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Posted by: Izzy 💀 27th April 2022, 09:18 AM

everyone's least-favourite billionaire (except for all the other ones) is now paired with everyone's least-favourite social media platform (except for all the other ones).

what will be the consequences of this? there's been plenty of memes but as a long-term outlook, given that Twitter has been very important in the political sphere, must we now endure the return of distasteful trolls to Twitter in the name of free speech?

Because that's his main mission statement.

Posted by: Bustin Jieber 27th April 2022, 09:54 AM

He's spent a lot of money to avoid being made fun of, all it suggests to me is a man with a very fragile ego.

He'll blatantly reinstate Trump's account ASAP.

Posted by: Smint 27th April 2022, 10:01 AM

I hate to always post depressing posts about Politics (I'm actually really happy other than this in real life!) but this is awful news. The ultra right wing trolls (of which there are millions still on there currently, it's just the more famous ones can't explicitly express their hatred in the way they will probably be able to do now) are rejoicing saying they are "owning the libs". Just another case of something lurching more to the right and it means money conquers everything. Obvious victims will be LGBT people especially trans and people who fight for social justice. Whether this leads to more threats and violence in real life is another thing.

Twitter is realistically too big to have a progressive alternative (like Parler and Trump's attempt was for the right have had limited success) but maybe that would be the way forwards. Although that of course is people in their bubbles even more.

Posted by: Silas 27th April 2022, 10:19 AM

There needs to be a European social network. One with our values and a core understanding that free speech will always have limits. Twitter has long been the exception to the puritanical nature of American social media, after tumblr decided that Nazis were a better business model than allowing adult content, and my concern is that that will now rapidly change and where does that leave us. I am sick of puritan conservative yanks imposing their values on us

Posted by: Izzy 💀 27th April 2022, 11:03 AM

True, it's always rankling that American values are at the core of so much of online infrastructure that is used, ostensibly, for a public good when they're always millimetres away from voting modern fascists into power who have a specific gripe with "large corporations" but not in the progressive sense that they should. Musk represents that in a lot of ways.

I don't know that I'd put him on the road to banning LGBT discussion because that would immediately tank its value, but more that harassment will become more common with less avenues to report hate and get it stamped out. Potentially very bad for what is probably the most important social network.

ironic that his acceptance post talks about Twitter as 'a public town square' as he buys its ownership.

Posted by: tommie 27th April 2022, 12:31 PM

Trump is tied with "Truth Social" and likely has a contract with them to stay there exclusively.

As for Elon owning Twitter... meh, it's the same problem, different owner - namely a group of individuals having immense power by owning the largest social media platforms and getting to dictate them via "it's a private platform, nobody's obliged to use it" mantra. At least people are now taking notice why it might be problem.

Posted by: ta-ra*el~la 30th April 2022, 07:30 PM

In my opinion, the biggest problem with Twitter is its echo chamber problem. People seem to effectively stay in their echo chambers all the time on Twitter, and this is why the discussion gets so heated and imbalanced sometimes. I don't think Elon Musk owning it is going to change anything there.

Posted by: Suedehead2 30th April 2022, 09:03 PM

That's as much to do with Twitter's algorithms as anything else. The trouble is that this means that a lot of ridiculous statements get left unchallenged.

Posted by: Chez Wombat 30th April 2022, 09:21 PM

I can't see a lot changing? Twitter is still extremely unmoderated and a cesspit of looking at the worst of humanity without Musk, but they did at least do a few good things like suspending misinformation (Trump) and hate speech (Katie Hopkins). The only thing I can see more of is a whole lot more misinformation and conspiracy theories going around, and you wonder why I'm not on it x

Posted by: Doctor Blind 1st May 2022, 10:45 AM

Far from being a 'free speech champion' he is, like his fellow aging men like Toby Young, another gammon that just wants 'free speech for people I agree with'.

I'm not on Twitter, nor any social media platform, but I do follow and read some posts of those I am interested in following (using Nitter, as Twitter now no longer allow you to view posts without joining) - when you view the complete cesspit of unfettered opinions that amplify and channel the very worst characteristics of humanity there are some valid arguments in having some moderation and an ability to protect people from harm.. to say so does not imply that you are anti-Free Speech, and I do fear that the hate and harm unleashed from those emboldened by Musk's rhetoric may be hugely damaging to society.

Posted by: Dircadirca 1st May 2022, 11:55 AM

^Furthermore, he took that image, scrubbed the artist's name from it and posted it without credit since taking things and claiming them as his own is his whole brand. Well that and liking terrible transphobic joke(s?), so I suppose we get to look forward to a much more lenient policy on that.

Posted by: Izzy 💀☄ 9th July 2022, 01:09 AM

He's not buying it after all. SAD.

Guess he's happier posting for the worst kinds of people, rebuying shares that may or may not have fallen in value due to his antics, and chasing up litigation against him for propositioning an employee and bribing her to keep silent.

Posted by: Silas 11th July 2022, 05:06 PM

Absolutely stoked this radioactive waste dump of a human is not going to control the one non-diabolically shitty social media platform (it’s still like rather shitty. But not as bad as the Zuckerberg ones and we don’t even acknowledge tumblr now)

Posted by: Smint 12th July 2022, 04:48 PM

It is to trans friends who I know who won't use it because of the sheer scale of abuse but yes it does elevate certain left wing voices which wouldn't be heard in mainstream media.

Posted by: The Sake 12th July 2022, 05:05 PM

I dont think anyone will want to buy twitter now in the short to medium term because of the debate about the amount of spam accounts.

I wonder were a lot of the spam accounts created deliberately recently by anti-Musk people to stop Elon Musk buying twitter.

