Mayhem
Temporal Navigator
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/28/elon-musk-twitter-hate-speech-concerns-stock-exchange-deal
Will he re invent twitter, what do you guys think?
Will he re invent twitter, what do you guys think?
Elon Musk and Twitter, what should we expect?
- Thread starter Mayhem
- Start date
I'm optimistic. I see him as a "call it like he sees it" guy, not really on any one side of a party line. The fact that he pisses a lot of people off on both sides works in his favor, as he appears to be walking the walk that he's beholden to nobody.
I like that he's entertaining the idea of "game modes" on Twitter:
We'll see what he does in the next couple weeks though. I think first he needs to unban some people who were silenced for their viewpoints before I really start to solidify my opinion. Either way, the meltdown of the fragile safe-spacers is fun to watch.
I like that he's entertaining the idea of "game modes" on Twitter:
We'll see what he does in the next couple weeks though. I think first he needs to unban some people who were silenced for their viewpoints before I really start to solidify my opinion. Either way, the meltdown of the fragile safe-spacers is fun to watch.
I've been having a blast on Twitter for the past week, watching people melt down over "muh free speech" and "muh verification". I wish he would go ahead and unban the people who were silenced by the previous ownership, but I understand there's logistics behind that. If I were him, I would probably do the same kind of review... But I wouldn't call it "convening a council". Yes, let's convene the counsel of whiny bitches who's sole purpose is to be whiny bitches.
That said, I don't know who's on this counsel. He's said it will include diverse viewpoints, so I guess that's fine as long as that's what it actually consists of. I've been trained o be skeptical of that based on what I've seen in the past from social media, not necessarily Elon. Everyone expects him to just "unban everyone", but when there's advertisers involved pausing to see how you handle things, I understand the slow-walk. I don't like it, but that's how business needs to be done sometimes.
He laid off half the staff, an intelligent play in my book. I see people sperging about this all over the place, but nobody takes the time to realize that Twitter has been on the brink multiple times in recent years, and about to lay off 1/3 of the staff even before Elon took ownership. What prevented that at all was the takeover putting the company into a holding pattern until it was done.
Twitter was losing 4 million per DAY... Of course he's going to fire a bunch of people. It had nothing to do with advertisers at all. Some advertisers paused to see how the transition plays out, and some of them were pressured by far-left NGOs because they're anti-free-speech pussies trying to hurt a company they can't control anymore.
They had entire teams dedicated to what showed up on the Explore tab, curating what as "trending" rather than letting what was ACTUALLY trending show up. Entire teams for "content safety", which basically meant suppressing opinions they don't like (i.e. yours and mine), meanwhile ignoring terrorist organizations and child predators on their platform. He would have been stupid not to do what he did.
The people laid off have a 3 month parachute. Far more than they deserved, suppressing our free speech, working with the government to hide information and selling blue checkmarks under the table for 15 grand a pop. These people turned verification into a status symbol, rather than what it was intended to be - Being who you say you are
Now the latest thing is "muh free speech", "muh parody account". Kathy Griffin (lol) got banned for impersonating Elon AS A VERIFIED ACCOUNT. It was not parody, it was her pretending to be him saying outrageous things with the intent to deceive and confuse people.
The Blue Checkmarks are angry that anyone can become verified now, and trying to make their point with account spoofing (like Carrot Top's grandma tried). Then, when the rules are applied they freak out. Everyone is focused on the Elon parody accounts, but nobody mentions the AOC impersonators or the other accounts that have been banned at the same time. It's the same tired leftist narrative machine playing their smear game, where the target of the smear must focus on correcting the false information rather than on the original issue. You make up something. Then you have the press write about it. And then you say, everybody is writing about this thing so it must be true.
I would hope people are smarter than that after the past several years of seeing it, but here we are.
As far as the $8 verification thing, I'm in favor of it. It means you're a real person, which was the original intent of the Blue Checkmark. Government officials get a different kind of badge, probably a few variations like that.
I've seen journalists say things like "what, so now any Bubba can spout fake news and have the same weight as a credentialed journalist?". Why yes, yes they can. You should be using the content you produce and the followers that garners to give your words weight. If you can't compete with Bubba, what does that say about your "journalistic credentials"? The PEOPLE will decide what opinions make sense, not your government psyop playbook and ability to fork over 15 grand for a status symbol.
Elon is not god. I think he needs to hurry up with the shadow-banned and suspended accounts, but Twitter today is more interesting and fun than it ever has been. I'll be spending some more time there, and using it as a tool for TTI to get some more exposure once some of the new features roll out. I'm saying goodbye to Facebook entirely, that place is LinkedIn for grandmas.
