'm just happy someone has taken control and wants to grant people freedom to speak.

dude u live in the UK, you dont have first amendment and that tory online safety bill oooof

aren't 75 percent of twitter users non american?

[Draco-Onis]

I never said that other social media company were any different (I even gave Facebook as an example).

yeah they are beholden to advertisers to make money who dictate what is acceptable you know the free market

[Hypasonic]

But he isn't changing anything he said the exact opposite because twitter just like any social media is beholden to advertisers to make any money. There are places on the internet where you can say whatever you want but those are not multi billion dollar companies for a reason.

Maybe you are right? Who knows. He is a multi billionaire, It seems bizarre he is buying twitter to aquire more money. It's easy for people to doubt his motives when many speak out about free speech. What are they scared of?

[Edge-]

Maybe you are right? Who knows. He is a multi billionaire, It seems bizarre he is buying twitter to aquire more money. It's easy for people to doubt his motives when many speak out about free speech. What are they scared of?

Again, he's buying Twitter because he wanted to troll the FTC by playing a game of chicken with Twitter. He lost that game.

Nobody is scared of shit, lol.

[jonnysensible]

. What are they scared of?

directed hatred that leads to real world violence etc.

[Arenis]

Mostly curious in what manner he's going to hyper-monetize that platform to recuperate the loss.

[jonnysensible]

Mostly curious in what manner he's going to hyper-monetize that platform to recuperate the loss.

didnt binance buy in with him? prolly crypto scams

[Edge-]

didnt binance buy in with him? prolly crypto scams

Isn't that like, half of Twitter now? I swear I've gone into Elon's tweet replies and seen like, dozens of copycat accounts pretending to be Musk and others dropping hilariously sketchy links to crypto drops and shit, lol.

[SAY HER NAME]

Who's "losing their minds"? We're mostly dismissive of the idea that anything meaningful is gonna actually change, and that this was a stupid PR move by Musk.

Also, "one side controls the discourse"? There's no "side" on this except keeping advertisers happy. There is no "control over the discourse", because Twitter is not "the discourse", nor even a meaningfully significant component of public discourse.

Twitter is not the real world but a lot of people that comunicate to the real world (I.E Journalists, academics and some politicians) are addicted to it. So yeah it matters.

I hope Elon turns it into the town square he wants cuz as is Twitter is deffo moderated to one side of the ideological spectrum mostly cuz the people with money lean that way but that is another discussion

- - - Updated - - -

dude u live in the UK, you dont have first amendment and that tory online safety bill oooof

aren't 75 percent of twitter users non american?

Hate speech laws are actually pretty cool cuz its recognition of whats acceptable speech and what isnt. The UK making a lot of stuff protected positions is also based

Its much preferable to being accountable to corporate overlords who do not care about free speech or open discourse

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

A company which is used by quite a few people as a source of information, which allow people to spread their opinion over the globe is not any "simple" traded company.

And? Why should that dictate what advertisers want their products or services to be associated with?

[Edge-]

I hope Elon turns it into the town square he wants

Gift it to the government with an ongoing endowment to cover operating costs.

cuz as is Twitter is deffo moderated to one side of the ideological spectrum

Is it the part of the ideological spectrum that's primarily interested in maximizing revenue/profits? If so, you're right!

[Rennadrel]

not being funny but ive never seen that shit on twitter and im terminally online. Not surprising to me that the twitter algorithm thinks Rennadrel is a nonce and would like to see it tho based on his posting history here.

Considering how little I fucking post on this site, I highly doubt you have any idea what kind of beliefs I hold. Then again, I'm not the one here defending pedos who shouldn't be given a platform to promote their abusive thoughts and actions.

[Draco-Onis]

Maybe you are right? Who knows. He is a multi billionaire, It seems bizarre he is buying twitter to aquire more money. It's easy for people to doubt his motives when many speak out about free speech. What are they scared of?

He has investors that are helping purchase twitter, the kind of people you don't want to disappoint. He is a multi billionaire but I can tell you from experience these types of people are afraid of becoming less rich than anything else.

[Darkeon]

Again, he's buying Twitter because he wanted to troll the FTC by playing a game of chicken with Twitter. He lost that game.

Nobody is scared of shit, lol.

That's quite the projection. No one is aware of his intentions but himself. You lost this game.

- - - Updated - - -

He has investors that are helping purchase twitter, the kind of people you don't want to disappoint. He is a multi billionaire but I can tell you from experience these types of people are afraid of becoming less rich than anything else.

This, however, I say it's a given. Above any explanation or reasoning, it's a business move.

[unfilteredJW]

That's quite the projection. No one is aware of his intentions but himself. You lost this game.

Every part of this is incorrect and can be summarily dismissed.