Musk offers to buy Twitter

[Eric]

He did?
What makes you say that?

I mean in just acknowledging him but I'm not sure just how much Elon didn't force it either. We can expect him to probably stay quiet about it though, Elon is the only one gaslighting here and it's because he's losing his ass after ruining Twitter.

 

[dada_dave]

I mean in just acknowledging him but I'm not sure just how much Elon didn't force it either. We can expect him to probably stay quiet about it though, Elon is the only one gaslighting here and it's because he's losing his ass after ruining Twitter.

Do we actually know Tim Cook was even there? Like the video is just of the Apple Campus with a couple of shadows … it could’ve been Billie the intern. At this point Elon is so low on credibility who the hell knows? I mean chances are of course it is Tim Cook, but Elon’s behavior is getting so (publicly) weird that it’s not out of the ream of possibility …

 

[Eric]

Do we actually know Tim Cook was even there? Like the video is just of the Apple Campus with a couple of shadows … it could’ve been Billie the intern. At this point Elon is so low on credibility who the hell knows? I mean chances are of course it is Tim Cook, but Elon’s behavior is getting so (publicly) weird that it’s not out of the ream of possibility …

This is a great question, I asked over in the MR thread. Seems like nobody from the Apple side has confirmed.

 

[Colstan]

Sad to hear this, the only one with a "difference" was the world's richest troll. Tim Cook obviously caved but should've never given that asshole the time of day.

Or maybe they're simply having a conversation about this as businessmen. I think the prosaic answer is the most likely one.

Look, I get it, this thread is for venting about how everyone here hates Mr. Musk, not the technicalities of the acquisition, philosophical differences, or business relationships between companies, which I find much more interesting and fruitful to discuss. Since that's not the purpose of this thread, there's no point in my attempts to engage any longer. So, I'll simply leave y'all with this, I hope everyone here finds contentment with your social media choices in the future, regardless of what happens with Twitter.

 

[dada_dave]

Or maybe they're simply having a conversation about this as businessmen. I think the prosaic answer is the most likely one.

Sure if it happened that is most likely explanation although again the details would be important.

Look, I get it, this thread is for venting about how everyone here hates Mr. Musk, not the technicalities of the acquisition, philosophical differences, or business relationships between companies, which I find much more interesting and fruitful to discuss. Since that's not the purpose of this thread, there's no point in my attempts to engage any longer. So, I'll simply leave y'all with this, I hope everyone here finds contentment with your social media choices in the future, regardless of what happens with Twitter.

Personally I find when the world’s richest* man with huge cult-like following openly embraces fascists under the guise of freedom and the flag, the implications and consequences of that plus the conditions that allowed someone like him, erratic being kind, to become so powerful and influential in the first place are what’s actually interesting and fruitful to discuss. Certainly more important. But you’re right to each his own.

*EDIT: (side note) I am referring to official wealth, if undeclared wealth were included the list of richest people would no doubt change rather dramatically and it's the Putins of the world who would dominate.

 

[lizkat]

More from the FT (yeah, it's paywalled). The headline was:

"EU and US turn up the heat on Elon Musk over Twitter"​

So to the bottom line there: Elon had a video chat with Thierry Breton of the European Commission today, about the newish Digital Services Act, which Thierry is charged with implementing. Musk was basically warned that Twitter must

adhere to a checklist of rules, including ditching an “arbitrary” approach to reinstating banned users, pursuing disinformation “aggressively” and agreeing to an “extensive independent audit” of the platform by next year.

Elon apparently tried to paper over any potential issues in Twitter's European operations by saying over and over again that he thought the EU's legislation was "very sensible" and should be applied globally.

Not sure how impressive such statements were. He recently closed Twitter's entire Brussels office.

Anyway if Musk imagines that he can just blow off the EC's plan for an "extensive independent audit" of exactly how Twitter will have managed to comply with the rules, his rude awakening lies in the future.

Meanwhile the USA (through CFIUS, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US) have indicated interest in reviewing assorted aspects of the purchase of Twitter. CFIUS members include representatives from 16 US government agencies including Defense, Treasury, Commerce, Homeland Security and others.