That said, I don't know who's on this counsel. He's said it will include diverse viewpoints, so I guess that's fine as long as that's what it actually consists of. I've been trained o be skeptical of that based on what I've seen in the past from social media, not necessarily Elon. Everyone expects him to just "unban everyone", but when there's advertisers involved pausing to see how you handle things, I understand the slow-walk. I don't like it, but that's how business needs to be done sometimes.
He laid off half the staff, an intelligent play in my book. I see people sperging about this all over the place, but nobody takes the time to realize that Twitter has been on the brink multiple times in recent years, and about to lay off 1/3 of the staff even before Elon took ownership. What prevented that at all was the takeover putting the company into a holding pattern until it was done.
Twitter was losing 4 million per DAY... Of course he's going to fire a bunch of people. It had nothing to do with advertisers at all. Some advertisers paused to see how the transition plays out, and some of them were pressured by far-left NGOs because they're anti-free-speech pussies trying to hurt a company they can't control anymore.
They had entire teams dedicated to what showed up on the Explore tab, curating what as "trending" rather than letting what was ACTUALLY trending show up. Entire teams for "content safety", which basically meant suppressing opinions they don't like (i.e. yours and mine), meanwhile ignoring terrorist organizations and child predators on their platform. He would have been stupid not to do what he did.
The people laid off have a 3 month parachute. Far more than they deserved, suppressing our free speech, working with the government to hide information and selling blue checkmarks under the table for 15 grand a pop. These people turned verification into a status symbol, rather than what it was intended to be - Being who you say you are
Now the latest thing is "muh free speech", "muh parody account". Kathy Griffin (lol) got banned for impersonating Elon AS A VERIFIED ACCOUNT. It was not parody, it was her pretending to be him saying outrageous things with the intent to deceive and confuse people.
The Blue Checkmarks are angry that anyone can become verified now, and trying to make their point with account spoofing (like Carrot Top's grandma tried). Then, when the rules are applied they freak out. Everyone is focused on the Elon parody accounts, but nobody mentions the AOC impersonators or the other accounts that have been banned at the same time. It's the same tired leftist narrative machine playing their smear game, where the target of the smear must focus on correcting the false information rather than on the original issue. You make up something. Then you have the press write about it. And then you say, everybody is writing about this thing so it must be true.
I would hope people are smarter than that after the past several years of seeing it, but here we are.
As far as the $8 verification thing, I'm in favor of it. It means you're a real person, which was the original intent of the Blue Checkmark. Government officials get a different kind of badge, probably a few variations like that.
I've seen journalists say things like "what, so now any Bubba can spout fake news and have the same weight as a credentialed journalist?". Why yes, yes they can. You should be using the content you produce and the followers that garners to give your words weight. If you can't compete with Bubba, what does that say about your "journalistic credentials"? The PEOPLE will decide what opinions make sense, not your government psyop playbook and ability to fork over 15 grand for a status symbol.
Elon is not god. I think he needs to hurry up with the shadow-banned and suspended accounts, but Twitter today is more interesting and fun than it ever has been. I'll be spending some more time there, and using it as a tool for TTI to get some more exposure once some of the new features roll out. I'm saying goodbye to Facebook entirely, that place is LinkedIn for grandmas.
Num7
Staff member
I tend to agree with most of what you're saying. What Musk is doing is good, hard and takes time. Got to be patient, here. The $8 verified account seem odd to me, but I'm keeping an open mind. The payment is supposed to help get rid of all those fake accounts, among other things. Again, that's a good thing, but we need to give it some time until we can notice a change.
Here's something I wanna share, of my own recent personal Twitter experience.
2 years ago, I retweeted a couple of tweets about Zack Snyder's Justice League, the Snyder Cut, etc. Didn't follow any group or whatever. Yet, from that very moment, I've had a literal TON of suggested and sponsored content about the Snyder Cut, the Ayer Cut (Suicide Squad), toxic fan groups bashing the shit out of WB and their executives, saying they're evil. DC sucks, Black Adam and The Rock are evil. What the hell, man! It wouldn't stop.
No matter how many times I'd hide these posts or what I'd do, I'd keep seeing them every day in my feed. Again, didn't follow anyone in those groups, and didn't retweet or interact with "them" anything for more than a year.
Then a couple of weeks ago, it all stopped. It went from full throttle Anti-WB toxic propaganda, to absolute zero. I didn't do anything. It feels as if I had been targeted or something. I'm not sure what happened. