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

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

#561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There's no twist or turn of the law I can possibly imagine If you're not a lawyer, this has 0 value. If you're not a highly paid team of several top lawyers, this has less than 0 value. Their entire profession is to spin circles around common sense or naive reasoning, so just wait and see. Law is harder than you think. Don't Dunning-Kruger your way into a highly complex domain, it never works. >What kind of "surpris…

You're performing some kind of weird Russell's teapot applied to legal arguments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot * "There's a good argument for Elon Musk's side of the case out there, floating between Earth and Venus if only you'd look at it". * "Oh, I'm not an astronomer, you shouldn't expect me to point out this teapot to you or tell you where it is". Okaaaaaaaay. But that's not how discussions wo…

Acknowledging your ignorance and the limits of your capability is not Russell teapotting.

>If you're not interested in the legal minutia

How can I be interested in that which I don't even know ? I'm neither interested nor disinterested, I simply don't know. This doen't require a big brain to understand.

>The legal arguments for this case so far

Those are not arguments, what you listed are the facts of the case. Some of them are even 'future facts' that have not happened yet, but are scheduled to happen with high (but not certain) probability. All of those facts are and will be subject to the experience and argumentation of a team of lawyers who spent the last decades learning and practicing how to extract the most favorable interpretation out of any set of facts, and dismiss and trivialize those facts which can't be interpreted favorably.

Here is a game you can play with a person you know : Tell the person to select N public cases at random from a source you are not allowed to read. For each case, the person should tell you the facts of the case but not a single argument from the trial, the facts include anything known about the case prior to the trial. See if you can guess which party will win the case. How many cases out of N you think you will get correct on average ? You will not exceed 40%.

>All of these items are publicly available to you and me.

The entire history of China is publicly available to anyone with an internet connection, can anyone be a foreign diplomat to China ? A vast trove of medical and biological information is publicly available to anyone, can anyone be a doctor or even an assistent to one ?

Facts are not knowledge. Books are not knowledge. Records are not knowledge. These are "String Representations" of knowledge, crystallized and ossified remains of true knowledge, which are the mental representations inside the brains of people who studied and thought hard about the domain. You're not going to replicate those mental representations simply by reading their dead remains, you can say something, it's just not going to be very useful or truthful.

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

#562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adding to the analogy: The current owners of the home regularly remove swastikas spraypainted on their house by vandals, and some people call this a violation of free speech.

Removing swastikas graffitied all over the place, political correctness gone mad.

No post body was provided.

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

#563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well this analogy leaves out Twitter censorship, which makes Twitter unlikeable.

Twitter, the platform where trans people are routinely called pedophiles and groomers by prominent figures and nobodies alike, has a censorship problem? I can't imagine the kind of vitriol you have to spew to get banned off Twitter that's not just tripping the automatic ban for telling someone to die (which everyone is aware of at this point).

Here we go with that bullshit again.

Do you have a link of an example of what you say ? Were the people in those linked example not banned at the time? On average, how many people calling your precious "trans people" pedophiles and groomers are banned vs. how many of the trans people themselves get banned when they say things equivalent or far worse ?

It's mindblowing to me how the most coddled and put-on-a-pedestal group in public discourse is complaining about censorship and unfair treatment. They literally ban people for not using pronouns. It's honestly laughable.

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

#564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're performing some kind of weird Russell's teapot applied to legal arguments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot * "There's a good argument for Elon Musk's side of the case out there, floating between Earth and Venus if only you'd look at it". * "Oh, I'm not an astronomer, you shouldn't expect me to point out this teapot to you or tell you where it is". Okaaaaaaaay. But that's not how discussions wo…

Acknowledging your ignorance and the limits of your capability is not Russell teapotting. >If you're not interested in the legal minutia How can I be interested in that which I don't even know ? I'm neither interested nor disinterested, I simply don't know. This doen't require a big brain to understand. >The legal arguments for this case so far Those are not arguments, what you listed are the facts of the case. Some…

> I'm neither interested nor disinterested

For someone "neither interested nor disinterested", you're making a lot of posts about this subject matter.

Don't you think that if you're in a topic posting about the Twitter vs Elon Musk court case, that you should at very least _PRETEND_ to have interest in this case? Or what are you trying to do to me, just waste my time with these replies of yours?

