Elon Musk Buys Twitter

[Paranoid Android]

https://twitter.com/ChrisWarcraft - as of now, suspended.

Man, why does Elon hate "Free Speech" so much?

Holy Mother of Jeeezus!

Let's see the most harmless of tweets that don't violate any of Twitter rules. Drinking urine for breakfast. Seems parody to me.

Hmm?

I looked and at glance thought Elon tweeted this?. But it wasn't. A person showing how blue check can be manipulated and the only reason why this account would be banned, since the person tried to impersonate.

This is going real well.

[Edge-]

I looked and at glance thought Elon tweeted this?. But it wasn't. A person showing how blue check can be manipulated and the only reason why this account would be banned, since the person tried to impersonate.

This is going real well.

The plan to pay for blue checkmarks with no requirement to verify identification seems like it's actually a really good idea!

- - - Updated - - -

https://gizmodo.com/twitter-layoffs-...ics-1849743051

Twitter began its highly anticipated mass layoffs Thursday evening by eliminating its top internal critics. Twitter’s Ethical AI team, according to former staff, is no more.

Multiple members of Twitter’s Machine Learning, Ethics, Transparency and Accountability (META) team, including its former leader, posted on Twitter saying they were no longer at the company. At least one of the former workers suggested the entire team was being disbanded. The apparent layoffs impacting the company’s strongest internal watchdog group comes as thousands more brace for cuts potentially impacting around half of the company’s staff according to previous reports.

...

META was formed last year with the explicit task of auditing Twitter’s algorithms to investigate potential unintended harms and biases. The team’s research led to real changes at Twitter. In one case, the company stopped using an automated cropping algorithm after META researchers found evidence it was expressing racial bias. META, which formed in the months following Google’s controversial firing of its ethical AI team’s co-leader, was unique because it actively sought out well respected, high profile engineers and researchers openly critical of Big Tech’s effects on society.

The group was widely praised among AI researchers and tech critics as a meaningful symbol of transparency and accountability within a major tech company that, at its best, could identify harmful issues and help rebuild degrading users’ trust. Twitter, under Musk’s leadership, appears to view those efforts as redundancies.

Hey, that's a positive development, right?!

And want more positive developments for the platform?

META wasn’t only harm focused team eliminated. On Friday, Former Twitter Human Rights Counsel Shannon Raj Singh revealed the company had laid off and disbanded its entire human rights team. That team played a crucial role in investigating Twitter related abuse around the world, particularly those affecting journalists, activists, and political dissidents.

So Elon doesn't seem to even have an interest in an engineering solution for the problems with the algorithm, and I thought his whole thing was that engineering can fix everything?

Also -

Musk wants to squeeze out between $1.5 to $3 million per day in savings from servers and cloud services, which the report warns risks putting a strain on Twitter during high traffic events.

Look forward to Twitter going down during events with high user engagement much like Reddit does. Truly things are on the up and up!

Edit: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1587500624098246656

Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit.

Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.

Price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity

You will also get:
- Priority in replies, mentions & search, which is essential to defeat spam/scam
- Ability to post long video & audio
- Half as many ads

And paywall bypass for publishers willing to work with us

The bolded "benefit" he's proposed?

https://twitter.com/SillyRobin/statu...02179689558016

Just to be clear, he fired the team working on this.

Elon right now -

[Poopymonster]

Look forward to Twitter going down during events with high user engagement much like Reddit does. Truly things are on the up and up!

You mean like next week? Specifically Tuesday?

[Edge-]

You mean like next week? Specifically Tuesday?

Who knows!

But the real question is, WILL WE BE ABLE TO GET JA RULES OPINION ON THE ELECTION?

[Poopymonster]

Who knows!

But the real question is, WILL WE BE ABLE TO GET JA RULES OPINION ON THE ELECTION?

Of course not. Musk cares NOTHING for Rules!

[Iliena]

This is turning into the funniest and most expensive fuck up ever!

Elon you should have stuck to the batteries

[Edge-]

If this all falls apart and he ends up owing money to the Saudi's I would absolutely encourage him to never get within eyesight of a Saudi embassy. Which I don't think will be a problem for him but...you know...just in case.

[Poopymonster]

If this all falls apart and he ends up owing money to the Saudi's I would absolutely encourage him to never get within eyesight of a Saudi embassy. Which I don't think will be a problem for him but...you know...just in case.

Hmm, I don't know what he saw, taking their money.

[Edge-]

Hmm, I don't know what he saw, taking their money.

Well, he had to find $44B somewhere without liquidating all the assets himself. That means banks and investment funds, and the Saudi's are happy to invest in just about anything since they have way too much money and nothing to do with it. Hell, they own freakin SNK nowadays.

[postman1782]

How can he say content moderation hasn't changed, didn't they fire the person in charge of content moderation?

He fired all of the moderation team.

[Elenos]

Regarding the 8 dollar scheme, it's absolutely brilliant for him to do it, because for everyone that relies to Twitter for exposure in their work, and there's a lot of people that do ( freelancers, small businesses especially ), will line up to pay for it especially if it increases your searchability. Twitter's overall revenue was 5 billion last year. If Musk gets a few million people to pay for the service he'll make twitter very profitable, especially if he provides a regional pricing model with lower prices in places like Eastern Europe.

