Musk offers to buy Twitter

[Nycturne]

Well I do think they're gonna have to ditch Ye Olde (or, newe) Kanye West. He is clearly a bridge too far for brand name advertisers.

I read somewhere that Twitter's engineering division has put a hold on all changes or releases of new modules for "at least over the weekend". If that's true then some newly revived accounts may promptly get shut down again, depending on which exceptions to that announcement were put in before it was made.

Oh yeah, high profile peddlers of this stuff are the main concern for advertisers for sure.

And yes, I realize I’m being a bit jaded here. But as I have trans folks in my extended family, and trans folks in my twitter circle (who I follow for their other content), I am burned out to some extent. There’s only so many times you can see folks leaving due to harassment that goes unmoderated, or seeing someone engage with transphobic statements thinking they are safe if they keep their response calm and rational, only to get banned for “hate speech” instead of the person posting the original statements.

 

[lizkat]

It's somewhat amusing reading the comments on this article at Verge's site vs the comments about this article on their FB page.

There has apparently been some organizing going on over at pro-Trump sites in the meantime, i.e. intent to bolster Musk's idea of "free speech" on Twitter as soon as the deal closed. I did notice some increase in non-obscene, non-racist non-sexist but quite hostile replies to mainstream news-oriented tweets yesterday, stuff that suggested to me that the countdown to "freedom" on Twitter had already begun.

Washington Post ran a related piece (paywall removed), noting that racist tweets picked up, but also reporting that one reinstated account of prior notoriety was rather quickly suspended again. So there are limits and fans of TruthSocial's idea of free speech might not all fly long on the "new" Twitter.

Racist tweets quickly surfaced after Musk closed Twitter deal

Racial slurs were posted rampantly overnight. One single-word tweet, showing a single racial slur in all capital letters, was retweeted more than 500 times and liked more than 4,000 times. It was tweeted at 9 p.m. Thursday night and remained online nearly 12 hours later.

And of course not just racism... all the other garbage seemed to be piling up at the dam ready to roll as soon as it looked like Musk was giving the all clear.

Some of the Twitter influx was organized on other platforms, including the pro-Trump forum TheDonald, where its top posts Friday morning showed tweets celebrating lies about Trump’s 2020 election loss and memes criticizing transgender people under the headline “When you can’t get banned on Twitter anymore.”

“Cold Meme War, Twatter Defenses Down, Fire Away,” another poster said, attaching an image of a soldier with a rifle and a “Make America Great Again” hat.

Musk’s acquisition and almost-instant firing of its top executives was also widely celebrated in Telegram groups devoted to QAnon, the jumble of pro-Trump conspiracy theories. “Sometimes it takes a while, but the good guys win,” one QAnon influencer wrote.

Yeah well, the good guys at Twitter are still nominally the ADVERTISERS if you are sitting in Elon Musk's "Chief Twit" chair today.

So there may be some disappointment ahead for those champing at the bit to drag Twitter deeper into cesspool turf again,

 

[lizkat]

Oh great. Musk is reported having Tesla engineers inspect Twitter code... he's gonna get himself in a bind with stuff like that. Employees of a publicly listed company working on operations of a privately owned acquisition, with possible material effect on the finances of either or both businesses?

Musk is using his Tesla tech chiefs to help him inspect Twitter — and that could be misappropriating corporate assets

The SEC may not be amused depending on what happens next. Heh, Bloomberg might have to update its latest take on Tesla's revolving door general counsel slot yet again in a single year...

Tesla Cycles Through Top Lawyers While Musk Spars With SEC (1)

Tesla Inc. named its third new legal chief in two years, as the company promoted David Searle to be acting head of legal and corporate secretary.

news.bloomberglaw.com

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

User experience does depend at least in part how one uses whatever tools a site provides to manage information flow according to preferences. I'll be watching for any reduction in ability on Twitter to tweak ad preferences, mute accounts etc.

