# Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter - now the Pit edition (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 25, 2022, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442 "2022-04-25T22:50:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 54
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1061 "2022-11-15T09:29:46Z")
Here’s a wrinkle I hadn’t previously considered: > **[Is Elon Musk's Twitter about to fall out of the GDPR's one-stop shop?](https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/14/is-elon-musks-twitter-about-to-fall-out-of-the-gdprs-one-stop-shop/)** > > Helmed by erratic new owner Elon Musk, Twitter is no longer fulfilling key obligations required to claim Ireland as its "main establishment" under the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), TechCrunch has been told. The TLDR version is that Twitter negotiated a “light touch” from European privacy regulators by claiming itself to be mainly based in Ireland, in terms of development strategy and policy management. In order to maintain this status, they were obligated to follow certain processes and keep specific EU-based people involved in those processes. Musk has, obviously, blown all that up. If the Irish data protection authority recognizes reality and makes an official determination that Twitter has lost its previously negotiated status, every individual European state’s data-privacy agency can exert oversight on the company, with fines for violations potentially running into the billions of dollars. What. A freaking. Clown. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1062 "2022-11-15T09:42:40Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > TL;DR Why is Musk’s purchase “the end of Twitter”? What plans for Twitter does Musk have that are alarming? ⁢ At this point, it’s not really his plans. It’s what he’s actively done. He fired the majority of the staff, the ones who kept Twitter running. He decided to make it where you can verify yourself simply by paying a small fee. He banned people for making parody accounts to mock the problems at Twitter. He actually doesn’t seem to have any actual plans. He’s just shooting from the hip, doing things that don’t make any sense. And all the while he’s on Twitter attacking everyone who points out his issues. He comes off as unstable, like he has no idea what he’s doing. That is what leads to what @Shalmanese said. That said, he did have some very wild ideas, like turning Twitter into a bank or adding paywalled videos. Basically mimicking other companies. Oh, and there’s one thing @Shalmanese forgot: Musk flaunting an FTC consent order. Due to some privacy-based fraud, there are special things it currently has to do to prove it is following privacy laws. And even though he’s now backtracked on it, they don’t really have the staff to handle it. Do note that it’s not just people he fired. A lot of people left. There’s a complete brain drain going on over there. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1063 "2022-11-15T10:06:58Z")
Thing is, Genius Tech Billionaire Innovators™ like Musk do not concern themselves with mundane minutiae like privacy regulations, especially from European socialists. Their job is to plow ahead and do what they want, and if they run afoul of regulations, to rant incessantly about heavy-handed government oppression. I doubt that Musk has even heard of the GDPR. It may be that some underling has, and has tried to warn Musk about potential issues. Another job of a Genius Tech Billionaire Innovator™ like Musk is to fire such people. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1064 "2022-11-15T11:41:57Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > Or they might view it super favorably! The world is awash in possibilities! Or they might get eaten by a leopard! Who can say? > [@BigT](#): > > Oh, and there’s one thing @Shalmanese forgot: Musk flaunting an FTC consent order. \*flouting ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1065 "2022-11-15T11:43:50Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > They deserve to earn what an employer is willing to pay them, neither more nor less. This is basic economics. Any economic ‘equation’ which uses the word ‘deserves’ as part of the function is anything but economics. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1066 "2022-11-15T11:45:32Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > First, many thanks to @Stranger_On_A_Train for cluing in me to the excellent Mike Judge movie _Office Space_. All these years it had somehow escaped my attention. Watched it last night and it was hilarious! Jesus Christ, this is the most shocking thing I’ve read on the Dope in _years_. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1067 "2022-11-15T12:04:38Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Twitter may not have the requisite engineering talent to keep the site up and running for much longer and the site could simply fail whale one day and never come back If “fail whale” isn’t a slang term for a massive, epic failure, it should be. It is streets ahead, totes magoats. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1068 "2022-11-15T12:12:11Z")
