Musk Takes Over Twitter...

[6]

What do y'all think about that? Being a free speech "absolutist" seems cool and on the surface im all for it. But having helped run this place for going on 7/8 years i know on a small scale the hazards when trying to keep free speech alive while also keeping a community healthy.

I wonder what changes he plans to make, or will be able to make, and how they will turn out. I don't use twitter, never have, probably wont, but its extremely interesting to see this go down.

Any thoughts or insights into what may be instore after whats possibly the most culturally reliant business purchase in our lifetimes?


Lets see if we can discuss this without it becoming a political shit throwing session. please. Pretty, pretty, please. Im interested.

[halfast]

Eh, free speech doesn’t give you the freedom to yell fire in crowded theater and I think by extension that view should be applied to social media. Especially in this day and age where it’s used as apropaganda, used to promote hate, used to promote misleading or often outright lies and especially used to promote violence. And don’t forgot that a large number of users (and bots) doing this are from Russia, China and to a lesser extent Iran in a coordinated effort to sow the seeds of discord and conflict.

This forum and Twitter are not the government, they can lay down the rules and moderate how they see fit. And I would hope that twitter continues to squash posts promoting hate, lies and calls to violence. Much like how this site promotes civility and decorum in the discussions here.

I think the world has learned a free for all, just doesn’t work that great.

[69Falcon]

I have a few thoughts on this. First, it will be interesting to see how he gets twitter to turn a profit. Second, Ive heard he has Tesla and SpaceX coders reviewing Twitterās code; donāt ttās real or not, but it will be interesting to see what they find, such as how did they enable shadow banning, like they did to Tulsi Gabbard, i.e. what is/was the software used to enable it?

social media tends to become an echo chamber, and I wonder if there will be changes to the coding/algorithms to try and minimize that effect? That maybe if people are presented alternative viewpoints and ideas that it might actually help mend the current polarization? If you listen to Musk talk about that, he recognizes that the extreme polarization that our society is marching towards is a bad thing.

[6]

This forum and Twitter are not the government, they can lay down the rules and moderate how they see fit. And I would hope that twitter continues to squash posts promoting hate, lies and calls to violence. Much like how this site promotes civility and decorum in the discussions here.

I think the world has learned a free for all, just doesn’t work that great.

I agree but there is a fine line. Who denotes what is and is not a lie, or hate... Those are hard things to figure out. There where many things banned for being false that turned out to be true. It gets really tricky. That's a hell of a rabbit hole that can be dove down..


I personally believe the best antidote to lies are the people speaking the truth. Not silencing the liar.

[6]

I have a few thoughts on this. First, it will be interesting to see how he gets twitter to turn a profit.

They are charging for blue "verified" checkmarks....

So that's a start I guess. Other than that, got me.

Instagram is showing so many ads I'm starting to get annoyed..

[ricksax]

This web site is about as close to social media as I want to get.

The problem with the web, including Wikipedia, is that "facts" are not always backed up with transparent and verifiable sources.

However, it does seem to me that opinion of all types, if stated in a civil way, should always be allowed.

[rpcraft]

What's twitter?

[6]

This web site is about as close to social media as I want to get.

The problem with the web, including Wikipedia, is that "facts" are not always backed up with transparent and verifiable sources.

However, it does seem to me that opinion of all types, if stated in a civil way, should always be allowed.

I have to admit, i love instagram. Whatever algorytem they use to show me stuff is dead on. ITs stupid car, bike and dog things. Its fantastic.

Other than that im with you, this is my social media. The drama on facebook is real. I see my wife on it, its like it entirely exists to spy at a distance. She rarly even posts, but its always "did you see this status changed?" or "Blah Blah hasnt been on bet hes in jail again" or... Its not fun.

Twitter seems to be the 0ne most people find useful, at 40 i guess i mtoo old to get it. But if it decides elections, its damned important.

[69Falcon]

I donā€™t use Twitter. I rarely post on FB, follow some stuff on Instagram.

[rpcraft]

Yeah I am not sure I see the huge deal about. Maybe the mega rich are all bitter and butthurt because they feel like they can't speak their mind to us poors as effectively (or now can do so better) but I couldn't give a flying duck.

[Henway]

I'm guessing he's going to lose > $40Bn on this after all is said and done. If newspapers that provide content can't monetize their work, I cannot see him monetizing whatever "work" happens on twitter. I could be vastly wrong about this, but I'd actively bet against this company if I were a betting man.

[rpcraft]

Is he? I think he only used about 2/3 oif the total for his money and then there were some other investors? Not sure how much is really going to help either way but letting go of a lot of staff will help for sure. I can't imagine why there are 7500 people working for twitter. It seems like all they need is content moderators at this point.

[69Falcon]

As a company grows its staff that provides the actual service, it’s all the support to them that creates the bloat. Human Resources, Legal, Finance and Facilities. And then they all need their own IT support for all their systems.

[rpcraft]

As a company grows its staff that provides the actual service, it’s all the support to them that creates the bloat. Human Resources, Legal, Finance and Facilities. And then they all need their own IT support for all their systems.

Yeah I was looking at it in perspective later. For the sake of Comparison, Faceshit has like over 45K associates and similar companies do have a high over head as well but it just seems strange to me still that a company that doesnt have a distribution network, and physical job (kind of like what I work for) has such a high overhead on emplyee numbers on an intangible product. I mean, just in relation my company has about 12000 employees. We also have a distribution network, warehouses, customer engagements and all that overhead they have. I just figure in the case of Twitter that a lot of the people who were "working from home" just found out how unessential their jobs may actually have been, unfortunately for them. It makes me appreciate the people that go to work, and have to phsyically be there to do the work and monitor the work a lot more, especially considering I am one of those guys that not only does thatm but I do it for cases when our associates are out sick or for other reasons are absent from work. I would be willing to bet, just based on what I have read on Musk, is he has some huge spreadsheet that he has been plowing through and it showed him the numbers and you know they don't lie. I was reading a story about a guy who was talking about what it was like working with him at Space X, one of the initial top guys. He said Elon basically did that while they were on an airplane on the way to go speak to the Russians when it came time to decide if they should build their own rockets or buy them from Russia. He also quit after about 18 months and said that people are going to have to adjust to Musk or move on and that it is more about a mental mindset to adopt his mission. Musk is a different breed for sure.

[riot]

Boy, I would comment but I think you guys covered it:

1) Free speech and being ejected from a community for being an a*hole are two different things. Twitter is about building communities, so letting the a*holes troll them without consequence will be Twitter death.

2) Twitter had jumped the shark before Musk got involved. I'll be really surprised if he can reverse the free fall.

3) Social media is a very different product than cars and rockets. If you get results in products, it can make a compelling apology for dick behavior. Results in social media are far less tangible.

I don't use Twitter, and probably wont start now. So meh. Good luck Elon. Maybe he'll surprise us again. Maybe hes just been a lucky BS artist all along, as many have so long claimed.