In the meantime because I follow certain mainstream news sites, Twitter's existing algorithms occasionally pop tweeted news from other mainstream sources into my timeline. Otherwise I'd not have been aware --for instance-- that some NBC journos had traced the newish "tailgate parties" and armed "watchers" near drop boxes back to massive encouragement by TruthSocial influencers to create those situations.

Now while I found that interesting indeed, if I start seeing all sorts of "news" from TruthSocial members themselves popping up on Twitter because they've had their Twitter accounts reinstated, that could be a different thing, and problematic if I have to spend time tweaking my timeline using more keywords and mutes etc.

For news I use Flipboard and some direct off the mainstream sites, some borderline mainstream. Just sayin there are some alternative methods other than Twitter that don’t take a Herculean effort.

Personally I think social media has reached the peak of “nothing is really free” and the actual price is becoming too high for many. Right now it’s going through the opposite of gentrification.

 

[Yoused]

I’m not over there anymore, but adding anti-semitism to their toxic hellstew seems about right.

Spoiler: how can that be?

​

 

[lizkat]

Personally I think social media has reached the peak of “nothing is really free” and the actual price is becoming too high for many. Right now it’s going through the opposite of gentrification.

Yeah Elon Musk may soon discover that the price of expanding what he calls "free speech" might be way too high for his fledgling version of Twitter.

Thierry Breton has weighed in. He is the current Commissioner for Internal Market of the European Union. He responded to Musk's tweet that "the bird is free" by quote-tweeting it thus:

That hashtag #DSA he used refers to the Digital Services Act that was signed into EU law on October 19th. It is meant "to keep the digital space safe from illegal goods, content and services, and to protect fundamental rights online."

 

[Herdfan]

I really don’t understand why the fuss. It’s not like we the users are paying to use the service. If that happens, I’ll leave. So just by using Twitter, you’re not directly benefiting Musk.

Did you follow Musk before? No? Then don’t start just because he bought it. Will he let TFG back on? Of course. Did you follow TFG before? No? Then don’t start now.

Your timeline will not change (other than all the people complaining about the big changes). You will still follow the same people you like. Your followers will still follow you.

Don’t borrow trouble.

I agree. All these people threatening to leave are the same as all the celebs that threaten to leave the US if "X" person is elected. Yet sadly they never do.

Sure some people will leave and make a big deal about it. Then they will notice all their friends, colleagues, family, groups, etc are still on and the FOMO will kick in and they will be back.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

Twitter would probably tank (or be reduced to Truth Social numbers) if only members could see what is being posted on there. I bet 90% (or more) of what is being said on Twitter is being read by people who aren't even members. It's just reposted through a link or screenshot on some other site.

 

[shadow puppet]

Seems many of the right wingers are enjoying their childish selves seeing how many times they can post n-word posts over there now. But hey - we can't say anything or we'll be branded as making a fuss.

Nothing comes easily in this country anymore except hate.

 

[lizkat]

Twitter would probably tank (or be reduced to Truth Social numbers) if only members could see what is being posted on there. I bet 90% (or more) of what is being said on Twitter is being read by people who aren't even members. It's just reposted through a link or screenshot on some other site.

I'm quite often surprised when I see some of the horror-show material from Twitter that is relayed by other media outlets. That's because it's pretty easy to focus one's timeline on matters of personal interest, and also pretty simple to set up a few filters if unwanted material shows up now and then.

Maybe more people would enjoy Twitter if they used the toolbox options. Of course I'm referring to the toolset that has been available up until now. Who knows what it will be like going forward.

What I do know is I wouldn't mind if media outlets were more thoughtful about what they relay from any social media platforms really. Since a lot of what pops up from Twitter sources when I read online newspapers is pretty controversial, it's hard not to think that the intent in relaying such material was about getting clickbait revenue.