Musk is a citizen of the USA but some of the foreign investors have bought interests of $250 million or more and above that level they have access to levels of information in or about Twitter that other investors do not have. The US is interested in finding out more of what that means.

Those "special" investors include funds owned by Saudis and Qataris, plus the cryptocurrency firm Binance, which was originally based in China, then moved to the Cayman Islands and is known to have shared some of its data with certain Russians. The concern at the very least is about lending Twitter account details to authoritarian regimes.

More on the above: a piece on 11/1/22 in the WaPo, (paywall removed): https://wapo.st/3VmXPXE

 

[Renzatic]

Sorry, but are there really worse things than pedophiles?

Yeah. Nazis. They're down there in the bottom of the barrel with the pedophiles.

 

[Nycturne]

Or maybe they're simply having a conversation about this as businessmen. I think the prosaic answer is the most likely one.

To be fair, those conversations can also involve Tim Cook laying out the reasons Apple is doing what they are doing, and what Twitter needs to do to allay Apple's concerns here. Much like what apparently happened with Musk's meetings with advertisers.

I'm more surprised that Tim would be personally involved here, as there's others on the senior leadership team that can get down to brass tacks when it comes to App Store policy or advertising spend just as well as Cook, and have been delegated the responsibility to oversee those areas.

Look, I get it, this thread is for venting about how everyone here hates Mr. Musk, not the technicalities of the acquisition, philosophical differences, or business relationships between companies, which I find much more interesting and fruitful to discuss. Since that's not the purpose of this thread, there's no point in my attempts to engage any longer. So, I'll simply leave y'all with this, I hope everyone here finds contentment with your social media choices in the future, regardless of what happens with Twitter.

It's become a bit of both, to be honest. Partly because we've gone over a lot of the rest already. It's not exactly news what happened with the Chancery court, or the large debt Twitter is now under that is pushing Musk to engage in vulture capitalism.

 

[dada_dave]

More from the FT (yeah, it's paywalled). The headline was:

"EU and US turn up the heat on Elon Musk over Twitter"​

So to the bottom line there: Elon had a video chat with Thierry Breton of the European Commission today, about the newish Digital Services Act, which Thierry is charged with implementing. Musk was basically warned that Twitter must



Elon apparently tried to paper over any potential issues in Twitter's European operations by saying over and over again that he thought the EU's legislation was "very sensible" and should be applied globally.

Not sure how impressive such statements were. He recently closed Twitter's entire Brussels office.

Anyway if Musk imagines that he can just blow off the EC's plan for an "extensive independent audit" of exactly how Twitter will have managed to comply with the rules, his rude awakening lies in the future.

Meanwhile the USA (through CFIUS, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US) have indicated interest in reviewing assorted aspects of the purchase of Twitter. CFIUS members include representatives from 16 US government agencies including Defense, Treasury, Commerce, Homeland Security and others.

Musk is a citizen of the USA but some of the foreign investors have bought interests of $250 million or more and above that level they have access to levels of information in or about Twitter that other investors do not have. The US is interested in finding out more of what that means.

Those "special" investors include funds owned by Saudis and Qataris, plus the cryptocurrency firm Binance, which was originally based in China, then moved to the Cayman Islands and is known to have shared some of its data with certain Russians. The concern at the very least is about lending Twitter account details to authoritarian regimes.

More on the above: a piece on 11/1/22 in the WaPo, (paywall removed): https://wapo.st/3VmXPXE

Yeah Thierry Breton made it clear from the beginning that “the bird will fly by our rules” after Musk declared that “the bird was free” so this is not a surprise and I don’t think they’re going to be mollified or intimidated by Musk.

 

[lizkat]

I'm more surprised that Tim would be personally involved here, as there's others on the senior leadership team that can get down to brass tacks when it comes to App Store policy or advertising spend just as well as Cook, and have been delegated the responsibility to oversee those areas.

Yeah but in his own eyes Musk is the supreme arbiter so even to get his attention you s/b a CEO...