Posted by: coi 28th October 2022, 01:19 AM

Welp.

Posted by: Rizhi Sunak 28th October 2022, 01:26 AM

what a loser.

I expect Trump and various other people who got banned reinstated soon enough, I don't know what the long-term outlook of this is.

Posted by: Silas 28th October 2022, 06:15 AM

Sigh


This is most disappointing. He is an utterly loathsome and rancid human. Twitter has never been a particularly great social media platform but it is the only mainstream one left that isn’t ruled by puritans.

Just as someone sits him down with Tumblrs usage stats and giant smacking hit to ad revenue as a result of the majority of their userbase walking away, we might be ok

Posted by: Smint 28th October 2022, 09:24 AM

Ultra wealthy bigot gets more power in this world yet again. Heard a lot of facists are already posting horrific stuff in glee testing the new regime.

Posted by: Jessie Where 28th October 2022, 09:42 AM

A dark day indeed, this guy is a dangerous wackjob.

Makes me glad I'm not on Twitter anymore.

Posted by: zenon 28th October 2022, 04:48 PM

Think this the beginning of the end of Twitter as we know it and if Milo Yiannopoulous is allowed back then I'm done.

Posted by: JaDevil Woman 28th October 2022, 04:50 PM

Donald Trump endorsing this says it all

Posted by: Silence of the Wombats 28th October 2022, 04:54 PM

Parler might as well be discontinued now as all the prominent names there will be allowed back, grim times, at least I never go on it!

Posted by: lettuhsting 28th October 2022, 09:18 PM

Posted by: dhwija board 29th October 2022, 02:44 AM

the groypers have been out in full force today which is disheartening but here's some perspective: https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/28/23428132/elon-musk-twitter-acquisition-problems-speech-moderation

twitter won't turn into a fascist playground without losing a lot of advertising money bc no sensible brand will want to be associated. as long as advertisers start jumping ship or otherwise divesting in any way, there's no way Elon will break even considering he also bought it for a staggering amount of money, and unfortunately I don't think the friendly advertisers (e.g. mypillow, gun manufacturers, snake oil dealers, that ilk) will do much to make up for it. so unless Elon implements some form of content moderation, he stands to lose a lot of money. it happened with tumblr, it can happen again!

either way, that website is unusable, I just want to see Elon lose.

Posted by: Cody Wesker 29th October 2022, 06:46 AM

this decade has been trash literally

Posted by: dannjohn 29th October 2022, 11:13 AM

What an interesting turn of events… i’m on the fence about Twitter. Whilst its a school playground, I dunnonhow its governed.

Posted by: ta-ra*el~la 30th October 2022, 10:34 AM

I don't know if Musk owning Twitter is really that bad. I don't agree with his politics but I can't see how it can be too bad.

Re Trump back on - he needs some exposure so people can remember how bad he is. Right now, young people are cooling off Biden because they don't have the threat of Trump. Trump back on Twitter can help Biden win in 2024. Otherwise it might be DeSantis, who is 100x worse than Trump at least.

Re free speech - we fight bad ideas with good ideas. There is no escaping doing this hard work. US Dems and UK Labour are losing because they fail to show up to the debate properly. Therefore, might as well debate the 'biggest names' of the Right when they come back, so we win fair and square in the marketplace of ideas.

Posted by: Axe Wound 30th October 2022, 10:45 AM

Nope, that's NOT why Corbyn lost Try again.

Posted by: tommie 30th October 2022, 11:06 AM

I guess at least it didn't get sucked into the Google machine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Posted by: Rizhi Sunak 30th October 2022, 11:34 AM

Musk owning Twitter might not lead to huge political changes because of market forces (though I'm sure he will try), as this wonderful article demonstrates: https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/28/23428132/elon-musk-twitter-acquisition-problems-speech-moderation

However, that analysis isn't really borne out by reality. Deplatforming is proven to be effective at stopping extremists from creating new followers, and for all that some will get lost in the mires of Gab, Parler or Truth Social, those numbers will be tiny and in-convertible. But this isn't really about debates, though American fascists and their dishonest counterparts across the world are not interested in debates as much as it gives them a chance to air their ideas as simple alternatives to the status quo. You don't debate with fascists. Now, debates have their place, and those seeking to have them with good intentions are already thriving on Twitter. But this is really about the confusion of free speech for insulting and hate speech, which gets you removed from public places in real life, as it should online.

also, tangential to the main point, Biden's disapproval ratings are more based in a poor economy and inflation, which always goes against the incumbent even when it doesn't make sense. Trump has proven resilient enough too, with the election stolen myth he's getting by without the use of Twitter. Republican resurgence is the full radical conservative playbook used against a president who for all his policy actually being very effective, is an easy target. And some of that playbook involves railing against censorship on big social media, but it's no more sophisticated than not being able to say the n-word.

Posted by: Axe Wound 30th October 2022, 11:46 AM

I once realised someone was a fascist in real life, aside from the red flags, due to him challenging the status quo, all political sides, and shouting, what is the solution?! What is the solution?! Then giving ... strange solutions, let's say. There was no debating with him.

Posted by: Iz 💀 4th November 2022, 05:39 AM

Well, it seems Elon's just crazy. Half of Twitter staff are being let go with zero warning, he's full on introducing the system that will allow people to impersonate celebrities for $8 a month and seems to be floating yet more hostile ideas, like allowing people to pay to send DMs to celebrities. His advertising is going to tank.

Twitter's value is not its profit-making ability, it's useless at that, it is its userbase. Incredibly, celebrities, journalists, politicians and prominent businessmen around the world all log on and can't seem to log off a site where ordinary users can have almost direct access to them. And yet Elongated Muskrat is doing his best to make the platform hostile to them.

I really think he had a look at the balance books, saw the loss, and put his dumb business brain to work at profit-making ideas to make his new investment not lose him money. Certainly not this promised 'digital town square'.

Posted by: Silas 4th November 2022, 06:51 AM

Fundamentally I don’t think he understands what he actually bought, how people outside of his weird stans actually use it, nor is capable of reaching beyond his weird corrupted echo chamber to actually understand why what he’s doing is f***ing stupid and will tank the site. Charging for verification is dumb as f*** and just doesn’t understand why it’s their in the first place and now him and his weird nerd army are posting all about how celebs are crying at the loss of a status symbol or because „the plebs“ can now buy status. No dipshit it’s because you haven’t even bothered your arse to understand your f***ing product before you’ve steamrolled in and broken it


Though part of me feels like tanking it is deliberate because he was forced to buy it after his little attempt at grifting didn’t work.


The man is piss on his grave levels of abhorrent. The sooner his little business empire implodes in on itself and he finds himself in that aforementioned grave, the better for humanity. Just have to hope he doesn’t do too much damage to democracy and life before then



And Teslas are f***ing awful cars. They have some good battery tech but literally that’s it and the rest of the industry is extremely rapidly catching up. Their „self-driving“ programming is murderous, the electric motor isn’t particularly advanced (for example, Renault-Nissan built one that requires no rare earth metals), and the build quality is diabolical. The interior is cheap and ill fitting and then the panel gaps on the outside are large enough to drive a double decker through.

Posted by: Axe Wound 4th November 2022, 07:26 AM

Did he basically buy this to reinstate Trump, and then panic once he rralised how much of a momey-pit it is?

Posted by: dannjohn 4th November 2022, 08:49 AM

I do kinda agree with his notion of free speech. Its weird to ban Azealia Banks for example but let some US officials still be on there. I say everyone should be allowed on it.

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 4th November 2022, 09:03 AM

Are you not confusing free speech with hate speech?

Posted by: J00prstar 4th November 2022, 01:24 PM

It's kind of hilarious. Who would have thought that Twitter, a platform that seemed indomintable, would willingly make itself into the next Yahoo?

Good on the owners for getting out tbh. At this rate he'll sell it back to them at a loss.

Posted by: dannjohn 4th November 2022, 04:03 PM

what do you mean the next yahoo?

Posted by: J00prstar 4th November 2022, 06:54 PM

Yahoo used to be the market leader in search engines AND email, before Google existed. Somehow despite being the biggest thing in the market with the biggest name recognition, it managed to tank itself to the extent that google became a verb 'to use a search engine'.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 4th November 2022, 07:00 PM

Posted by: Silas 4th November 2022, 07:37 PM

I have time for AOC. I don’t know why she gets the right so pressed she’s a centerist but w/e

Elon defo picked a battle he can’t win and it’s so funny to watch

Posted by: כן 5th November 2022, 12:27 AM

Every single thing he does these days SCREAMS bullied in school trauma manifesting itself in adulthood via trying to get back at everyone. ‘You see how many zeros after a 1 I have in my bank account, I can buy Twitter if I want to!!1’. His name should be put as one of the definitions of “sad loser” in a dictionary.

Posted by: dhwija board 5th November 2022, 12:49 AM

after the past few days part of me thinks he's trying to self-destruct and trying to bring down a powerful platform with him lmao

Posted by: Iz 💀 5th November 2022, 01:49 AM

Revenge for how he has been constantly mocked by people on Twitter perhaps. He has such a thin skin.

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 5th November 2022, 03:26 AM

Just about "how much" and "when" tbh

Posted by: Doctor Blind 14th November 2022, 06:54 PM

Well, it's er.. I'll just leave this here:

https://canadatoday.news/ca/elon-musk-fires-twitter-engineer-who-publicly-argued-with-him-over-the-app-147756/

Posted by: Silas 14th November 2022, 08:53 PM

Surely that’s a good unfair dismissal suit just waiting to happen. That man is going to fire someone like that in a country with labour laws one day and it will not end well for him


Personally I am hoping that big Pharma comes for him or at the very least their shareholders do. Because literally everyone could see the „idk let’s let anyone buy a blue tick“ going disastrously wrong aside from him


Remain firmly convinced that there needs to be a European social network that conforms to European social values and basic standards of human decency. We should have a whip round and buy twitter for 50€ in Feb once musk has finished killing it

Posted by: Iz 💀 18th November 2022, 02:55 AM

It appears a critical mass of Twitter employees are mass resigning and there is no one in the Twitter building to fix things if, say, a worldwide app suddenly decides to break. holy shit

though one of them clearly is a good enough engineer to do this:

Posted by: tommie 18th November 2022, 03:36 AM

*shrug* The company is losing 1.4 billion per year and Elon is gutting it inside out to try and make it profitable. People being drama queens is funny to watch though.

Posted by: Iz 💀 18th November 2022, 03:56 AM

Twitter is a public service. Something Musk acknowledged upon taking it on. Not a profit-making machine.

And he needs top software engineering talent to keep it running.

Do his actions upon taking on the company in ANY way, shape or form, represent creating a comfortable environment for either attracting talented workers or advertisers to make money with? Of course not. He's an incompetent moron with zero people skills and soon to be significantly less money.

Posted by: Iz 💀 18th November 2022, 04:04 AM

let's get some quotes shall we:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/17/elon-musk-twitter-closes-offices-loyalty-oath-resignations

He's a bad boss who is scaring workers away.



They now don't have departments to retain basic services.

