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  1. #1
    Merely a Setback PACOX's Avatar
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    Elon Musk Buys Twitter

    Twitter has accepted Elon Musk’s offer to purchase the company for $44 billion, the company announced in a press release today. Musk purchased the company at $54.20 a share, the same price named in his initial offer on April 14th.

    “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” said Musk in a statement included with the release. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.”

    Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal also applauded the deal in the release. “Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world,” Agrawal said in an accompanying statement. “Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”

    Musk laid out his plan for funding the deal in an SEC filing on Thursday, which includes $25.5 billion in loans and $21 billion in personal equity. Analysts believe the loans could cost Twitter as much as $1 billion a year in servicing fees, or roughly 20 percent of the company’s annual revenue.

    Shortly after Musk announced the buyout plan, Twitter’s board instituted a “poison pill” measure, suggesting it intended to resist Musk’s buyout. It’s unclear what led to the company’s change of heart. A New York Times report on Monday described Twitter employees as divided by the news, receiving little information concerning the ongoing talks.

    It’s unclear what impact Musk will have on Twitter or where he’ll start with changes. When he first disclosed his 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, he polled Twitter users on the creation of an “edit” button, which Twitter was already developing. He later suggested nixing ads from Twitter Blue, lowering its subscription price, and adding Dogecoin as a payment option.

    Musk has been outspoken in his criticism of Twitter moderation, describing himself as a “free speech absolutist” and raising concerns over how the platform would moderate under his control. “It’s just really important that people have the reality and the perception that they’re able to speak freely within the bounds of the law,” Musk said in an interview with Chris Anderson during TED 2022. “I think broadly, the civilizational risk is decreased the more we can increase the trust of Twitter as a public platform.”

    Musk originally offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share on April 14th. The offer followed Musk’s disclosure of acquiring a 9.2 percent stake, a move that made him Twitter’s largest individual shareholder at the time. At one time Musk was offered a seat on the company’s board of directors but the deal soon fell apart, as a seat on the board would prevent him from buying more than a 14.9 percent stake in Twitter.
    Late stage capitalism is hot.

    https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/25/2...over-ownership

    Resident Cosplay Progressive

  2. #2
    *all accounts posting the pic of Musk standing next to Ghislaine Maxwell will be marked for perma banning*

  3. #3
    I Don't Work Here Endus's Avatar
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    Fuck all this "digital town square" bullshit.

    Compliance is complicity. If you allow someone to use your platform to broadcast an execrable message, you're complicit in the dissemination of that message. While I'll definitely make allowances for Twitter to respond to complaints rather than pro-actively approving every message, taking a stance that said content should be allowed is complicity with that content.

    If you say you don't care if people use your platform to disseminate child porn, then you're a child porn trafficker. That's how this shit works.


  4. #4
    Merely a Setback Kaleredar's Avatar
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    Does this mean we’ll have to hear from that dumbass Trump again?

    Like, that’s really all I care about in this. Whether patently false liars will be able to continue spewing disinformation without repercussion to their mind-addled masses.

    The lack of a major presence for trump and other radical right-wing dishonesty factories because they were all banned for lying has been a tremendous benefit to the world. Certainly in this Ukraine business.
    Last edited by Kaleredar; 2022-04-25 at 08:06 PM.
    “Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty detail. For all of these things melt away and drift apart within the obscure traffic of time. Live well and live broadly. You are alive and living now. Now is the envy of all of the dead.” ~ Emily3, World of Tomorrow
    Quote Originally Posted by Wells View Post
    Kaleredar is right...
    Words to live by.

  5. #5
    Over 9000! Milchshake's Avatar
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    Damn, someone beat me to these sweet tendies! It was the next GameStop

    BREAKING: Scott Baio and Kevin Sorbo buy TruthSocial for $50 in all cash deal.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Winter Blossom View Post
    Most likely, as Musk is keen on allowing "Free Speech", which I'm sure will extend to banned users be allowed back to exercise that "right".
    unless I can send Trump unsolicited dick pics via DM's we will never have free speech.

  7. #7
    it will be a nice mix of Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines and crypto scams.

    or nothing will change.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Kaleredar View Post
    Does this mean we’ll have to hear from that dumbass Trump again?
    On the other hand this could mean the end of twitter, if he unbans everyone the place will be an even bigger cesspool of racism, hate and conspiracy theories. This may force a lot of people to abandon the platform, Musk's reputation alone is toxic.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Kaleredar View Post
    Does this mean we’ll have to hear from that dumbass Trump again?

