The world's already an absurd comedy, I can't see how this makes anything worse in particular. Much funnier though, which is always appreciated.
Elon Musk | Doer of things on X and sad little man
- Thread starter Pogue Mahone
- Start date
Bill Gates is monitoring the situation.
It can always get worse
Doing the Lord's work here, laughs out loudly.
Need a musk like takeover of Caf to be able to type l o l and c o z
and ***. And w u t
True. I guess that in my view, the world is already shit enough that this doesn't really move the needle for me. The critical threshold was crossed a long time ago imo.
You don't see how it will make things worse when Trump and all his QAnon cult followers are allowed to resume the Twitter amplification of their lies?
Peakest example of Feck You Money the world has seen. Throwing down $45bn to own the libs.
Best case scenario: Everyone abandons the platform, no viable replacement pops up. World gets a little better and Elon loses a fat chunk.
Likely scenario: Same cesspool with a few new/returning characters added.
Best case scenario: Everyone abandons the platform, no viable replacement pops up. World gets a little better and Elon loses a fat chunk.
Likely scenario: Same cesspool with a few new/returning characters added.
I think the issue here is how readily people seem to enjoy being part of a cult.
On the other hand, he practically begs for the attention and admiration of internet edgelords, he's a covidiot, he's anti-union, anti-workers' rights, he runs workplaces that are unsafe and rife with racism, he's pro "free speech" (the kind where no one is allowed to dunk on, make fun of or get mad at you for your opinions.)
I don't think there's much hope of him making Twitter better.
This. He’s an alt-right icon ffs.
Meh it might mean the end of twitter which really wouldn't be a bad thing although it is one of the better social media sites(People do tend to overestimate the impact it has on politics and facebook is far bigger shite show anyways).
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40 billion so he gets to control the narrative about himself and all his ventures.
Absolutely wild. Probably work out to be very cheap when he crushes all dissent that he doesn't like.
Absolutely wild. Probably work out to be very cheap when he crushes all dissent that he doesn't like.
Genuinely terrible news for democracy this.
Its not going to the be the end of Twitter ffs, as fun as it would be to see it, he's not investing this sort of cash for it to die, he's not that daft.
he is that daft
The anarchist in me is pleased. Musk fecking it up might present a chance for some fresh new companies to fill the void
That’s my instinct too. I’m absolutely convinced that the FB algorithms which used outrage to drive engagement have directly caused the worst political polarisation in our lifetimes (ever?) I’m not sure if Twitter content has been tweaked to the same extent but with a shady prick like this in charge that’s surely inevitable.
He paid 40 billion for Twitter? Doesn’t he know it’s free on the App Store?
It's the ultimate NFT
I'm not sure it will change all that much, there will be new features that make the platform better and it's really been under-developed for many years and wasn't growing - Jack (founder) spoke out about the board in a limited manner recently.
In terms of free speech, Elon made it clear that the line will be difficult to judge in the TED talks but there is a clear line around breaking the law in that country.
And Elon isn't going to be reviewing individual tweets, he said the algorithm should be open source so the world can see how it works and with open-source you often get the world feeding back on it.
He still has to find half the money or sell Tesla shares, I suspect he will look around for someone else or a group to partner with and run it. He's got Tesla, Boring, and SpaceX to run.
Given the rise of Tik Tok and demise of FB (in terms of growth) it feels like there was starting to become a void.
In terms of free speech, Elon made it clear that the line will be difficult to judge in the TED talks but there is a clear line around breaking the law in that country.
And Elon isn't going to be reviewing individual tweets, he said the algorithm should be open source so the world can see how it works and with open-source you often get the world feeding back on it.
He still has to find half the money or sell Tesla shares, I suspect he will look around for someone else or a group to partner with and run it. He's got Tesla, Boring, and SpaceX to run.
Given the rise of Tik Tok and demise of FB (in terms of growth) it feels like there was starting to become a void.
The UK Government's Online Safety Bill wants to clamp down (in a very ineffective way) on fake news and disinformation. But now Twitter is in private hands I genuinely don't see Musk bending to any Government demands from the UK, US or elsewhere.
Instead we will get more and more Trumps who instead of clamping down on disinformation simply pander to Musk to get an audience.
And to think the main concern of the UK Government in relation to elections at the moment is to make it harder for people to vote...
I'd say he's more of a libertarian/right wing icon but most of all the edgelord starter pack icon.
I genuinely find him the most cringy of the tech billionaires
I mean you just have to look at tumblr. If idiots are in charge, it can go downhill quickly.
He's not wrong...
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I doubt it. China will continue to ban Twitter and continue to use their own social media platforms domestically. They have no reason to strong arm Musk for influence over Twitter. It's not like they need it when they have already Weibo. They'll save up that influence for something more meaningful in the long run.
Yet they dedicate resources to bot farms and spreading Chinese propaganda via Twitter. If anyone with a decent following on Twitter tweets about the Uighur genocide, they get hounded by Chinese astroturf accounts. They also track dissidents and try to use Twitter to unmask domestic critics using it. If Musk decides to force everyone to provide identification documents as part of his "verifying" all humans, the Chinese will inevitably hack Twitter (or buy some insider off like the Saudis did) and use that information to persecute people in and out of China. Musk would be unable to enact any response without risking Tesla's business there.
Fair points.
I think, on balance, ID Verification will do more good than harm. But I hadn't considered your side of it. And it's not like Twitter is a 'nice' place even now.
I don't think it's really about all the free speech stuff at all, he's a bit of an arsehole with the stuff he comes out with, but at it's core he's a capitalist and that's what this purchase will be about. There's tonnes of value in Twitter that could be unlocked with the right features and UI changes.
I hope he messes it up though because his legion of arse lickers are insufferable as it is.
I hope he messes it up though because his legion of arse lickers are insufferable as it is.
No need to personally attack @Revan like that.
Probably for the best. If everyone spews hate on day one then that's fine. It will show people for who they are, rather than the world continuing to pretend people are good.
We're all cnuts - better to acknowledge it sooner rather than later.
We're all cnuts - better to acknowledge it sooner rather than later.