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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

#191

Post by ginger2016 »

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.

Groups can force advertisers to leave the platform. YouTube doesn’t monetize content that is not palatable to advertisers. Similarly whole of Twitter can become unpalatable if problematic speech is not moderated.

E.g. Musk said in the past he will draw the line at legal speech. Assume that Ye (Kanye) posts his early morning rant next week, and it is critical of several groups of people based on religion or race. That speech is legal, but highly problematic, is Musk owning Twitter going to make a difference in the way Ye’s problematic speech is handled in the future, I think not.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#192

Post by foobarian »

danjoredd wrote: post #142
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.

Is it though? I found that when combined with their battery offering, which triggers additional state incentives, their pricing is quite a bit below the competition. I just have cold feet because of rumors of bad/nonexistent customer service.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#193

Post by skohan »

phailhaus wrote: post #132
sevenf0ur wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe if they go private they can work on user focused stuff. I'd like to be able to use the site again without being forced to sign in.

Due to the loans Elon had to take out, Twitter now has to make interest payments of over one billion dollars a year . Expect more features that try to wring every cent out of the userbase.

Really could not have picked worse timing: a year ago capital was so much cheaper

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#195

Post by dustedcodes »

I am not a huge fan of Elon, but I look forward to him changing Twitter. Twitter has an extreme bias and it’s moderation is not balanced and it’s very polarising and having a controversial person who can bring the platform back to the centre and more to balanced without being afraid from a backlash from some fringe extremists is a good thing IMHO.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#196

Post by _chap »

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 Boring Company's latest test tunnel was about 1034 times slower than a snail (their current stated goal).

https://www.reddit.com/r/BoringCompany/comments/xugxdl/comme...

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#197

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#198

Post by HWR_14 »

jjtheblunt wrote: post #24

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

Musk owns 80-90% of Twitter. A few high-profile investors own the other 10-20%. The group of bankers have a huge lien on the company ($13 billion) but assuming that they are paid on time have no equity.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#199

Post by slg »

NaturalPhallacy wrote: post #152
hn8305823 wrote: post #69

He literally said it will not be a free for all. He may be chaotic, but he's not stupid. There is a huge difference between no moderation (anarchy), and not targeting conservative voices solely based on ideology.

> targeting conservative voices solely based on ideology. Clearly happening, yet even here already we have four people so far claiming that it doesn't, and people flagging/downvoting you for telling the truth. They banned a conservative satire publication ffs. The Babylon Bee. "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." —George Orwell, 1984

The problem is that when leftists and centrist say "censored for conservative views" they think of lower taxes and deregulation, but when conservatives point to examples of which views get censored, it is always "Oh, you know the ones"[1].

The Babylon Bee was suspended for targeted harassment. Harassment is not a conservative view.

[1] - https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/105039166355267174...

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#200

Post by [deleted] »

dustedcodes wrote: post #195

I am not a huge fan of Elon, but I look forward to him changing Twitter. Twitter has an extreme bias and it’s moderation is not balanced and it’s very polarising and having a controversial person who can bring the platform back to the centre and more to balanced without being afraid from a backlash from some fringe extremists is a good thing IMHO.

[deleted]
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