He has now deleted the tweet. As Jon Favreau said, $44 billion doesn’t buy the free speech it used to.
Which is kind of like closing the barn door after the horse escapes, because as of this moment #pelosigaylover is trending on Twitter, and the memes are truly disgusting.
I can’t even imagine what Musk thinks he’s doing. It’s like he’s lost his mind. His Asperger’s may make him socially inept but he’s certainly not stupid and is a genius in a lot of ways. Is he fishing for attention, either for himself or for Twitter? Trying to promote Twitter as a hotbed of notoriety for cynical mercenary reasons? None of it makes sense.
With American democracy in peril and disinformation rampant everywhere, this asshole’s control of Twitter is going to be disastrous, all the more so if he re-admits Trump and others like him.
Is it social media that’s the problem or is it the fact that people actually use social media as a legitimate news source?
Is it (a) guns are the problem with America’s extraordinary rate of gun violence, or is it (b) the fact that psychopathic belligerent uninformed assholes have so many guns?
Note how easily parallels can be drawn with your question, and that your options are (a), (b), or both, depending on your political persuasion and relative objectivity.
He’s an idiot reactionary who either falls for obvious propaganda or thinks “There’s a slim chance this is true” defends sharing such. It makes perfect sense if one, like Elon, is an absolute asshole who has gotten away with being an asshole by being affluent and lucky with investments and deeply resents having had to, in the past, restrict the desire to be an asshole due to fear of public repercussions and now hopes to have become too glorious for the rules to apply.
Apologies if needed for the link. This article talks about all of the potential problems Elon will be facing as the “genius” head of Twitter.
Musk doesn’t care if Twitter loses money: he needs metals and other components from nations ruled by strong-men/dictators/oligarchs who would appreciate some social-media-disinformation on their behalf. In return, Musk acquires what he needs, likely at a price below what he’d have to pay if he didn’t have ‘propaganda in your favor’ to offer.
Twitter, of course, is an ideal platform for spreading disinformation if there is no content moderation of right-wing disinformation. (We may expect plenty of moderation for content that contradicts that disinformation, of course.)
(This is from a couple years back but does document Musk’s need to be able to purchase components from foreign governments:
To hasten Twitter’s value as a propaganda tool that will be pleasing to right-wing dictators and associated vendors of things Musk needs, he’s proclaimed a monthly charge for having a blue check (verified status) of $19.99.
Many blue-check people–journalists, politicians, and assorted celebrities–probably can afford ~$240 per year.
But those who are left-leaning will refuse to pay in outrage and disgust at the concept of giving Elon any money at all.
Whereas right-wingers will stay, snorting with delight at the discomfiture of the Libruls.
Musk thereby accomplishes the important task of minimizing influential voices on the left or even the center—while raking in a couple of bucks.
Twitter itself is awash in outrage over Musk’s supposed ignorance about the value the presence of famous people and journalists and pols bring to the platform. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to any of them that Musk just doesn’t care about the stock price. He’s going to make back his $44 billion via the access he’ll gain to needed components for his other businesses.
He may also be able to directly charge dictators and oligarchs for ‘favorable propaganda’–another potential source of revenue.
BTW, I am NOT asserting ‘Musk is a genius’—just that people’s perceptions of his true goals in owning Twitter may not yet have caught up with the reality. Some are not seeing it due to the fun they are having with the ‘Elon is stupid’ concept. But eventually they will have to move on from that indulgence.
Wow! Apparently true, though not yet in force. Under Musk, Twitter is going to hell.
Question for Musk: How does being verified as being who you actually say you are vary from month to month, so that it has to be subscription-based?
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/31/tech/musk-twitter-verification/index.html
I think of Twitter as a marketing platform. It does make sense that the accounts marketing a product should pay for access to the users they are marketing to. As opposed to making the users pay to be marketed to by also having to see ads.
For those that see Twitter as something else – perhaps a medium to communicate and exchange ideas – I could see why they might object.
That said, there are 400k verified accounts which is about 0.1% of all accounts (presumably including bots). I don’t know how much of an impact $8M/month would have on the business. It doesn’t seem like much.
Also I’ll acknowledge that not all of the 400k verified accounts are necessarily marketing something for business purposes. And some that are still might not want to pay $20/month.
I expect being verified will come with perks that Musk thinks people will want to pony up $20 a month for. I also expect that a) he doesn’t grasp how unwilling the average user is to start paying $20 a month for something that used to be free, and b) he doesn’t have a grasp on what kind of perks would interest all the people who never considered buying Twitter to improve their experience on the platform.
Twitter has this posted on their front page. I wonder if Elon approved it. Besides, it’s a little ahead of the game.
" It takes time to count all of the votes
It’s expected to take multiple days to count the votes, so the projected winners of some elections might not be announced yet. This means you could encounter unconfirmed claims that a candidate has won their race."
Interesting stuff going on. A comedian is starting an intentional misinformation campaign to challenge Musk’s policies right out of the gate.
Apparently even billionaires need to look before they leap. Who woulda thunk it?
Yep. The main difference is that they have a little more leeway for failure than most of us.
There’s this:
I wonder if #hershelwalkerismyfather will start trending soon.
…Twitter has a front page?
I’ve just googled that sentence, and the only verbatim link I found was on a comedy site.
You just know that someone especially toxic like Kari Lake, before the night of Nov. 9 is even over, will radiantly proclaim victory.
Why would she wait until the 9th?