If it breaks, it goes down. No one is there to fix it.



The numbers that have left or are leaving is probably at least 50% at a low estimate. It'll only continue as more services shut down and Elon continues to rant and rage and ask the remaining employees to work harder.

As things stand, this is not people being drama queens. This is one of the biggest sites in the world losing almost all of its staff in an unbelievably short time.

Posted by: tommie 18th November 2022, 04:36 AM

Right. Now people can acknowledge that social media like Twitter have become a part of our infrastructure and is a public service rather than just a private company.

Weird how Twitter actually went from public to private with the buy-out from Elon though.

Look, I think it's constructive that people can finally have this sort of realisation, but as someone who has been yelling very loudly that social media companies aren't just private companies but has creeped their way into becoming part of the infrastructure this is bittersweet. People finally acknowledge this, but they only do it because they hate Musk. It makes me roll my eyes.

Posted by: Envoirment 18th November 2022, 01:31 PM

It's quite sad to see twitter being gutted and intentionally destroyed by Elon (he knows exactly what he's doing). I really enjoy using Twitter. It's been a great way for me to get lots of news first hand (from science/gaming/music to breaking news regarding disasters etc). It also allows a level of interactivity with people that other platforms don't have (I've asked questions to scientists about their research/things before and get a high success rate of responses).

I'm not sure how long Twitter will last. I wouldn't be surprised that by the new year it's shut down or Elon sells it off for a very low price after completely ruining the platform.

Posted by: nickthenoodle 18th November 2022, 03:21 PM

Twitter is far and away my favourite social media and it's a shame to see what's happening to it. The bright side is all the weird Crypto bro Elon Musk fans will now no longer be able to claim he's some kind of genius/mastermind/inventor. Supposedly he's an 'engineer' who didn't realise that a massive website and app needed engineers to run?! I do hope all the poor people caught up in this as employees find other work easily!

Posted by: Dobbo. 18th November 2022, 03:38 PM

Glad I stopped using Twitter regularly about 10 years ago. Barely ever grace the site these days anyway...

Posted by: Chez Wombat 18th November 2022, 06:31 PM

Twitter is a bit of a cesspit anyway even if there is sometimes some good to weed out amongst all the shit so I can't say I'm too sad that things are looking bleak, but it is a shame for the innocent employees who didn't ask for this incompetent megalomaniac to put their jobs at risk. Feels like it'll be a very different world without it it's been omnipresent for so long!

Posted by: Silas 18th November 2022, 07:14 PM

Twitter is one of the best social networks of not the best. It is no more toxic than Facebook but it’s not run by a puritanical prude (or at least it wasn’t) and so you ended up with content that could flourish that wasn’t available anywhere else. A proper safe space for the LGBT community exiled from Tumblr. Twitter content is *chefs kiss*

It’s also home to a remarkable amount of politicians and experts and there’s nowhere else on the web you can have that kind of interaction. I’ve learned so much from my feed. It needs to be better at handling Nazis and hateful content, but you had a site that was almost European in its attitudes and morals. If it goes under it will be a huge loss, in a way that no other site shutting has been

I don’t think it will go under. I think that it’s a rough few months ahead and twitters problems have been multiplied fifty times by an incompetent c**t buying the place and wading in and f***ing about with things when he has zero idea about how any of it works or why things are done how they are. But it will survive. Assuming they stop sacking entire teams necessary to run the bloody place

Posted by: Iz 💀 19th November 2022, 03:03 AM

Yeah, I do not really want to lose Twitter. I've signed up to Mastodon, which seems to be a cross between Twitter and Discord, and while I appreciate its decentralised nature and that every part of it is a separate site that can't be unilaterally purchased by the guy with the most money and ruined, I have so many conflicting interests that picking a home server is really troublesome. Might default to the Eurovision one for now.

Even though doing that on Twitter is stupid for your reach, I really appreciated the ease with which I could just follow everyone and anyone I was interested in and there's so many good threads on there.

for those wondering just how it might break at current levels with understaffing of software engineers and a boss who doesn't understand the first thing about running a world-spanning social media company, see this thread for at least 50 delightful scenarios that are possible in the near future:

meanwhile said boss is running a Twitter poll for whether a disgraced former president who tried to launch a coup through Twitter should be allowed back on Twitter

Posted by: creepy chris 19th November 2022, 05:23 PM

LOL my black cabbie mate Mick along the road has just been unbanned again. For third time.

Posted by: Iz 💀 20th November 2022, 02:01 AM

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump

events certainly do happen

Posted by: ta-ra*el~la 20th November 2022, 09:19 AM

I have no problem with Elon Musk's decision here. Deplatforming Trump was always an own-goal for liberals. Let Trump destroy himself on Twitter. If he had been allowed to do that in the past 2 years, the Democrats might even have had a blue wave in the midterms.

More free speech always leads to truth and justice. One way this happens is that bad ideas get discredited by more exposure.

Posted by: ta-ra*el~la 20th November 2022, 09:40 AM

I think I need to remind everyone that religious fundamentalists and gender critical feminists are a prominent part of the Twitterverse (even before Elon Musk bought it).

Posted by: Smint 20th November 2022, 11:05 AM

Yes, a trans friend of mine won't use Twitter as they find the level of hatred on there impossible to deal with.

Posted by: Iz 💀 20th November 2022, 02:16 PM

Nah f*** that completely. First off deplatforming does https://shagunjhaver.com/research/articles/jhaver-2021-deplatforming/jhaver-2021-deplatforming.pdf (link to academic article on the topic, others I have read come to the same conclusion). Trump truthing over on Truth Social is only preaching to the converted - him blasting away on Twitter keeps him in the news for what he tweets.