So far on Twitter just now, the usual crew whose tweets I tend to see (or seek out) are still members and still apparently choosing to remain members for now. But see I don't follow and am not followed by celebrities or politicians who have become either notorious or celebrated for this that or the other statement. So I am spared some of the garbage-spewing that occurs as some controversial (or worse) tweet goes viral. It doesn't take long to get the gist of what happened and then just move on, or if necessary, add a few keyword blocks temporarily.

LIfe is short, the to-do list is long... I'm not the favorite of Twitter advertisers, I suspect. There are days I spend less than 30 seconds on the platform, launching into the website of a media outlet's tweet and just never coming back.

Edit: typos.

 

[lizkat]

When Musk takes Twitter public again, as I assume he will eventually do, I think he should consider doing something like what Meta did with Facebook, take a (general) step back from direct moderation by funding an independent oversight board.

FB retains the last word on policy changes --for instance, on how to treat types of content put up by globally well known individuals and political leaders-- but abides by decisions of the board when users appeal their content-related suspensions.

Meta provides another $150 million in funding for its Oversight Board

The group's power has been challenged at times by the company's unwillingness to outsource some of its decisions.

www.axios.com

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

What I do know is I wouldn't mind if media outlets were more thoughtful about what they relay from any social media platforms really. Since a lot of what pops up from Twitter sources when I read online newspapers is pretty controversial, it's hard not to think that the intent in relaying such material was about getting clickbait revenue.

I’ve said this before, but news media really loves to post Tweets by nobodies with few followers and likes and advertise it like half the country agrees with them.

 

[shadow puppet]

The celebrations over at MR is stomach turning…

Holy cow, you weren't kidding. They've lost their shit over there in that thread.

 

[Cmaier]

Is this for real?? Glad I've got other things to do with my life in retirement these days, if I don't see it on here I'm none the wiser.

Apparently I was misinformed by the news media:

https://www.twitter.com/i/web/status/1586061232997511168/

 

[Citysnaps]

I have a really bad feeling about Musk running twitter with trump (and others) being allowed back on, and trump likely running for prez. That's not a coincidence.

Hold onto your seats. It's going to get very ugly.

 

[Alli]

So far, my Twitter experience has not changed. And I spend a LOT of time on there.

 

[Cmaier]

So far, my Twitter experience has not changed. And I spend a LOT of time on there.

Nothing yet, but i use a tweetbot so I don’t see ”trends” or an algorithmic feed. Just in case things go to shit, I set up @cmaier@mastodon.social.

Depending on what goes on, I may drop twitter even if my experience there doesn’t change. For example, if Musk provides safe harbor to nazis, I don’t want to support the product even if I don’t have to deal with the nazis myself.

 

[Citysnaps]

I've had twitter on my phone since the beginning, but stopped using twitter around eight years ago. It just didn't interest me, as I had other social media apps. But I still kept the app on my phone. Yesterday I got an App Store notification there was a new twitter update. Eh, decided to just delete the app. There's no way I'll have anything to do with twitter now - even having a dormant app on my phone.

Regarding their "content moderation council"... Will be interesting seeing who will be on it. Perhaps stephen miller is looking for a job.

 

[Edd]

My wife sent me this. I was unaware of Bluesky as a project. Is this a viable alternative?

Everything we know so far about Jack Dorsey’s brand new app

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's Bluesky Social app is now accepting users for beta testing, and says it will launch soon.

uk.finance.yahoo.com

 

[DT]

JFC, hahaha WORDSWORDSWORDS ...

The development team described the app as a “protocol for large-scale distributed social applications that will allow for account portability, algorithmic choice, interoperability and performance".

But I guess what's your metric for a " viable alternative"? By that, I mean, for me, unless it had feeds for the handful of accounts I follow (on Twitter), it doesn't matter about the tech, transparency, lack of GQP nutbags.

That's why I'm a holding pattern, if there's too much fracture, a source goes here, a source goes there, I'll just call it quits with this form of social media. I don't care about Twitter other than what it does for me, if it continues to satisfy that, I'll stick around - if there's too much chaos, negative vibe, I'll leave, but won't go anywhere else.

I'll take up woodworking or something