Elon's Twitter

[N.E. Brigand]

David Frum believes that Elon Musk isn't "consciously antisemitic. But he has no ability to recognize antisemitism even at its most glaringly obvious, and antisemitism does not bother or offend him even when insistently drawn to his attention." I'm not so sure. The latest example is Musk yesterday tweeting a meme with a supposed Voltaire quote that is actually the words of neo-Nazi named Kevin Strom who served two years for possession of child pornography in 2008. What's more, Musk shared this meme last fall, was told at the time about the actual source of the quote, and deleted it then. So this time he should have known better this time.

[N.E. Brigand]

It's more than a day later and Musk still hasn't taken down the tweet, so I think it's reasonable to think Elon Musk supports neo-Nazis and child pornographers.

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile, Twitter is at least as censorious under Musk's leadership as it was before he took charge.

In March 2022, Musk was asked to block Russian misinformation on his Starlink network, he said he wouldn't because he's a "free speech absolutist."

[N.E. Brigand]

Meanwhile, Twitter is at least as censorious under Musk's leadership as it was before he took charge.

In March 2022, Musk was asked to block Russian misinformation on his Starlink network, he said he wouldn't because he's a "free speech absolutist."

To be fair, after purchasing Twitter, Elon Musk did say that the company would censor tweets as needed to comply with each nation's laws. So he had already long since undermined his previous claims to be a "free speech absolutist." But prior to his takeover, Twitter had actually been successful at times in pushing against government demands, and Musk seems to have no interest in doing so. If you read the responses to this tweet noting Musk's compliance,* you'll find that many Musk fans refuse to acknowledge any of this. Their primary argument is it's better for Twitter to censor material at the request of authoritarian countries than for Twitter not to be available at all in those countries. I would argue that the opposite is true: by allowing only comments favorable to authoritarian governments to be shared in those countries, Twitter actually makes conditions worse for the people who live there.

*Adding to the irony, the neo-Nazi child pornographer's quote misattributed to Voltaire that Musk has twice shared (despite being told that the author is a neo-Nazi) reads as follows: "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." Musk's censorship is a very example of the maxim he has been sharing!

[N.E. Brigand]

CNBC reports on some staff changes at Twitter yesterday:

The sudden departure of Twitter executives tasked with content moderation and brand safety has left the company more vulnerable than ever to hate speech.

On Thursday, Twitter’s vice president of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, resigned from the company. Following Irwin’s departure, the company’s head of brand safety and ad quality, A.J. Brown, reportedly left, as did Maie Aiyed, a program manager who worked on brand safety partnerships.

I believe Irwin had been in that position for only about eight months.

[RoseMorninStar]

Telsa fell 50 points this year in the Axios Harris (reputation perception) poll falling from 11 to 62. Make of that what one will, but Elon's conspiracy theory tweeting can't have helped. Twitter got a ranking of 97, three spots above the Trump Organization. The investment firm, Fidelity, has done an assessment of the value of Twitter and have valued it at $15 Billion.. down from the purchase price of $44 Billion. Not a place I'd like my company to be.

The reputation of Twitter is an issue and will be an issue in the upcoming elections and 'verified' accounts. Case in point: No, that isn’t the real AOC you may have seen on Twitter. Musk has interacted with this parody account and it is doing damage to the real AOC. Too much fake information/fake 'verified' accounts.

[Dave_LF]

I figured I'd try Tribel too. I don't like it. It's run by the Occupy Democrats people and it shows. Plus, this is what the top of the feed looks like:

tribel.png (47.06 KiB) Viewed 1487 times

No, you cannot remove that "Invest Now!" banner. Feels almost as sleazy as Twitter has become; just without the porn and snuff videos.

[Dave_LF]

Trying Post now. It's news-focused, which is what I'm after anyway. Mueller She Wrote is moving most of its activity there, so I have at least one familiar account to follow.

