Seems like there's a now an account for it on Mastodon
ElonJet Is Now Suspended
711–720 of 1001 posts
Re: ElonJet Is Now Suspended
#712These paper hands, they fold...
> My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk.
Re: ElonJet Is Now Suspended
#713Earlier quoted context omitted.
Serious question: Is there an alternative narrative here? People are acting like Musk changed course for no reason, but are there no real claims that the account perhaps had started to engage in other rule-breaking content? Note that I'm asking for an actual steelmanned argument for why there's no possible defense of Musk here, not why people have high priors to just assume there's no defense.
> People are acting like Musk changed course for no reason I'm not sure that's the case. I think many people, myself included, assumed Musk's course was always "just do what's best for me." So he's really just holding to that. You should give people in your life the benefit of the doubt, but large corporations and billionaires usually found success by acting in their own interest so they will just keep on doing that.
> I think many people, myself included, assumed Musk's course was always "just do what's best for me." So he's really just holding to that.
As far as I can tell Musk is currently self-destructing for no apparent reason -- how is that best for him?
Some of the questionable stuff he's been doing for a while has obvious upsides for him. Lying about the capabilities of your products and market manipulation are both obviously nice if you can get away with it. So is demonstratively skirting laws and regulations. Similarly, building a reputation for going after people who did something that contravened your personal interests, even if doing so was their professional or legal duty, has its benefits. It encourages careful consideration of whether dereliction of duty would not be preferable over getting in your way. All these are demonstrations of strength.
But streisanding elonjet just looks weak and pathetic. As does trying to stiff your suppliers.
If you build up a reputation for being completely unprincipled and erratic, and try to wheedle out of both your word and your legal obligations even in cases when you probably can't get away with it and there is not even a particularly compelling reason to try to do so in the first place; well -- surely that can only hurt your brand and also mean that people who would otherwise have done business with you won't or will now only do so on much less favorable terms? Or am I missing something here?
Re: ElonJet Is Now Suspended
#714I actually think this is reasonable. The account was broadcasting his live location at any given point in time and there's a strong argument it presented a legitimate safety risk given so many people's hatred towards him.
It's also hard to say he's banning free speech against himself when it feels like half of twitter is anti-Elon sentiment these days.
Re: ElonJet Is Now Suspended
#715Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like the really interesting part of "The Twitter Files" isn't the arbitrary moderation decisions made (we sort of knew what they were thru their implementation and it's hard for moderation to be "not arbitrary" whether you agree with the decisions or not) but the involvement of US government representatives in it. I'm neither a lawyer nor an American but AFAIK according to past SCOTUS rulings, it is illegal fo…
> I feel like the really interesting part of "The Twitter Files" isn't the arbitrary moderation decisions made (we sort of knew what they were thru their implementation and it's hard for moderation to be "not arbitrary" whether you agree with the decisions or not) but the involvement of US government representatives in it. I haven't followed parts 2 & 3 of the Twitter files. But the irony here is that the government…
Perhaps legally this is how it would work (IANAL), but given what's played out during elections I think that subjecting a candidate to the criteria of a public official in this regard has merit.
Re: ElonJet Is Now Suspended
#716Earlier quoted context omitted.
He trashes people who trash talk his cars. Even if you happened to die while testing his auto pilot feature. Yeah. He will trash talk you while you are rolling in your grave thinking Elon was god. And then god comes to show you how amazing your god was. He trashed talk a journalist immediately after the journalist complained he had to journey thru cold with out heater because his batteries would not last until the ne…
I think all of this is part of his appeal. He's more "scruffy" and unfiltered than most people with his prominence and responsibilities. But it's easy to confuse this lack of a filter for honesty, when the two may be entirely orthogonal. Elon's communication style is also good for forming "parasocial" relationships with his audience which explains how loyal and fervent many of his fans are.
Elon's communication style is also good for forming "parasocial" relationships
tbh I find the widespread habit of referring to him by his first name like he's a personal acquaintance to be part of this mechanism. This is something tabloid newspapers do with sport and entertainment celebrities to milk money from fans who gravitate toward others who seem to be part of 'the family.' It's a PR strategy designed to exploit human social circuitry and convert it into cash money.
Re: ElonJet Is Now Suspended
#717what makes this so concerning is, elon clearly understands that posts can amplify danger—even if the posted data is public information already, and there aren’t any clear threats, he understands this when it’s about him.
if it even slightly puts him in danger, he takes steps at mitigation.
when it’s other people, and the situation is even more dangerous, it almost seems like he revels in the danger those people or groups are put in.
even more concerning to me, when those groups ask for mitigation efforts, he goes out of his way to make their concerns appear unreasonable or hysterical. again, even when those threats are more immediate/widespread.
this is not something to be brushed away, this has very real implications.
Re: ElonJet Is Now Suspended
#718I understand this move, but need to point out how hypocritical this is for Mr. Free Speech. Basically, his entire tenure so far has been "free speech for me and the accounts that were rightfully banned for violating the TOS!" in public, and then "we'll deboost anyone who doesn't pay me a subscription" and "let's selectively release internal comms in a misleading way to make normal company operation in good faith seem…
> I understand this move, but need to point out how hypocritical this is for Mr. Free Speech. Where's the hypocrisy? Musk said he wanted to broaden the speech allowed on the platform, not allow speech of all kinds. > "let's selectively release internal comms in a misleading way to make normal company operation in good faith seem like a liberal conspiracy." Maybe try getting your info from a non-leftwing source. There…
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Re: ElonJet Is Now Suspended
#719Well it seems like Elon is reneging on his previous commitment to free speech. - https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1589414958508691456
I think Musk's behavior (and the behavior of a lot of public figures, really) makes more sense if you assume that he's not saying things to express ideas, but instead regards words as noises that you make with your mouth that cause other people to do or think things; if they stop having the intended effect, you have to change the noises. It's not hypocrisy, it's the natural outgrowth of seeing other people as a colle…
It's what Adam Curtis covers in HyperNormalization. I think it's less that the noises actually have any specific effect and more that they just create chaos bubbles of what is true or not.
> It's not hypocrisy
I disagree there though unless one agrees that Musk has no morality. However, in the absence of morals, which is likely, it would still be perceived hypocrisy.
Re: ElonJet Is Now Suspended
#720Earlier quoted context omitted.
The larger problem isn't the lack of uniform enforcement. Our actual problem was trusting Twitter to remain impartial in the first place. It's crazy how many people bought into the "global town hall" bullshit Elon Musk pedaled, and now it's unsurprising to watch him backpedal now that the reigns are in his hands. Hopefully people realize that trusting $COMPANY will never deliver you anything good. We either regulate…
This is why we need regulation surrounding these things. It's a balancing act between individual and social rights (individual in this case being twitter), but these companies very explicitly build to scale to be a sort of "town hall" and in doing so start having very large social influence the likes of which no one in history has ever had. When they get to this scale there has to be extra responsibility here for the…
> but these companies very explicitly build to scale to be a sort of "town hall" and in doing so start having very large social influence the likes of which no one in history has ever had.
I think a bazaar or carnival is a better metaphor, since a town hall is a brick and mortar thing that lasts into posterity, whereas a social network is more temporary
> When they get to this scale there has to be extra responsibility here for the good of society as a whole.
Or people could just not use the service and move onto a different one? There's nothing permanent about the current social networks that are popular right now