It is in fact specifically associated with Twitter. In the old days, before they stabilized their architecture, they would show you a Fail Whale image when a failure prevented the site from loading. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1069 "2022-11-15T12:57:35Z")
I got 83%! > **[Who Said It: Elon Musk or Mr. Burns?](https://newrepublic.com/article/168572/rich-guys-say-the-darndest-things)** > > The Simpsons character and the guy ruining Twitter often sound a lot alike. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1070 "2022-11-15T13:10:22Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Oh, and there’s one thing @Shalmanese forgot: Musk flaunting an FTC consent order. Due to some privacy-based fraud, there are special things it currently has to do to prove it is following privacy laws. And even though he’s now backtracked on it, they don’t really have the staff to handle it. > > Do note that it’s not just people he fired. A lot of people left. There’s a complete brain drain going on over there. Specifically, a lot of the top legal talent left; the ones who were responsible for certifying that Twitter was complying with the FTC order. Their parting words were apparently that the software engineers now would have to fulfill that compliance role. So in addition to having to try to keep Twitter running, the software engineers suddenly had a legal function dumped on them. Without legal training. And if they make a mistake in that compliance function, they could be personally liable. Yep, fun time to be a software engineer at Twitter. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1071 "2022-11-15T13:18:20Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > And if they make a mistake in that compliance function, they could be personally liable. Not to worry! The company issued a communication to its staff that said, We don’t think you are at risk of prison if you screw this up. This is of course extremely reassuring, because this doesn’t seem at all like a company that would hang its employees out to dry. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1072 "2022-11-15T13:23:01Z")
Speaking as someone who oversaw a regulatory compliance testing group, the notion that we could’ve passed any of that upstream to development (much less testing or god forbid production) is laughable. It’s just some stupid shit he made up, and I’m glad legal came back and clarified it. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1073 "2022-11-15T15:39:40Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I got 83%! > > [Who Said It: Elon Musk or Mr. Burns? | The New Republic](https://newrepublic.com/article/168572/rich-guys-say-the-darndest-things) I sure hope sometime somewhere Elon will say “Release the hounds!” ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1074 "2022-11-15T15:49:30Z")
I got 83%, too – I missed the first and eighth questions. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1075 "2022-11-15T15:53:27Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Speaking as someone who oversaw a regulatory compliance testing group, the notion that we could’ve passed any of that upstream to development (much less testing or god forbid production) is laughable. I didn’t take it as so much as passing off as a warning. They weren’t going to be doing it anymore, as they no longer worked there, so the engineers would have to. > [@Maserschmidt](#): > > It’s just some stupid shit he made up, and I’m glad legal came back and clarified it. Who is “he” and what did legal clarify? It didn’t sound like anything was clarified at all, much less by legal. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1076 "2022-11-15T18:27:35Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > If you don’t want other posters to think you’re pissed off about this topic, then try sounding less pissed off about it. You are not in any position to tell me how to sound on a message board. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1077 "2022-11-15T18:32:29Z")
No, not between. Exactly what they are willing to pay, and the employee is willing to accept. What is an apple at the grocery store worth? If the store sets the price at $1.99/lb., and you buy it, that’s what it’s worth. Not “somewhere between $1.89 and $2.29”. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1078 "2022-11-15T18:46:50Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > You are not in any position to tell me how to sound on a message board. She was telling you how you _do_ sound, not how you _should_ sound. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1079 "2022-11-15T19:00:38Z")
“Try to sound” is telling someone how to post. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2022, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442/1080 "2022-11-15T19:02:54Z")
**Moderator Note** > [@Kimstu](#): > > If you don’t want other posters to think you’re pissed off about this topic, then try sounding less pissed off about it. > [@D\_Anconia](#): > > You are not in any position to tell me how to sound on a message board. Dial it back, please. Focus on the actual topic of the thread instead of focusing on each other. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442.md?page=53) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-1/963442.md?page=55)