Now he's said he won't return, I doubt that'll last. But we'll see. It will help him electorally to tweet in his... particular... style again, but I hope he doesn't realise that. Especially if he advances economic arguments and doesn't entirely make it a steal-focused thing.

Secondly, the President's party almost always suffers a setback in the midterms. That was priced in. That the Democrats got off relatively unscathed is in part due to the insane far-right wringing of the Trumpist Republicans. Them navel-gazing about how they're the best and that the election was stolen on dinky little platforms that aren't Twitter is a part of their trend towards extremism. Sucks that they are carrying a lot of Americans with them, but being extreme enough to be BANNED FROM MOST MAJOR PLATFORMS does tend to send signals to moderates that what they're about isn't acceptable.

Therefore, Elon's little stunt has given a boost to Republican hopes for 2024, and it'll be moreso if Trump starts promoting himself again.

The one good thing about this is that it does make potential DeSantis vs Trump catfights more visible.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 21st November 2022, 12:37 AM

I agree with Iz, there were perfectly good reasons for banning Trump in Jan '21 and there are no signs that doing so created an 'own-goal' Streisand type effect, not that fear of doing so should be the overriding reason for making such a decision anyway..

I actually quite like Twitter, to me it appears to be the lesser of the social media evils imo. However, it still suffers from similar issues that other platforms do such as echo chambers that reinforce established opinions/views and polarise society. It has allowed better real-time conversations and debates to be had between interested members of the public and experts, everyone to have a voice and find their own support networks of like-minded people, and I've certainly learnt a lot by viewing a number of favourite feeds. It's not all great of course, but I shall miss it if it does collapse in the coming months.

Posted by: ta-ra*el~la 21st November 2022, 06:32 AM

Deplatforming is bad because it leads to polarization and radicalization. This means more regular conservatives get turned into far right people.

Anyway, if Twitter collapses, and we need something else to replace it, I suggest one major objective of the new platform should be to prevent echo chambers from forming. This will lead to less polarization and radicalization.

Posted by: כן 21st November 2022, 01:19 PM

FOX News are a reason more conservatives get turned into far right people, in the US at least. They have a huge platform and are using it to promote their hateful agenda. It's extremely naive to believe that people think for themselves and try to gather information from different sources. No, they will just believe Trump or Fucker Carlson because they are on TV all the time.

You are free to voice your opinion but there are still consequences for hate speech.

Posted by: Smint 26th November 2022, 10:33 PM

Yes have to agree that the only safe thing to do would be to deplatform far right voices as otherwise they begin to grow. Twitter is becoming extremely dangerous now - in a way I hope that it suddenly fails due to technical reasons - now that Musk has unbanned several voices from the far right suddenly, who are now angry, hungry to take down progressive voices and are planning to recruit many.

One example I took a look at today was Andrew Tate, the martial artist who was the subject of several articles about his banning from social media platforms a few months back. His posts are full of blatant homophobia, assaults on progressive voices and a call to arms to his followers to rise up. He is just one of many sadly. This is extremely worrying coming less than a week on a terrorist attack on an LGBT venue in Colorado (where the body count would have been far higher than 5 if not due to the extreme bravery of the staff/patrons there). There seems to be no comeback/deterrent for this attack and the conditions that yield the perpetrators and can only see the number and frequency of such events growing and growing.

Posted by: uhsting 27th November 2022, 04:26 PM

Agreed with the above on the comments about the importance of de-platforming the far-right voices. They are not the typical voices of different opinions. They incite violence and have inspired numerous hate crimes against different minorities especially the LGBTQIA+ community. Elon Musk bringing them back to the mainstream platform is very worrying to say the least. I also remember teachers on Twitter complaining about the influence of these right wing voices e.g. Andrew Tate on the teenagers which instills misogynistic and other thoughts. You can argue that these voices have existed on Twitter for a good amount of time but at least we know Elon Musk is perputating these voices and silencing the left for calling them out.

Posted by: Iz 💀 27th November 2022, 04:48 PM

Elongated "I'm not right wing or left wing, I think the White House needs a centrist like Ron DeSantis and also the woke mob are what's wrong with society" Muskrat

the reach he is giving a vast array of right-wing demagogues by constantly replying to them and signal boosting them should show everyone who he is

Posted by: Addy! 28th November 2022, 12:40 AM

How’s DeSantis a centrist?!

Posted by: Iz 💀 28th November 2022, 12:45 AM

ask the chief Twit



he's clearly not but this is a sign that he's just going to say whatever to bring fascism into the US

Posted by: Silas 28th November 2022, 09:36 AM

Even by wonky American standards DeSantis is a Nazi.

Centerist. f*** off apartheid Clyde

Posted by: Yetting Closer.. 28th November 2022, 10:36 AM

People have said for years that Elongated Muskrst is fash, ans the evidence is SKY HIGH at this point!!

I am starting to wonder if he took over Twitger just to promote and platform fssh far right voices, particularly that of Trump??

The only thing deSantis campaignrd on last time was a nrbulous notion of "freedom" ... in a liberal democracy that prides itself on freedom... How is THAT an inspiring candidate with centrist ideas, Muskrat?!?!

Posted by: Suedehead2 28th November 2022, 10:31 PM

Musk is now throwing a strop because Apple are exercising their freedom to spend their advertising budget how they like.

Posted by: ta-ra*el~la 1st December 2022, 04:24 PM

I identify as a centrist (among other things) and I think Biden is a good example of a centrist president. As for those who think DeSantis is centrist, they are probably delusional. DeSantis is to the Right of Trump, in my opinion, so in no world can he be thought of as a centrist.