Also there's the potential for long form video. If he does that then a lot of people on Youtube will start uploading on twitter too, because Youtube Content Creators sure as shit are tired of the algorithm there.

[Endus]

Regarding the 8 dollar scheme, it's absolutely brilliant for him to do it, because for everyone that relies to Twitter for exposure in their work, and there's a lot of people that do ( freelancers, small businesses especially ), will line up to pay for it especially if it increases your searchability. Twitter's overall revenue was 5 billion last year. If Musk gets a few million people to pay for the service he'll make twitter very profitable, especially if he provides a regional pricing model with lower prices in places like Eastern Europe.

Also there's the potential for long form video. If he does that then a lot of people on Youtube will start uploading on twitter too, because Youtube Content Creators sure as shit are tired of the algorithm there.

Why would they prefer the currently hate-speech-promoting algorithm at Twitter?

Also, you probably want to check your math. Not only are advertisers already fleeing the site, which is where that revenue comes from, if 20 million people sign on for a verified check mark, that's only $160 million. That won't even make up the 2021 revenue shortfall, let alone the results of the damage Musk is currently engaged in. If they lose even 10% of their revenue due to advertisers bowing out, that's a $500 million further deficit. And that 20 million users would be about 10% of the entire active Twitter user base. Not exactly an achievable goal, IMO.

[Draco-Onis]

Regarding the 8 dollar scheme, it's absolutely brilliant for him to do it, because for everyone that relies to Twitter for exposure in their work, and there's a lot of people that do ( freelancers, small businesses especially ), will line up to pay for it especially if it increases your searchability.

Linkedin, facebook and a number other social media platform already do that for free..

[Elenos]

@Endus Because many people don't give a damn when they have bills to pay, and that's assuming they even believe it's an issue. Many won't.

If 20 million sign up that's 160 million a month. Almost 2 billion a year. A few million is a very achievable goal and that's only one element of it.

And that 20 million users would be about 10% of the entire active Twitter user base. Not exactly an achievable goal, IMO.

200 million is the daily user count, but there's a lot of people that don't use twitter every day but still use it all the same.

[PACOX]

Dark timeline:

Musk used some of his SpaceX money to buy Twitter, which we pay for through taxes.

After not being able to recoup the money/pressure, he picks up a bunch of cheap government contracts for NASA/DoD...also paid for with our money. Government gets tired of his shit, so they throw him some money to leave SpaceX...with our money.

Biggest scammer of our generation. He is so terrible, he might figure out how to become president some day.

[Edge-]

@Endus Because many people don't give a damn when they have bills to pay, and that's assuming they even believe it's an issue. Many won't.

Except for all the companies that do and have pulled advertising from places like Fox News over it. Companies have realized that giving money to racists and other shitlords generally isn't good for business with everyone else. Brands like stability. Brands like predictability. Brands aren't big fans of volatility.

Also, remember that time Elon cut off internet access to Ukraine and asked the DoD for more money last week? And then he threw a tantrum and said he'd do it for free and wasn't going to ask for money anymore?

Negotiations between SpaceX and the Defense Department continue despite Musk’s claim that SpaceX withdrepw its request, according to a senior defense official.

“Negotiations are very much underway. Everyone in our building knows we’re going to pay them,” the senior Pentagon official told CNN, adding that the department is eager to have commitments in writing “because we worry he’ll change his mind.”

So either Elon's lying, or something changed and he never bothered updating anyone. Either way, kinda a scummy, dishonest thing to do. And not exactly the kind of thing that instill a lot of confidence in potential brands giving Twitter a lot of money.

[Elenos]

Except for all the companies that do and have pulled advertising from places like Fox News over it. Companies have realized that giving money to racists and other shitlords generally isn't good for business with everyone else. Brands like stability. Brands like predictability. Brands aren't big fans of volatility.

I didn't realize Fox News is going bankrupt. Oh wait they aren't. They're operating at a good profit. Elon Musk could do far worse then turning twitter into fox news if that's what you're arguing he's going to do.

Also, remember that time Elon cut off internet access to Ukraine and asked the DoD for more money last week? And then he threw a tantrum and said he'd do it for free and wasn't going to ask for money anymore?

That's misleading as hell. SpaceX has been providing Starlink services for free over Ukraine since the start of the war, others paid for the terminals but not the actual internet service, except in parts, but SpaceX is paying for most of it. Musk wants others to pick up the tab, and to be frank he's got a point.

There was no cut-off, except for problems when Ukrainian forces moved into territory that Russia had held during their recent offensive, since SpaceX had specifically avoided having service in those areas because they didn't want Russia to use terminals they may capture. The blackout only affected 1.300 terminals. As a reference there's over 20.000 terminals in Ukraine.

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

200 million is the daily user count, but there's a lot of people that don't use twitter every day but still use it all the same.

None of those people are going to pay 8 bucks a month for a blue checkmark...so i wouldn't even add them in your calculations.

[Rasulis]

Hmm! Musk plagiarized Trump's tweet?

[XDurionX]

If he ends up destroying twitter I hope he buys Tiktok next.

He won't have the money for that.

In other news, a hyperloop test track has been turned into... a parking lot.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ad4...ee-parking-lot

A fitting analogy i'd say...