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I'm not saying you have to be _correct_ in your posts. All I'm asking is for you to be interested enough to seek the truth in the case before you write up a post.

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

#565

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Acknowledging your ignorance and the limits of your capability is not Russell teapotting. >If you're not interested in the legal minutia How can I be interested in that which I don't even know ? I'm neither interested nor disinterested, I simply don't know. This doen't require a big brain to understand. >The legal arguments for this case so far Those are not arguments, what you listed are the facts of the case. Some…

> I'm neither interested nor disinterested For someone "neither interested nor disinterested", you're making a lot of posts about this subject matter. Don't you think that if you're in a topic posting about the Twitter vs Elon Musk court case, that you should at very least _PRETEND_ to have interest in this case? Or what are you trying to do to me, just waste my time with these replies of yours? ---------- I'm not sa…

>For someone "neither interested nor disinterested", you're making a lot of posts about this subject matter.

Your statement was "If you're not interested in the legal minutia", and I replied that I'm neither interested nor disinterested, *in the legal minutia*.

I'm mildly interested in the outcome of case itself, namely my preferred outcome is that of Twitter losing as much value as possible and its users lose as much of their time and peace of mind as possible. I don't particualrly care how much Musk loses or wins.

This still doesn't need to imply I need to be interested in legalities. You can perfectly well be interested in your health without being interested in medicine and biology, you're interested in the 'what', not the 'how'; in the ends, not the means. I'm interested in a prticular outcome for a legal case, but not interested (and not necessarily disinterested either) in the legal intricacies of a country I don't live in when I'm not a lawyer.

>that you should at very least _PRETEND_ to have interest in this case

I don't need to pretend, I *am* interested in a very narrow thing about that case, namely that of twitter losing or signficantly suffering damage at least. I don't have to be interested in every single thing about that case to participate in the discussion, I mostly care about 1 thing and stated it very clearly all of my comments.

>All I'm asking is for you to be interested enough to seek the truth in the case before you write up a post.

I did read up 1 expert talk about Musk's legal chances posted here about 2 weeks ago, and he did give Musk low chances of winning according to several reasons I found convincing, but - like a true expert - he also acknowledged that he is (1) Not Musk's legal team or any one of them (2) Not in possesion of the full facts since he is not a party of the dispute or the judge (3) That there is enough stake on the matter, billions of dollars and reputation, that the judge can significantly hesitate and not be as straightforward as her history implies.

So that's enough for me to still have reasonable hopes that my preferred outcome is going to happen.

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

#566

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm neither interested nor disinterested For someone "neither interested nor disinterested", you're making a lot of posts about this subject matter. Don't you think that if you're in a topic posting about the Twitter vs Elon Musk court case, that you should at very least _PRETEND_ to have interest in this case? Or what are you trying to do to me, just waste my time with these replies of yours? ---------- I'm not sa…

>For someone "neither interested nor disinterested", you're making a lot of posts about this subject matter. Your statement was "If you're not interested in the legal minutia", and I replied that I'm neither interested nor disinterested, *in the legal minutia*. I'm mildly interested in the outcome of case itself, namely my preferred outcome is that of Twitter losing as much value as possible and its users lose as muc…

> Your statement was "If you're not interested in the legal minutia", and I replied that I'm neither interested nor disinterested, in the legal minutia.

This topic is legal minutia of Twitter's counter-argument to Elon Musk's legal-claims. The very topic of discussion, is Musk's bot analysis tool behind his legal claims. (Which is beginning to look a lot like bullshit).

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

The topic of discussion. Are you interested in this topic or not? Do you have something relevant (not necessarily correct, but at least __relevant__) to the stated topic at hand?

Because as far as I can tell, you're just interested in publicly declaring that you're ignoring the topic of discussion.

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

#567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>For someone "neither interested nor disinterested", you're making a lot of posts about this subject matter. Your statement was "If you're not interested in the legal minutia", and I replied that I'm neither interested nor disinterested, *in the legal minutia*. I'm mildly interested in the outcome of case itself, namely my preferred outcome is that of Twitter losing as much value as possible and its users lose as muc…

> Your statement was "If you're not interested in the legal minutia", and I replied that I'm neither interested nor disinterested, in the legal minutia . This topic is legal minutia of Twitter's counter-argument to Elon Musk's legal-claims. The very topic of discussion, is Musk's bot analysis tool behind his legal claims. (Which is beginning to look a lot like bullshit). > Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool…

The topic of this entire HN discussion thread is, indeed, nominally about the legal minutia.

