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Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

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Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#141

Post by celestialcheese »

linuxftw wrote: post #112
ginger2016 wrote: post #64

Elon Musk wants to set the bird free. But is the bird going to be free? Even free speech people don’t like speech that is critical of their beliefs, the pressure on Elon Musk to widen the definition of hate speech will be significant. The pressure from advertisers will force him to cave. There will be pressure from platform owners like Apple and Google as well. If the moderation is weak Apple could decide to remove t…

"Pressure from advertisers" implies the advertisers are paying more than the marginal utility of the ads themselves in some kind of corporate-back-scratching model. If the ads provide a ROI, then other advertisers will gladly jump on board.

100% this. Big advertisers don't stop spending because they have a moral objection to the content, they stop spending when the customers who disagree with the content boycott and make a lot of noise.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#142

Post by danjoredd »

Animats wrote: post #129

OK, so far, not much. Musk is getting stretched rather thin. Space-X seems to be doing OK with Gwynne Shotwell running things. Tesla, which Musk apparently does really run personally, is doing OK, but their side ventures are not. Self-driving is a mess. Solar panels (yes, Tesla has a solar panel business) are not doing well. The Cybertruck is years late. (Maybe next year.[1]) So is the Tesla Model 2, the low-end vehi…

The problem with Musk's solar panel business is that it is more expensive and less effective than normal solar panels. They look nicer than normal panels, but to thrive off of solar you need as much efficiency as possible. Tesla panels don't provide that especially for the cost.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#143

Post by Analemma_ »

nightski wrote: post #130

We can argue about free speech & all that jazz to no end. But at the end of the day it's as simple as not banning elected officials. I don't care how divisive they are, we need to know what they say and do. These are people chosen by the people whether you love or hate them. Secondly, I just visited Twitter today and at the top it has statements about false accusations and fact checking prominently displayed. I follo…

Hard disagree. The whole point of the rule of law is that elected officials are not supposed to be special, they have to follow the same rules as everybody else. If I'd get banned for a tweet, an elected official should also get banned for the same tweet. Your proposal means creating a caste system where special people get more free speech than the rest of us.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#144

Post by phailhaus »

linuxftw wrote: post #112
ginger2016 wrote: post #64

Elon Musk wants to set the bird free. But is the bird going to be free? Even free speech people don’t like speech that is critical of their beliefs, the pressure on Elon Musk to widen the definition of hate speech will be significant. The pressure from advertisers will force him to cave. There will be pressure from platform owners like Apple and Google as well. If the moderation is weak Apple could decide to remove t…

"Pressure from advertisers" implies the advertisers are paying more than the marginal utility of the ads themselves in some kind of corporate-back-scratching model. If the ads provide a ROI, then other advertisers will gladly jump on board.

That's not quite how pressure from advertisers work. Ads can't provide ROI if people aren't looking at them, and turning Twitter into a hellscape a la Truth Social/Parler/Gab/etc. is a surefire way to drive away users, which drives away advertisers. They also don't want their ads to be shown next to that kind of content, which will further pressure Musk to bolster content moderation.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#145

Post by johannes1234321 »

fitzroy wrote: post #76

I'm still surprised that Google didn't just clone or buy Twitter in the 2009 "Fail Whale" era. Seems like they had 95% of the work done already: a highly-scalabile real-time infrastructure that took Twitter years to catch up to. (Yes, Google+ came later, but the UX of the boundaries, of where the network started and stopped on the web, felt too amorphous for most people as a social media destination)

Google+ wasn't their first attempt. That was Google Buzz.

But the issue is: you have to get a critical mass of users. Some dedicated groups and then it has to get to a scale which is relevant for Google ...

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#146

Post by mazurnification »

danjoredd wrote: post #51
jjtheblunt wrote: post #24

Does Elon Musk own Twitter, or does a group of bankers orchestrated by him jointly own it with him?

Musk himself owns it. He is now the CEO of the place

Source? Surprisingly hard to find in quick search - drowned by fluff articles.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#147

Post by bee_rider »

nightski wrote: post #130

We can argue about free speech & all that jazz to no end. But at the end of the day it's as simple as not banning elected officials. I don't care how divisive they are, we need to know what they say and do. These are people chosen by the people whether you love or hate them. Secondly, I just visited Twitter today and at the top it has statements about false accusations and fact checking prominently displayed. I follo…

Elected officials in America at least are just normal people, the rules apply to them just the same as anybody else. The idea of giving elected officials special exemptions ought to be odious to anyone who considers themself to have American values. I mean it is a private company, so they can implement this sort of thing, but we should be clear that having a special rules for the political class is utterly unamerican in spirit.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#148

Post by KerrAvon »

lake_vincent wrote: post #56
davidw wrote: post #11

I think the thing to watch will be ads and other revenue streams. Most companies aren't going to want their ads next to 'free for all' content, so we'll see what happens.

Well, speaking in those terms, I think the thing to watch will in fact be censorship. Elon is extremely idealistic, so it will be fascinating to watch him melt down when confronted with the reality of how complex free speech and censorship issues really are. I predict that he will succeed in turning Twitter into the rightwing safehaven that "Truth" Social, Parlor, etc have all been trying to become. He's making a dea…

No post body was provided.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#149

Post by metadat »

jayflux wrote: post #44
halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #9

Prediction: Brain drain at Twitter begins as Elon starts enacting unpopular policies. Valuation tanks. Morale becomes non-existent and Twitter slowly starts to fade from existence while competitors begin to fill the void. I give it 3-5 years before it's gone full husk.

Brain drains usually happen due to low or uncompetitive pay, not because of corporate ideology. Otherwise Facebook/Meta would have had a brain drain years ago.

The bulk of the best brains left FB 4-6+ years ago after the 2016 political shenanigans. It's a mercenary shop now, except for junior NCG hires.
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