    Like, that’s really all I care about in this. Whether patently false liars will be able to continue spewing disinformation without repercussion to their mind-addled masses.

    The lack of a major presence for trump and other radical right-wing dishonesty factories because they were all banned for lying has been a tremendous benefit to the world. Certainly in this Ukraine business.
    Trump has said he will not be going back to twitter and will remain on truth social

    Probably due to a contract

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Winter Blossom View Post
    Curious as to how Musk is going to handle the kid legally tracking and posting updates on where his private jet is via Twitter... I'm getting ready for the hypocrisy.
    the jokes will write themselves.

  11. #11
    Merely a Setback PACOX's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Winter Blossom View Post
    Most likely, as Musk is keen on allowing "Free Speech", which I'm sure will extend to banned users being allowed back to exercise that "right".
    Musk does not actually care about free speech. He wants a soapbox to say whatever he wants. The two are not the same.

    Resident Cosplay Progressive

  12. #12
    Lets see if he even stick to what he said. Verify all users to remove bots and be the actual town square. Ill believe it when i see it. I agree that you can have much less speech tos if everyone is publicly identified. Most asshole and harrassers deal in the anonymity. Worse case twitter bombs and die or stay the same, both minimal losses.

  13. #13
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    Hate groups very much like Twitter because the character limit makes it easier to throw out any allegation or lie than it is to truth check or respond to them. And by the time you truth check it and prove it untrue, the damage is done because it's been seen and (falsely) believed by many people.

    So if Elon allows that to occur in the name of free speech, then Twitter will be leveraged by those groups to spread hate. The well-intentioned users can block them, but it will continue to occur and spread like a disease. That's the primary public concern with Elon taking Twitter private and a valid one.

    It should also not be surprising that a billionaire aims to support political branches that he feels were 'wronged' by Twitter that aim to keep taxes low on the wealthy, anti-labor, etc. It's a very self-serving strategy, and worse than it's being done with the justification of 'saving democracy' like it is some sort of righteous philanthropic move for humanity. It's Koch Brothers or Murdoch using their money to give them a much wider voice than they would otherwise have in a working Democracy, but on an even greater scale.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Draco-Onis View Post
    On the other hand this could mean the end of twitter, if he unbans everyone the place will be an even bigger cesspool of racism, hate and conspiracy theories. This may force a lot of people to abandon the platform, Musk's reputation alone is toxic.
    This is the most likely outcome. While Musk has so much money he can burn he can just enjoy his toy for awhile no doubt this is basically Yahoo 2.0 buying up Tumblr for $1.1 billion and driving most of its users to where they sold the company for 3 million just a handful of years later. There is a reason Gab and Truth Social didn't work and if his "free-speech bastion" starts to drive away users then in 5 years we are going to see another example like above.

    Lets also be honest here Twitter is already losing money I don't know how to make a company profitable by further removing profitability revenue stream like reducing subscription costs and ads.

    This is just the most blatant example of a man throwing around money for something that probably should be considered a public utility and I am getting the feeling conservatism are going to get their wish soon about Section 230 getting "Modernized"

  15. #15
    Merely a Setback Kaleredar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by NED funded View Post
    Trump has said he will not be going back to twitter and will remain on truth social

    Probably due to a contract
    Since when has trump ever kept a promise? When have any of his followers kept him to one? I don’t expect him or them to start now.
    “Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty detail. For all of these things melt away and drift apart within the obscure traffic of time. Live well and live broadly. You are alive and living now. Now is the envy of all of the dead.” ~ Emily3, World of Tomorrow
    Quote Originally Posted by Wells View Post
    Kaleredar is right...
    Words to live by.

  16. #16
    The Unstoppable Force PC2's Avatar
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    I've been saying it for a while on this forum but I think Twitter is the most important social media site, and it still has so much potential. Elon Musk is a reasonable person, he's business savvy, and he has good principles. He's the ideal investor/owner.

    Quote Originally Posted by PACOX View Post
    Late stage capitalism is hot.
    Except capitalism is in its infancy, it is just getting started.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by PC2 View Post
    SNIP
    I think you've lost all credibility on anything related to Musk when you openly said he should be above the law because of his contribution to society.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by PC2 View Post


    Except capitalism is in its infancy, it has barely even gotten started.
    sounds like someone should have pulled out then.

  19. #19
    Good. Shitter could use some more kremlin propaganda.

  20. #20
    I Don't Work Here Endus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PC2 View Post
    Except capitalism is in its infancy, it is just getting started.
    A more-than-250-year-old economic system is not in any rational sense "in its infancy".


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