Elon's Twitter

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This would be amusing if it wasn't so sad.

[Frelga]

[N.E. Brigand]

Until today, Twitter's policy pages listed the BBC and NPR as examples of government-supported outlets that are not labeled as "State Affiliated Media"; the latter label has previously appeared on the accounts for such government-controlled media as Russia Today or Xinhua.

But starting today, Twitter labels NPR as "State Affiliated Media," and the policy page was updated today (after Twitter starting labelling NPR this way) so that NPR is no longer listed as a counter-example. And yet the BBC is not so labeled and continues to be used on the policy page as an example of government-supported media that isn't "State Affiliated." This is despite the fact that the BBC receives about 70% of its funding from the British government, while NPR receives less than 10% of its funding from the U.S. government

(I also appreciate this note that Elon Musk's company SpaceX "gets quite a bit more public funding" than NPR.)

NPR announced that day that it would no longer tweet from its main account while that misleading label was affixed, and indeed NPR hasn't tweeted in five days.

Twitter yesterday changed the label from "State Affiliated" to "Government Funded."

Also yesterday, NPR reported that Elon Musk made the decision to label NPR as "State Affiliated" even before learning how much government funding NPR receives or whether NPR's leadership is appointed by the government (it's not).

(Many of the replies below the post at that link are rather sad: a mix of "ha ha you libs are so triggered" and "I don't care if NPR is state funded or not because it's government propaganda either way.")

[Frelga]

Maybe the firings of legal and moderator staff aren't going to save Twitter quite as much money as Elon thinks.

Germany Threatens Twitter With €50 Million Fine For Failing To Tackle Illegal Content

Under the country's Network Enforcement Act, or NetzDG, social media companies with more than two million registered users in Germany are required to respond to user reports of prohibited content and take action to remove it.

This must be done within 24 hours in the case of ‘‘clearly illegal’’material, and within a week if the content is less clearly against the law.

Illegal content includes hate speech, personal threats, defamation and antisemitism.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[RoseMorninStar]

Good. I wish more outlets would follow suit.

[N.E. Brigand]

Apparently many Twitter users are finding that they can't reply at this time. Probably a temporary glitch, but yikes.

[N.E. Brigand]

Is Elon Musk about to embark on a last crusade?

[N.E. Brigand]

How much is Elon Musk paying CBS?



Six hours later and the headline and tweet ("SpaceX successfully launches...") still haven't been updated to note that the rocket then unexpectedly exploded?

[N.E. Brigand]

Hilarious to see all the replies by blue-checked Twitterers, i.e., people who pay Elon Musk for that status (as of today, the blue checks previously used to verify the identity of notable Twitterers have been removed), commending CBS for "not indulging in the mainstream media Elon hate narratives."

[Frelga]

The official version is that the rocket experienced unscheduled rapid disassembly.

[Dave_LF]

How much is Elon Musk paying CBS?

Even Fox at least managed to include the important detail, albeit in a second clause:

foxspacex.png (34.61 KiB) Viewed 1190 times

[Jude]

How about "SpaceX successfully explodes giant Starship rocket"?

[Frelga]

I can't tell if it's a legitimate point or Elon fanbois, but I've seen claims that the takeoff itself is a milestone.

Could be worse, it could be what Russian MOD called "an abnormal descent of aviation ammunition." It's when they dropped the bomb on the Russian city of Belgorod by accident.

[Alatar]

I've certainly heard over here that the launch was a success. They weren't even sure it would achieve liftoff and the data they have gathered from the explosion will be invaluable in the redesign. Its quite telling that the staff were still cheering after the explosion. It was a success for them

[N.E. Brigand]

The sneetches are so mad today.

[Frelga]

The residents of the Texas town near the launch site weren't cheering so much.

SpaceX’s Starship Kicked Up a Dust Cloud, Leaving Texans With a Mess

The explosion covered the town in fine sand dust, blew out at least one window, and dropped large chunks of concrete, crushing a car.

Mr. Roesch, who runs the environmental policy blog ESG Hound, said he believed the dust and debris came largely from a giant crater formed during the rocket’s liftoff. Normally, major launch sites are engineered with a trench or water system that helps to divert the rocket’s flame away from the ground and to dampen the impact, he said.

“They didn’t do that,” he said. “It appears they just went ahead and just launched this thing.”

It's possible that Elon went ahead with the launch before the systems were ready because he wanted to launch on 4/20.

[N.E. Brigand]

The residents of the Texas town near the launch site weren't cheering so much.

SpaceX’s Starship Kicked Up a Dust Cloud, Leaving Texans With a Mess

The explosion covered the town in fine sand dust, blew out at least one window, and dropped large chunks of concrete, crushing a car.

Mr. Roesch, who runs the environmental policy blog ESG Hound, said he believed the dust and debris came largely from a giant crater formed during the rocket’s liftoff. Normally, major launch sites are engineered with a trench or water system that helps to divert the rocket’s flame away from the ground and to dampen the impact, he said.

“They didn’t do that,” he said. “It appears they just went ahead and just launched this thing.”

It's possible that Elon went ahead with the launch before the systems were ready because he wanted to launch on 4/20.

In October 2020, Musk tweeted "Aspring to have no flame diverter in Boca, but this could turn out to be a mistake."

And possibly that decision is also what caused the rocket to explode Thursday.

[N.E. Brigand]

Someone who was paying attention called it four days before launch:

SpaceX's Texas Rocket is Going To Cause A Lot More Damage Than Anyone Thinks

It appears the FAA bears some responsibility, since they signed off on this launch despite warnings that the data SpaceX had submitted was out of date.

Oh, and "SpaceX's Boca Chica facility sits amid one of the most unique natural habitats in the northern hemisphere," and while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did grant SpaceX permission to effectively kill some percentage of the endangered species that live there, again they did so based on SpaceX's 2019 data when the rocket was going to be smaller.