Fake centrists (who are almost always right-wing) give us a bad name. We should call them out.

Posted by: The Yettening 1st December 2022, 05:01 PM

Centrism is part of the problem. It's useless, ineffectual, and its policies are quite extreme - poverty, homelessness, terrible working conditions, bad social security - centrism and neoliberalism. Left wing ideals are the only moderate way to deal with such issues.

Posted by: Chez Wombat 1st December 2022, 05:36 PM

Indeed, there's a good video I watched about it:



I don't deny centrism can exist, but in the traditional American sense, it just serves the right and maintains the status quo.

Posted by: ta-ra*el~la 2nd December 2022, 04:42 AM

As I said, those are fake centrists, and I'm not that kind of centrist. I do not support poverty, homelessness, terrible working conditions, bad social security, neoliberalism, and endless wars etc. I hate people identifying as centrist to advance right-wing politics.

I guess my differences with 'the left' are more philosophical. I mean, I support the 'left' candidate most, if not all, the time (as in e.g. US Democrats vs Republicans, UK Labour vs Conservative, Australian Labor vs LNP). I support Democrat/Labor type policies generally. But my philosophy is not actually 'left'. That is why I identify as a 'centrist'.

Posted by: Iz 💀 19th December 2022, 01:58 AM

Is this how it ends? Convenient escape route for him if so, he's been all 'Vox Populei, Vox Dei' about every poll so far, and recently they've started swinging against him.

Posted by: Yet!!!!!! 19th December 2022, 02:30 PM

He was hanging out with one of the Trumps in Qtar. God, he's such fash!

Posted by: CodySleighBell-y 19th December 2022, 05:09 PM

I literally saw a tweet saying that promoting on Facebook or Insta will get you banned and like... there are literal neo-Nazis on the platform and yet CONTENT CREATORS are the problem?

I despise a lot of things about Twitter but I really hope he steps down as a result of that asinine poll. Hitler reincarnated.

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 20th December 2022, 08:05 AM

Posted by: Iz 💀 20th December 2022, 08:17 AM

my man's reinventing poll taxes for his Vox Populi

Posted by: Silas 20th December 2022, 10:16 AM

Petty pathetic bitch. He really is the worst billionaire and that’s a tough battle

Posted by: uhsting 20th December 2022, 11:14 AM

lol so much for freedom of speech

Posted by: Doctor Blind 21st December 2022, 01:26 PM

That's exactly the point though. Elon Musk and the rest of these Gen-X/Boomer gammonista melts are frightened by the speed at which their own views have become outdated and rejected by wider society. Instead of doing what the rest of us have done and recalibrate their own views by listening to and/or debating other viewpoints, they seek only freedom of speech in its incredibly bast*rdised form by accepting it only from those who already agree with them: equivalent to someone scared of absolutely everything bricking themselves up within their own brick tomb.

Freedom of speech is completely misunderstood by these lot, it doesn't come without accountability. Just like actions don't. You can't expect to say or do absolutely anything without there being consequences, particularly if you have a large platform.

Posted by: CodySleighBell-y 27th December 2022, 09:00 AM

I’m late but I just saw this and I just-

Posted by: Smint 28th December 2022, 03:34 PM

Although Musk inviting back and arselicking the facists is extremely problematic overall as discussed earlier in this thread, think Greta Thunberg has late winner of comeback/tweet of the year!

Posted by: Doctor Blind 1st January 2023, 12:52 PM

LOL, I did enjoy that tweet. *.*

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 9th February 2023, 10:34 AM

Obvz take with a grain of salt but...

Why do I believe this will be likely? LMAO.

Posted by: Iz 💀 9th February 2023, 10:45 AM

Yesterday there were reports that Tweetdeck would be paywalled, obviously bad as I use it for ESCXtra tweeting and convenience, and then this morning there was an auto-update to Tweetdeck that logged me into a very bad UI new version. I had to go into the dev console to get the legacy version back. Which is to say that it seems like they are playing around with features and figuring out what they can paywall.

20 tweets per day is wild though and I can honestly see it killing the platform dead. Small brand accounts are loaded with an additional expense, active users (probably not those who really want yet another f***ing subscription expense added to their life) restricted most especially on busy days where live-tweeting events becomes a thing, fully nickel and dimed into every single type of engagement metric other than likes....

Fundamentally doesn't understand that users create value. More obsessed with tweeting about the Woke Stasi and ensuring that Twitter "doesn't impose its specific values on the world" (it's a platform, it doesn't have values, the users have values).

Posted by: Silas 9th February 2023, 12:59 PM

Honestly, the best example of having absolutely no fundamental understanding of what you have purchased and how the business model works. His Stan’s say he’s a „genius“ but you don’t need an Ivy League MBA to understand how social media works. The old adage „if it’s free you’re the product“. Without users posting and following and sharing content via DM you have no engagement (which you want to seek ads) and you also lose the data harvesting opportunity on what is being shared and by whom in what channels and who is in the channel. The big data opportunities that are lost when you start restricting the userbase is worth at least 10 times the amount that Twitter could ever generate from Blue.

I’ve long thought this guy was a total tool but it’s clearer than ever to all but the biggest brownnosers he has literally nothing between his ears. Not a thing.

God we just have to hope one of his self driving overpriced underengineered poorly built heaps of shit goes haywire and does the planet a solid

Posted by: Suedehead2 16th February 2023, 09:40 PM

Dave Davies of The Kinks has tweeted to say that any of his tweets which mention the band name are flagged as possibly containing sensitive content. Meanwhile, my timeline is constantly full of racist bile form various right-wing nutjobs with no warning whatsoever. Indeed they are often accompanied by a message saying I might be interested in them.

