Said another way, blue checkmark = UNtrustworthy source.
Seems kinda backwards to me, but I’m not a gazillionaire techno-Blofeld.
Look at the bright side of things, Elmo’s autoreply is no longer a poop emoji:
A request for comment about the NewsGuard study sent to X’s PR email account returned an autoreply message that said, “Busy now, please check back later.”
ETA: Hmm, though come to think of it the fact that the autoreply is now a blatant lie rather than an insult might be indicative of something.
What do you think he’s busy doing? Poop emojis don’t grow on trees.
I read somewhere (might well have been on this board) that the apple does fall far from the horse. Seems fitting here.
No, but they fertilize then.
That’s not a proper reading of that number.
Imagine that 99% of non-blue accounts are spreading disinformation but they almost universally have zero followers and the platform refuses to boost any of them past that. Whereas, 1% of all checkmarked posts are posting disinformation but they’re being promoted vociferously by the platform as paying customers. That still ends up making the checkmarked accounts the largest percentage of viewed disinformation even though it’s a strong minority of all posted disinformation.
And, in general, it would say that the checkmark significantly reduces the quantity of bad content that there otherwise would have been.
Not saying that this is what’s happening, just that the numbers available could be interpreted in different ways. We would need more information to really say what the status is.
I don’t need any more information than this (from the article):
Currently, posts from X Premium users are prioritized by the platform’s algorithm so they appear more prominently in users’ feeds. “That decision turned out to be a boon for bad actors sharing misinformation about the Israel-Hamas War,” NewsGuard said in its study. “For less than the cost of a movie ticket, they have gained the added credibility associated with the once-prestigious blue checkmark and enabling them to reach a larger audience on the platform.”
The point is not about interpreting the numbers. You don’t need a degree in statistics to understand that Elmo has completely obliterated the original meaning of the blue checkmark, which authenticated prominent users and lent their postings whatever credibility their reputation deserved. Now the checkmark means absolutely nothing, but is still being promoted as if it did. The idea that anything has been “verified” is now total bullshit.
Another data point for the decline of Twitter:
(Paywalled):
Silver lining: his creaky and mismanaged technical baseline will be put under less stress and will be slightly less likely to spontaneously collapse repeatedly.
If you spend any time looking at Musk’s Twitter feed you’ll soon see his anti-immigration views are a bit of an obsession.
He posted this after some Palestinian protestors clashed with police in Germany:
Well, since it’s paywalled I can’t see whether this question is answered, but I suspect of the number of bots and troll farm has substantially increased, and that this report underestimates the real decay in participation.
Police cruisers can optionally be reinforced with bulletproof doors. It doesn’t take one of Elmo’s ridiculous and ugly stainless steel contraptions to accomplish that. OTOH, if your vehicle is NOT a police cruiser or an armored personnel carrier, you might ask yourself why you would want such a feature. I predict this piece of shit will follow in the path of Twitter, namely, it will flop and Elmo will lie about it.
Meanwhile, I understand that full self-driving will be available in just a few more months, and we’re all going to Mars … when is it again? I think next year. Elmo promised to go himself eventually, but I think as the esteemed visionary that he is, he should be the first. Shooting him off to Mars tomorrow would be ideal. He would find that no immigrants reside there, other than of course his esteemed self. 
Elmo being South African, this oldie from 1998 was the first thing to pop into my head: the anti-carjacking flamethrower.
Jesus. Don’t show that to Elmo.
Reminds me of that thing from RoboCop 2.
Why do I suspect the “bulletproof” stunt was used with a .45 Thompson because they’re inherently a slow, subsonic round, and likely used hollow-point or other non-penetrating ammo rather than FMJ. 1000 quatloos says a 9mm FMJ pistol round goes right on through, much less anything more powerful.
And let’s be honest, if you’re the sort that’s paranoid about getting shot at in your all-metal pickup, you’re too range paranoid (okay, bad joke) to buy an electric. You need your guzzoline for when it’s all Mad Max around you.
Now I’m picturing Mad Max scenes where the cobbled-together Assault Trucks have really long extension cords…
I wonder what the windows are made of.
Anyway, “bulletproof” has never been in the list of features I’m looking for in a car.
See their performance for yourself:
So, the guy (Elmo’s pool boy/bouncer/masseur?) who laughed as he embarrassed Musk by cracking the Cybertruck’s “Armor Glass”…
… has anyone seen him since that day?