Cook is just saying Musk's company has an app that's on the app store and so must continue to play by the same rules as anyone else or else, well... "You've had your tea now, have ye?"

That is an old Scottish saying. It translates roughly to what it says plus "... because I'm not feedin' ye." and it carries about the same sentiment as a US Southerner saying "well bless your heart."

 

[dada_dave]

"You've had your tea now, have ye?"

That is an old Scottish saying. It translates roughly to what it says plus "... because I'm not feedin' ye." and it carries about the same sentiment as a US Southerner saying "well bless your heart."

ha! Yup. The version of that expression I heard was “you will have eaten?” And the context of the story as it was relayed to me was quite literal in that case (the unfortunate in question arriving home to a rented room in Edinburgh).

 

[Pumbaa]

Yeah Thierry Breton made it clear from the beginning that “the bird will fly by our rules” after Musk declared that “the bird was free” so this is not a surprise and I don’t think they’re going to be mollified or intimidated by Musk.

Coming soon to a feed near you: Musk tweeting a meme declaring war on EU.

 

[turbineseaplane]

"Why does the EU hate free speech?"

 

[Herdfan]

Yeah. Nazis. They're down there in the bottom of the barrel with the pedophiles.

Put a Nazi and pedophile in a Supermax prison and see who comes out alive. It won't be the pedophile. Even hard core murders and rapists hate pedophiles.

 

[Macky-Mac]

Put a Nazi and pedophile in a Supermax prison and see who comes out alive. It won't be the pedophile. Even hard core murders and rapists hate pedophiles.

so who's worse.....pedophiles or mass shooters who kill school kids?

 

[Renzatic]

Put a Nazi and pedophile in a Supermax prison...

Sounds like a solid plan to me!

 

[lizkat]

"Why does the EU hate free speech?"


View attachment 19746

If Musk is stupid enough to laugh off the European Commission's rules, and fails to follow online content regulation, then he deserves to end up with the app ban and the fines that Thierry Breton just warned him about today. The fines can run to 6% of global revenue for preceding financial year. And, he must allow that EC audit of Twitter's moderation capabilities before summer of 2023.

Call the potential fines "The Big Mouth Tax." The EC rules are not avoidable by just saying in the fine print of "terms and conditions" that the author of a post is responsible for content posted. Pretty sure none of the co-investors in Musk's Twitter is a fan of any kind of tax really, much less an avoidable one.

 

[turbineseaplane]

@lizkat Yep -- well said

It's actually rather enjoyable to watch him run up against some guardrails in life -- finally

 

[turbineseaplane]

Twitter 2.0: Our continued commitment to the public conversation

Twitter’s mission is to promote and protect the public conversation–to be the town square of the internet. For many years, we’ve said that we want to give everyone the power to create and share ideas

blog.twitter.com

 

[lizkat]

I don't know if this part of Musk's policy is going to be acceptable:

"Our approach to policy enforcement will rely more heavily on de-amplification of violative content: freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach."​

That's suggesting that Musk figures if Twitter can suppress initial visibility and quote-tweeting or retweeting of tweeted material that represents illegal content in some countries or for some providers (of net services or vending of the app itself), the company will not have to remove such content or ban the tweet authors.

So now Musk proposes that one can tweet anything, but an algo will eyeball it and say uh yeah maybe not this and then somehow will isolate that tweet and prevent it popping up into anyone's feed, or a hashtag, or "trending topics" etc. ?

Great, but then he should not call it "absolute free speech," and anyway it starts to sound a whole lot like old Twitter --but without bans and suspensions-- so not really all that great after all. And obviously not all that foolproof since before Twitter flipped to Musk's ownership, the Trust and Safety group was still working hard at trying to improve moderation and toolboxes for users as well. If the new algorithms fail, then users end up tweaking filters all day long or just reporting endless abuse of rules.

Not sure that will be acceptable to name-brand advertisers, regulators and companies that are now objecting to how it's been going on Twitter since Musk took over and started his grand experiments.

The EC is likely to chime in w/ "Please let's see the algos, and let's have a demo of how they work."