Posted by: Smint 16th February 2023, 11:59 PM

I hear that Musk has changed the algorithm so that basically facists get promoted. Even if a lot of people can see through it there could well be a lot of people sucked in to this culture war stuff.

Posted by: Amanda Hugginkis 17th February 2023, 12:34 AM

He is so fash!!

Posted by: Iz 💀 17th May 2023, 08:43 AM

Things are sure going well at Twitter dot com even after Elon has decided to step down and appoint a new CEO (yeah that will happen in 6 weeks btw)

on his way out, enjoy new delights like middle-aged uncle antisemitism:

Posted by: Smint 20th June 2023, 11:30 AM

Oh is he actually still stepping down? Anyway he's turned it into such a far right hell hole that actual Right wing equivalents such as Parler have had to close as there's no need for them. Recently of course we've had Musk's blatant partnership with the terrifyingly homophobic Ron de Santis, bullying scientists unless they "debate" Covid with shock jocks and conspiracy theorists, raising fake accounts of leftwingers (AOC) etc etc

And yet the progressives haven't yet found a platform that they can move too en masse - a bit depressing.

Posted by: Big Fat Padam 20th June 2023, 03:13 PM

Elon was just pretending not to br hard right when he first started out then! Vile.

Posted by: Lunar 1st July 2023, 07:46 PM

Literally what is this

Posted by: Chez Wombat 1st July 2023, 08:00 PM

I guess cos his intended audience can't read very well?

Posted by: JackTheeStallion 1st July 2023, 08:11 PM

Well, if that stays permanent - that's Twitter over. Good riddance low key, it's been a horrid right wing fest for a while now.

Posted by: tommie 1st July 2023, 08:17 PM

LOL, great idea to limit networking on a social media website. This'll go down well

Oh well, hopefully Twitter (along with Facebook, Instagram and all centralised websites) die and the net goes back to being more dispersed.

Posted by: Silas 1st July 2023, 08:18 PM

Can you imagine Tesco saying „if you’re a Clubcard holder you can spend 60€ a month, but everyone else can only spend 6€ a month“

Absolutely insane. Twitter’s entire value comes from posting and scrolling.


We already knew this man was not even 1% as smart as he or his fangirls think he is, but this is new levels of dumb







Did no one even tell him about the death of Tumblr?

Posted by: Big Fat Padam 1st July 2023, 08:21 PM

What a dumb douche!

Posted by: J00prstar 1st July 2023, 08:34 PM

Tumblr has actually had an influx of twitter refugees lately

Our time is nigh!

Posted by: Oliver 1st July 2023, 09:01 PM

Welp that's my Twitter browsing over until tomorrow. "Rate limit exceeded" indeed.

Posted by: shadow2009 1st July 2023, 10:18 PM

This is ridiculous. There's a huge online community of very sick and disabled people (totally bedbound) who rely on the platform to interact with eachother, follow research and share advice and knowing this is going to impact them is just stupidly cruel and unnecessary.

f*** sake.

Posted by: Suedehead2 1st July 2023, 10:30 PM

I'm sure Musk will claim that the "technical issues" have nothing to do with the fact that he sacked so many staff.

Posted by: Iz 💀 2nd July 2023, 05:11 AM

I mean, it's not really though. Certainly before Elon it was one of the most hierarchy-flattening websites in existence (my conspiracy theory is that Elon wanted to destroy a site that allowed people to directly talk to him and other billionaires/celebrities just as easily as any other account) and even now based off of tweets that leave their circles it's still far more friendly to progressive values from casual users - while right-wing accounts tend to have low engagement for their following, indicating bots.

There's been an uptick of right-wing accounts from Elon but I still have to go to some effort to see things I don't want to see. Not that that'll be a problem with the new limit, I'm trying to hit it so I can see what it feels like but when he's charging to view it's over.

I do think what he's done to it is a measurably bad loss for the world - if nothing similar takes its place - where else do you get world leaders speaking directly to their people, journalists able to provide instant updates, and somewhere that is great for publicising yourself nearly whatever your job or creative pursuit is?

big websites charging for API use is so so dumb and also what's going to kill the current internet

Posted by: dhwe 2nd July 2023, 06:26 AM

trying to scrounge around for a bluesky invite, I have mutuals on there but I think invites are limited. and I don’t have it in me to resurrect my tumblr lol

Posted by: dhwe 2nd July 2023, 06:51 AM

also I hate to give him more credit than he deserves and people have always pushed back against this idea saying he’s too stupid to be playing 4D chess but I really do think he was trying to bring down that app on purpose knowing it’s the nexus of much of the online left

Posted by: tommie 2nd July 2023, 08:22 AM

I think people are a bit naive to think that Musk is just randomly implementing these ideas - look at how fast other sites started restricting their APIs once Twitter did and how sites like Instagram started talking about doing pay options like Twitter Blue; the truth is that Musk is probably just picking up on ideas that have been floated for quite a while within the upper echelons of these companies, he's just the first to pull the trigger. I think people need to remember that some of these sites aren't that profitable per user (Reddit being the infamous example of a massive amount of user, but with low profitability on each).

Posted by: Iz 💀 2nd July 2023, 08:35 AM

A fantastic argument for pulling these utilities away from for-profit companies, really. For better or worse they're now the backbone of the internet and Musk's direct 'you pay for what you use' model just won't be accepted by the large user base that is needed to make the sites work. It's burning everything down for short term gain.

Posted by: Big Fat Padam 2nd July 2023, 01:27 PM

I have that same feeling. He is verrry right wing.

