Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors • Hacker News Board

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#741

Post by nonethewiser » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

and0 wrote: post #576

memish wrote: post #566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Backing this up with some data, the most common reaction on twitter is: "Elon will improve Twitter by expanding freedom of speech on the platform" https://twitter.com/NarrativesProj/status/151139309757754574...

That's what makes all of this so ironic to me. Social media platforms and their users (especially Facebook) are not left-leaning. That a vast majority of Twitter users feel he will improve it means that the bias is fictional.

You're implying liberals dont want free speech on Twitter.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#742

Post by kappi » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

fleddr wrote: post #678

I think people are really over-analyzing this move. I think it's motivated by prestige, not money, nor is free speech the heart of the matter. Twitter is a stagnant company. They have thousands of engineers that in the span of a decade don't seem to produce much at all, nothing visible or memorable anyway. Long-lasting Twitter problems (culture, spam, algorithm issues) never seem addressed. User growth is stagnating…

Why does linkedin require 15000 employees? a website to post a glorified fake resume!

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#743

Post by TameAntelope » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 9:53 PM UTC

nullc wrote: post #623

TameAntelope wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when is "published" a meaningful quality barrier to content? Any idiot with a WP site can "publish" a "news story". Besides, if I reply to your tweet, "My child just died in a fire." with an article about how fire deaths are among the most painful ways to die, it doesn't really matter much how "published" that "news story" is, it's hateful and has no place on the Internet.

Above you said that twitter was pretty much as permissive as they could as you can get while operating in the US. Don't you think you're moving the goalpost in your response here? I don't see how anyone could seriously sustain an argument that twitter is as permissive as they could be lawfully. (Nor would I argue that they should be /that/ permissive in any case, the law in the US is a very very low bar, in part beca…

I didn't mean legally, I meant what the US population (western population generally), as an aggregate market segment, will tolerate. Twitter, as a company, should be allowed to pursue whatever market they believe will best provide value to their shareholders, and if that market includes "Americans with typical sensibilities" then I doubt they'd be able to pursue that market while allowing hate speech and harassment on their platform.

I think it's only fair we defend Twitter's right to freely associate as a form of free speech just as vigorously as we defend the right of people to be able to say whatever they like (with some exceptions around protected groups).

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#744

Post by ComradePhil » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 9:54 PM UTC

philosopher1234 wrote: post #621

bjt2n3904 wrote: post #422

The comments in this thread are a gold mine. 1) Twitter doesn't ban people for wrong think! That's a myth! 2) Musk was accused of racism! 3) Musk isn't doing this for freedom of speech, he's only doing it for his own interests! I want to see the Venn Diagram of people who said one of these things, and were glibly sharing XKCD #1357 whenever someone got banned from Twitter that they disagree with. The tides have start…

I doubt you actually understand the people who make these criticisms.

> Twitter is a private company, it can do what it wants

> Elon Musk: buys ~10% and lays out intension to make changes

> No, not like that

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#745

Post by nonethewiser » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 9:56 PM UTC

enragedcacti wrote: post #638

cbozeman wrote: post #594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how you got that sentiment from that graphic, which doesn't have jack shit to do with political affiliation. I will put $100 down right now that if you did a statistically significant, unbiased, controlled, representative sample of verified Twitter users - as in people you can provably show are actual human beings - you'll find the majority are left-leaning. Oh wait, I don't have to, Pew Research Group a…

> verified Twitter users - as in people you can provably show are actual human beings Verified means the account is authentic and of public interest. It doesn't guarantee that you are a person and further, the vast, vast majority of real people on twitter aren't verified. as for the pew survey, it isn't controlling for many of the things that we know correlate with political affiliation, it is just reporting them as…

"Just education and age would likely explain the delta in political affiliations within that survey. [1]"

These concedes the point that Twitter users are liberal on average.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#746

Post by topspin » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 9:57 PM UTC

throwaway5752 wrote: post #493

"For so long as Mr. Musk is serving on the Board and for 90 days thereafter, Mr. Musk will not, either alone or as a member of a group, become the beneficial owner of more than 14.9% of the Company’s common stock outstanding at such time, including for these purposes economic exposure through derivative securities, swaps, or hedging transactions." This is the second line in the linked filing, and something a number o…

Someone fill me in here: TWTR is a NYSE traded stock. What, hypothetically, would prevent someone from just paying the market price for whatever percent of Twitter's stock they care to buy, such that they would have to agree to these terms?

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#747

Post by nonethewiser » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 9:58 PM UTC

zht wrote: post #668

xanaxagoras wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and we get a bifurcated society where specific companies cater to specific politics. That's exactly where we are now? When twitter censors right of center ideas and de-platforms those who think them, we invariably seek refuge in alternatives that engender far more radical thinking than if we had stayed in a larger public discussion.

how much of that is Twitter and how much of that is Fox News?

Twitter having a liberal bias is 100% Twitter, 0% Fox news

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#748

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 9:59 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#749

Post by systemvoltage » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 9:59 PM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #673

packetlost wrote: post #604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who lives in the midwest, very disconnected from the SV bubble, this is spot on. I know several conservative-minded people that absolutely care about the censorship and policies SV companies push and despise them for it.

And yet, they all have Facebook, Google, and Apple accounts. You can hate them all you want, but you're not going to change them by shoveling money into their pockets. They care enough to bitch, but not enough to do anything about it. These people who hate Twitter probably don't even use Twitter. If you're not interesting or important, then nobody on Twitter cares what you have to say. It's not like Facebook, where y…

Twitter is a monopoly. When the only way for government officials to relay messages to their constituents is through a private platform such as Twitter, it ceases to have the same privilege as a private corporation. It is a de facto public square. This is not up for debate.

Re: Elon Musk to join Twitter’s board of directors

#750

Post by LordDragonfang » Tue, Apr 05, 2022, 9:59 PM UTC

dijonman2 wrote: post #476

kreeben wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Un-woke" people are greater than or at least equally political compared to those you call "woke", is my experience from real life as well as internet encounters with them, so your longing for an apolitical Twitter/online public town square seems a pipe dream, I'm afraid.

Personal anecdote. I’m anti-woke, and I don’t discuss politics in any significant quantity. Instead I believe in being a decent person. We can talk until we’re green in the face but I welcome the day Twitter stops being a leftist authoritarian echo chamber.

You've made an awful lot of comments in threads about politics for someone who "doesn’t discuss politics in any significant quantity".

Perhaps take some time to reflect as to whether that label is really true for you, and focus more on that latter belief. Being a decent person is admirable.