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Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

arstechnica.com

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Re: Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

#401

Post by rwiggins »

ryandvm wrote: post #110
judge2020 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The claim is that it's actually much higher, say 25%, but they're intentionally misrepresenting it as 5%; Elon only purchased it at the $54.20 share price because of the market valuing Twitter at a certain price ($45) based on those bot numbers. Musk is claiming that, if the bot numbers were correctly reported at the higher percentage, then the market would've valued twitter at a lower price and he would've offered t…

I suppose the next time Musk tries to buy something that costs $44 billion dollars he should do a little more homework. Waiving due diligence, though perfectly in line with his trollish vibe, is something he's going to regret for years. The bottom line is the guy gets off on being an irreverent, flamboyant dipshit and this time it's biting him in the ass. And I for one am here for it. After the last few years I have…

Even if he's forced to buy Twitter, let's not forget that... he will own Twitter. I'm not sure that's a net positive for the world. Though I'm not certain it's a net negative either.

And though it may well be expensive, it's not as if the $44 billion disappears: in fact it buys Twitter. And though he might regret it all in the end, he'll still have enormous wealth. (And Twitter.)

So... it does feel a bit like a pyrrhic victory to me.

Re: Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

#402

Post by winternett »

jjeaff wrote: post #105

Imagine this whole ordeal playing out on a house that was not listed for sale. The buyer starts harassing the homeowner to sell to them, they say no, so he buys up the mortgage lender and tries to force a sale. His antics are hurting the home's value so you relent to selling and give him an as-is sale contract, which he signs and gives you 24 hrs to respond or he will try to force a sale. All the while, this is of co…

As someone who has been on Twitter for years almost every day, both parties acted in bad faith. Twitter bots are out of control and hard to detect because of newer SMM/bot tech scheduled tweets, and bot runners have had ages to perfect their craft on Twitter, because they were allowed to run free for so long. It's been TOTAL HELL for undiscovered user accounts to break ground on Twitter for almost a decade now at least, and many authentic people have simply stopped logging in long ago. Last time I looked, Twitter's ad minimum was $50, which is far too much of a gamble for someone small who just wants to grow followers on the platform, and chances are high that they'll often only attract bot accounts as followers if they gamble that money/

There are authentic accounts on Twitter, but it is nowhere near as vibrant as it once was, there is far too much run by scripting on the site and not enough support and fair human moderation. Elon as well likely realized the market crash, and how much it would take to bring Twitter back to prominence (which is a risk either way) and then decided to back out. Even with major functional changes there is still a wild risk that Twitter can be too "burnt out" to bring a user base back in.

Just my opinion, but I think everyone is waiting for something totally new to replace Twitter, and it would cost a lot less than the Twitter acquisition fee to build a new app from scratch. (And no, "something new" does not mean TikTok or even Truth Social). :{

Re: Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

#403

Post by COGlory »

jjeaff wrote: post #105

Imagine this whole ordeal playing out on a house that was not listed for sale. The buyer starts harassing the homeowner to sell to them, they say no, so he buys up the mortgage lender and tries to force a sale. His antics are hurting the home's value so you relent to selling and give him an as-is sale contract, which he signs and gives you 24 hrs to respond or he will try to force a sale. All the while, this is of co…

I hate Twitter. They are turning a huge profit with massive negative externalities to society. I hope this whole ordeal costs them billions.

Re: Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

#404

Post by meepmorp »

Sebb767 wrote: post #25
mywittyname wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the Twitter board was also very much publicly saying, "don't buy us."

Clearly reverse psychology, confirming that this was indeed their play all along!

You joke, but expect to see this very idea put forward in all seriousness as this whole thing plays out. Likely by Musk fans, etc., but still.

Re: Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

#406

Post by alexb_ »

winternett wrote: post #402
jjeaff wrote: post #105

Imagine this whole ordeal playing out on a house that was not listed for sale. The buyer starts harassing the homeowner to sell to them, they say no, so he buys up the mortgage lender and tries to force a sale. His antics are hurting the home's value so you relent to selling and give him an as-is sale contract, which he signs and gives you 24 hrs to respond or he will try to force a sale. All the while, this is of co…

As someone who has been on Twitter for years almost every day, both parties acted in bad faith. Twitter bots are out of control and hard to detect because of newer SMM/bot tech scheduled tweets, and bot runners have had ages to perfect their craft on Twitter, because they were allowed to run free for so long. It's been TOTAL HELL for undiscovered user accounts to break ground on Twitter for almost a decade now at lea…

What circles are you in? I basically never, ever see bots on Twitter, let alone enough to suggest that Twitter is "nowhere near as vibrant as it once was".

Re: Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

#407

Post by meepmorp »

dahdum wrote: post #200
codingdave wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't honestly believe either side cares about the merits of the legal case - this is all just a very public and showy exercise to negotiate on a new price during a settlement.

Twitter has the facts and the law on their side, so they most certainly care about the merits.

When the facts are on your side, pound the facts. When the law is on your side, pound the law. When neither is on you side, pound the table.

Re: Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

#408

Post by d110af5ccf »

lazide wrote: post #293
tomcam wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It appears to me that the seller was, in your analogy, misrepresenting the condition of the house. This is my totally unscientific analysis based on my private random sample of accounts I interact with, so, not particularly robust as a decision making tool for a big sale.

In the analogy, the contract was done with no intentional representations by the seller at all , and the buyer waived contingencies/bought as-is. It’s almost impossible for a seller to misrepresent anything material in that situation.

The issue being that Twitter actually did (afaik) make various representations about bots, spam, paid actors, etc and the validity of those representations was later called into question. So the analogy as originally proposed at the top of this thread is a misrepresentation.

Re: Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

#409

Post by mrits »

u10 wrote: post #387
mrits wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He didn't promise shareholders anything. He signed a contract, which is almost the opposite of a promise.

It's by definition a promise

"a written or spoken agreement, especially one concerning employment, sales, or tenancy, that is intended to be enforceable by law."

Re: Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool that called his own account a bot

#410

Post by CamperBob2 »

macinjosh wrote: post #364
davesque wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You left out the part where the buyer will also destroy the city in which the house is located purely out of spite if he is forced to go through with the purchase. That is, I fully expect Musk to go full troll mode and reverse bans on all the bad actors who have been rightfully kicked off the platform if he's forced to buy Twitter. He'll claim it's for free speech when it's really just to own the libs.

Just like the libs blocked every account they could to own the conservatives in the name of protecting feelings.

Their house, their rules. See 'Truth (sic) Social' for another example.
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