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 3rd July 2023, 11:58 PM

Posted by: Silas 4th July 2023, 06:30 AM

Don’t need more apps in the Meta space, they’re puritanical AF

Posted by: Smint 4th July 2023, 09:05 AM

Without a doubt. The right wing assholes wake up every day with thr sole goal of destroying the "woke" and the left and they have the money to do it sadly as capitalism rewards the ones free of morals.

Posted by: Doctor Blind 5th July 2023, 09:38 AM

It went dark for me on Friday (I don't have an account and use nitter to view/follow people I rate), can't say I missed it all that much. Hopefully a much better rival arises from the ashes (and not anything that Instagram has to do with because Meta/Facebook can frankly all get in the bin too).

Posted by: Silas 5th July 2023, 11:12 AM

Meta have some of the absolute worst data harvesting practices. They’re awful. They’re also highly intolerant of many communities that found a home on Twitter.

It would be nice if we could get old tumblr back

Posted by: Jessie Where 6th July 2023, 09:54 AM

Weeeell, we now have Threads!

Posted by: Iz 💀 6th July 2023, 10:35 AM

There's a very good reason I have minimal interaction with the Meta group and only maintain accounts there for essential use. They aren't fun places to spend time. I haven't tried it yet but Threads looks... like Twitter but worse because it's so connected to Instagram right now.

main thing I'm hoping is that it gives Musk a kick up the arse to stop doing all this user-hostile stuff he's kept doing. With him stepping back as CEO which was supposed to be happening around now but we've gone for sabotaging ones own app with rate limits (seemingly a very poor cover story for the fact that they nearly majorly broke the app a few days ago) instead.

Posted by: blacksquare 6th July 2023, 10:58 AM

Sigh. I really don't want Threads to become the next Twitter but the early adoption rate (including verified brands and celebrities) suggests otherwise.

How long will it take for Meta to plague the app with ads, Reels and terrible feeds filled with people you don't follow nor have any interest in?

Posted by: Silas 6th July 2023, 11:50 AM

It already has the same feed algorithm as Instagram. And the same content rules as meta platforms (Nazis are ok, and racially abusing a footballer is why Instagram even has DMs but is that a pubic hair I see???? Ban)


The problem at the moment is that it’s not available in any of the EU countries. That’s a not insignificant chunk of the userbase who can’t even access it because the data harvesting/sharing practices are so egregious that they’re illegal under the DMA

Posted by: Smint 6th July 2023, 11:51 AM

I don't actually post on Twitter (and probably not a habit I want to get into) but read it often and probably would do the same with Threads. If Meta does actually moderate against hate speech and bans Far Right accounts and it gets a high level of engagement of prominent people, then I'd be happy for it to succeed and Twitter fail as right now the latter is like posting on Fox News forums say. I take the point re: too much power going to a single company but that's a lesser evil IMO.

Posted by: Jessie Where 6th July 2023, 11:52 AM

This is good for me. I got unjustly banned from twitter for indirectly referring to the former Home Secretary with a rude word (when apparently all the unchecked racism, homophobia, transphobia etc. which is so rife on there is completely fine )

Might give me an opportunity to reconnect with those I lost on there!

Posted by: Smint 6th July 2023, 09:11 PM

Owen Jones has now joined Threads so that's the deal sealed for me! As agree with 99% of his views....

Posted by: JackTheeStallion 6th July 2023, 10:38 PM

I prefer Threads and don't seem to have a similar experience of Twitter than some - horribly cliquey, rampant transphobia/hateful views being put out and horrendous hot takes for clout.

Threads feels like what Twitter once was, a great sense of community and speaking to people outside of your circle.

Posted by: Chez Wombat 6th July 2023, 10:55 PM

I mean I'm not comfortable with Meta having more power, but Twitter has really got to the point where Musk has literally made it the least user-friendly or balanced it could be, an alternative could well go the same way, but if it's popular and makes a point to silence hate rather than encourage it then that's a positive at least.

Posted by: Tafty³³³ 6th July 2023, 11:18 PM

Think I've read that they've already removed restrictions on Twitter lmao!

This is going to be fun.

But I really like Threads atm, sure it seems a little "bare" atm but with time it could quite easily become somewhere I could go to.

Posted by: Sempachorra 7th July 2023, 12:42 AM

I'll stick to twitter. f*** Meta

Posted by: Mark. 12th July 2023, 07:45 PM

edit

Posted by: Big Fat Padam 12th July 2023, 11:55 PM

I've never used twitter tbh, or instagram. Might try a thread.

Posted by: Danana 23rd August 2023, 09:23 AM

in non-shocking news it appears that over half of elons followers have been found to be fake accounts

Posted by: Smint 5th November 2023, 11:27 PM

Musk has just unbanned both Tommy Robinson and Katie Hopkin's accounts. Expect both to become mainstream very soon.

Posted by: Hassaan 6th November 2023, 07:29 AM

Why am I not surprised.

Proof if ever needed that he wants fascism to be the norm.

Posted by: Smint 7th November 2023, 08:56 PM

Just in time for Tommy Robinson (not his real name) to organise a Far Right protest on Twitter to counter the Free Palestine marches on Saturday. Bet Bravermann is egging on the violence so she can take away even more protesters rights.

Posted by: Not yet... 2nd December 2023, 08:37 AM

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/29/elon-musk-hurls-defiant-profanity-laced-retort-at-fleeing-advertisers

He's losing it, and going full fash!!! The company is now trying to make it sound like small and medium advertisers are who they havr wanted all along, and trying to make it sound like it's a yuuge opportunity to lose the big advertisers