Elon Musk's Twitter

[HarleyQuinn]

I dunno if we have a thread but I figured we should probably start one. Also wasn't sure whether it should go here or CE but whatever. I've heard he's already fired all if not most of the board at Twitter.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1587042605627490304

 

[Gary]

I think those doomsaying or celebrating are overreacting TBH. It's dumb now, but he's not going to be able to unban or not ban shitty people because Twitter needs advertisers, and they are going to flee if it becomes an even bigger cesspool than it already is. Besides, Musk is nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is-he's actually a complete idiot IMO-and the pressure will hit him. He owns Twitter, but I don't think it's sunk in how in over his head he is here.

 

[Gary]

‘Elon, This is Not Free Speech’: Election Denying GOP Candidate Protests Temporary Twitter Suspension

If elected on November 8th, Finchem will be in charge of Arizona’s elections and will be the second-ranking state-wide elected official in the state

www.mediaite.com

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

there are way too many people with blue checkmarks that shouldnt have one, so making them pay for it is more than ok with me. Let them chase clout.

People are being idiots over the whole thing on both sides. Twitter is a shithole as it is. He's not going to make it better or worse substantially no matter what he does

 

[Valeyard]

You're just mad we're not followed by Groupbuilder (although only one guy is).

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

I was hoping that if any conspiracy theory obsessed neurodivergent person became one of the most powerful people in our times but I was kind of hoping that it'd be Dan Aykroyd.

 

[Dandy]

there are way too many people with blue checkmarks that shouldnt have one, so making them pay for it is more than ok with me. Let them chase clout.

Having your identity verified merely lets followers and readers know the person is who they say they are. It makes it harder for impersonators and scammers. It helps with veracity of whom is saying what. Paying for blue checks would theoretically allow scammers to pose as someone official and dupe people out of money and/or promulgate misinformation.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

That's how it works theoretically but it's come to be regarded as a status symbol which is one of the reasons people will pay for it. I agree that scammers might exploit it but just because it will be a pay service now doesn't mean that they will allow people to impersonate someone. Allowing their userbase to be defrauded isn't in their best interest.

Obviously that might be naive of me and he's just going to turn it into a giant free for all and let chaos reign. But if he does it'll just end up backfiring and run people off and it'll hurt him and twitter and society wins.

 

[Dandy]

I don’t understand a Wow reaction to that. Seems pretty reasonable to me. Blue Check =/= celebrity. Blue Check = this person is who they are claiming to be. I have quite a few friends that are verified and most are from the media. Taking away their verification because they would rightly not pay for such a “privilege” just opens the door for media types to have their online identities taken by someone posing as them and tweeting out whatever they want to dupe the clueless masses. You know this will happen.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1587495307088056322

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

I don’t understand a Wow reaction to that. Seems pretty reasonable to me. Blue Check =/= celebrity. Blue Check = this person is who they are claiming to be. I have quite a few friends that are verified and most are from the media. Taking away their verification because they would rightly not pay for such a “privilege” just opens the door for media types to have their online identities taken by someone posing as them and tweeting out whatever they want to dupe the clueless masses. You know this will happen.

To a lot of people it does equal being famous though. You just have to look at modern music and all the songs were people brag about being verified. A lot of people don't look at things the way they're intended to.

 

[tekcop]

Sites like Digg and Tumblr died when they changed things. Twitter's not too big to go the same route.

 

[Dandy]

Edit: This is to CWM.

Which I can agree with. But there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of users that their very credibility would rely on that check mark. Much of the problems we have in this country has come from the intentional misinformation that is on social media. Now imagine what people posing as verified news media and other businesses will do for the spreading of misinformation. You can 100% change your profile photo and name to dupe people that do not verify the Twitter handles. The blue check makes it easy to just see the photo, name, and check mark and just believe what you are seeing is from the person. I saw two within a week before this pay to be verified talk came up. It will be a problem.

“To a lot of people” does not cover the millions and millions.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1587312517679878144

lirl

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

I agree that it will be a problem but I also don't think he really is thinking of that or cares at least right now. He's only thinking about how many people will pay. If 6 percent of twitter users pay (I saw a poll that put it closer to 8 percent with a couple hundred thousands responses) then they can point to that and say oh this is making a lot of money and a big success which will pop the investors and drive the stock price up. They don't really care if they're causing chaos and ruining lives. I also agree that in the long term it will be a problem for him.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1587513774763745280

 

[Gary]

Sites like Digg and Tumblr died when they changed things. Twitter's not too big to go the same route.

Tumblr will now allow nudity but not explicit sex

The change it hinted at in September has rolled out.

www.theverge.com

It sorta counts I guess, since boobs was a big part of Tumblr's appeal...that and fandom shit.

 

[Valeyard]

Remember when TRTSM had a tumblr?

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Musk personally led call with civil rights groups to address hate speech on Twitter

Seven civil rights and policy groups were on the call with the tech billionaire, who handled the meeting solo.

www.politico.com

Trump (and other banned users) won't be allowed back before the mid-terms, at least.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Trump being back onb efore the midterms would have gifted the dems the election so that's bad news politically.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Idk, Weirdly, I feel like Trump would mostly be a non-factor in midterms regardless of what he said unless it was some Kanye level craziness. The "They're friends with Trump and Trump bad!" strategy doesn't seem particularly effective in swing states.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

the shit trump is saying is insane and would only get worse on twitter. He's an albatross to the entire party. The Republicans win where they can hammer the dems on how shit the economy is and gas prices are terrible etc.

 

[Gary]

Remember when TRTSM had a tumblr?

I sometimes think I learn something new everyday.

 

[Valeyard]

It was a lot of this.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1588150634116747264

 

[Tino Standard]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1588545251949838337

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1588553184339165185

 

[Gary]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1588545251949838337

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1588553184339165185

Well, I take it I was right in that he doesn't know how in over his head he is

 

[Gary]

Anyways, I think there are two things worth pointing out about this

1.) Part of Musk's cluelessness about this is the fact he's a billionaire. He lives in a system that rewards shitty behavior and ideas, and where the people who make these dumb decisions rarely face any consequences. He literally paid 44 billion to become a moderator, and as I've said, he doesn't get the weight of it-this isn't different from how Trump reacted to things when he was president BTW. That's an example of a man whose life was in that bubble, and when he realized oh hey this job requires actual work, he flipped out.

2.) It's also something that predates Musk buying Twitter and Trump running for president-the false, liberal belief that Twitter is a part of "the marketplace of ideas". Politicians and journalists all jumped in, believing it's more important than it actually is. The fact is, Twitter isn't the ultimate expression of political discourse and thought-it's mostly just shitposting, gossip and talking about things you like and dislike. Kinda like how there were people who thought Tumblr was a haven for "SJWs" when in reality that was probably just 8% of it-the place was mostly just fandom interests and porn. To think Twitter is or should be more is delusional IMO. There's plenty of people there, but most of them don't take it very seriously.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

It also only has a fraction of the users that Facebook and Instagram have.


I think the only people that love Twitter are celebrities, media types, shitposters and the people who love them.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1588555229066235907

 

[Valeyard]

I miss when he was the "Billionaire Who You Never Knew About!" clickbait dude of old, before he permanently soiled Grimes and had his hoggish face all over everything.

I wish those social media cowards weren't thinking they were clever and have the balls to go back to MySpace.