But the topic of the super comment we're both arguing in reply to is "Who could possibly be on the side of Musk", i.e. a question about the relative sympathy both sides of the legal dispute evoke. My reply to that, the one this entire sub-thread is a reply to, is that Musk evokes greater sympathy, because of how twatter abuses their power and position as a social media monopoly and how much this harms online conversations. So, in this particular scope, you're the one who is actually off-topic, my reply was about who I'm more sympathetic to.

>Do you have something relevant (not necessarily correct, but at least __relevant__) to the stated topic at hand

Do you mean the bot issue ? it's probably bullshit. Every social media cesspool is full of bots, some more, some less. There is no reason to think twatter is any better or worse on that particular front. It's probably instagram who's the filthiest bot playground.

I think its pretty obvious that Musk will try to milk every single point, fair or not, to improve his position in the court. Bullshit or not, it ties up important resources out of twatter's legal team and gives legitimacy to his claims (because if you spend several lawyers trying to debunk bullshit, then you at least take that bullshit seriously, which gives legitimacy to the bullshit).

So I don't understand what to discuss, Musk bullshitted ? no shit, he's billions-of-dollars committed to the case now, off course he's going to bullshit and do whatever it takes to win. What's interesting or novel about that ?

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

#568
post #540
post #520

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This is just pure misinformation.

No, you just misunderstand the breakup clause in this contract. It's not an exit for any reason and pay a fee clause. Musk is actually obligated to buy the company at this point. It is unlikely the courts will fully attempt to force such a large purchase. But the penalty decided could be much higher than $1B.

I'm glad we finally all agree there is a breakup clause. If you want to argue that Musk will lose in court or that he promised Twitter share holders be will buy the company then I will still be here for that.

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

#569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your statement was "If you're not interested in the legal minutia", and I replied that I'm neither interested nor disinterested, in the legal minutia . This topic is legal minutia of Twitter's counter-argument to Elon Musk's legal-claims. The very topic of discussion, is Musk's bot analysis tool behind his legal claims. (Which is beginning to look a lot like bullshit). > Twitter says Musk’s spam analysis used tool…

The topic of this entire HN discussion thread is, indeed, nominally about the legal minutia. But the topic of the super comment we're both arguing in reply to is "Who could possibly be on the side of Musk", i.e. a question about the relative sympathy both sides of the legal dispute evoke. My reply to that, the one this entire sub-thread is a reply to, is that Musk evokes greater sympathy, because of how twatter abuse…

So are you on Elon Musk's side on this case, and what evidence points you on Musk's side?

It's fine to have your own personal bias here. We all do. But at a minimum, discussing why we hold those views is beneficial for both of us.

If you are just anti-twitter then that's good that you are admitting that. It at least gives me something to work with from a discussion point of view. But ideally, you should be discussing why Twitters argument here is wrong and why you think they'd lose this court battle.

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

#570
post #504
post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Bot estimation for Twitter has no such analog." And that's acceptable there isn't well-established/widely accepted practices? Certainly Twitter and SEC will argue that to protect themselves from scrutiny and legal issues they likely deserve.

Yes it is, because Twitter has no close analogues. There’s nothing to base an industry-wide standard on. All company figures involve some level of trust that they’re based on correct processes as signed off by audit firms. For areas of material interest you’re supposed to do due diligence before signing final offers, but Musk explicitly waived that for some bizarre reason.

If you can't with 100% certainty determine the number of real users you have you shouldn't be putting out any number, and second to that, you have to be open to challenges that "your"/their analysis isn't reasonable; from what it sounds like, based on what Elon had said or alluded to, the way Twitter determined bot % was they had staff manually and "randomly" select literally just 100 accounts, and based on their own observations, decided if accounts were bots or not. If that's true, the obvious problem with that, is bots are designed to mimic to blend in and look like humans - to have the same or similar behaviour patterns to not be outside an expected range of behaviours.

So, what might really be going on is: Twitter's able to detect that less than 5% of users are unsophisticated bots, but they're unable to determine how much of the remaining 95% are sophisticated bots that accurately enough mimic human behaviour; and so it's not possible to genuinely say "less than 5% are bots."

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