[N.E. Brigand]

As previously noted here, about six months before Elon Musk acquired Twitter, he posted a cartoon in which he claimed that his "fellow liberals" had moved far to the left while he continued to hold center-left positions. I have very little notion of what Musk's political positions formerly were, but adding to as I've noted a few times here, he has more recently expressed quite a few views that qualify as hard right -- and that's putting it generously -- although he's usually been a bit coy about it. In a recent example, Musk responded to an antisemitic Q-Anon tweet which argued that western civilization was faced with a choice of two paths: (1) drinking the blood of children, which the post alleged was something that President Biden does; or (2) "hating the Js," i.e. Jews, with Mel Gibson given as an example of someone who does that. The post offered side-by-side pictures of Biden and Gibson and asked "Which way, western man?" Musk's response? (The fact that he responded at all to this kind of post is notable.) To comment favorably on Gibson's muscular appearance.

[Dave_LF]

I see that Musk is actively competing with Trump for the title of most unrepresentable X-arch:
.
https://twitter.com/marciahofmann/statu ... 2408074241
.

101.png (216.71 KiB) Viewed 1379 times

[RoseMorninStar]

These narcissists believe they can 'try' their cases in the court of public opinion. We shall see how that holds up.

[River]

Twitter is getting evicted from its Boulder office.

A Boulder landlord succeeded in obtaining an order to evict Twitter over unpaid rent, according to recent court documents.

A judge for Boulder County’s district court permitted law enforcement to evict the tenant on May 31, directing the tech giant to evacuate its suites at 3401 Bluff St. in Boulder and return them to the owner and landlord, Lot 2 SBO LLC.

The article goes on to describe how Twitter did not respond to the landlord or send any representation to court, hence the court's decision to have the BoCo sheriff's department clear them out. Final paragraph:

The landlord’s attorneys, Timothy Gordon and Ryan Lundquist at Holland & Hart LLP, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Twitter’s press email auto-replied to a request for comment with a poop emoji.

.
Very professional.

That address isn't the classiest part of Boulder, BTW. But it is a part that's been redeveloped, so the buildings are sparkly and new.

[RoseMorninStar]

I was thinking of this exact scenario the other day. It's quite the paradox that Elon is so outspoken for people 'getting back to work *IN* the office -- calling it "morally wrong" to work from home -- and yet, he doesn't pay the rent. What the heck. [insert poop emoji here]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Music publishers file $250 million lawsuit against Twitter, allege Musk made copyright infringement worse

[N.E. Brigand]

I agree with this:



(Because "right about now" there may or may not be a coup underway in Russia.)

[Frelga]

Ever since Musk took over, I've been frantically following and making lists of reporters, scientists, and other experts. Because the algorithm isn't my friend anymore.

[Dave_LF]

Social media in the 20s: Here's a funny/shocking video, a "brain teaser" that's actually pretty easy, an obviously false assertion stated so confidently that it's hard to ignore, or a transparent appeal to nostalgia. Hey, now that I have your attention, I'd like to talk to you about Hitler and cryptocurrency.

[Frelga]

No billionaire cage match for us.

20230627_194542.jpg (108.84 KiB) Viewed 1188 times

[N.E. Brigand]

Something has changed with Twitter today such that, as someone who doesn't have a Twitter account, I can no longer view unverified accounts. If I enter an address like twitter.com/emptywheel or twitter.com/muellershewrote into my browser (or choose one of those links from a search engine), I am directed to a sign-in page. If I close the sign-in box, I'm redirected to an "Explore Twitter" page with posts from random verified accounts. I have resisted signing up for a Twitter account for eight years. Not sure I want to sign up now, but it has been the way I curate my news reading. Hmm.

[Frelga]

Can you see them as RSS subscriptions? I've never tried but I think someone mentioned it.

Even today, there is not a better way to keep up with current events, if you have a solid list of accounts to follow. But Elon keeps making it worse.

Also, ads. Although for now you can block them, and even add Community Notes to them.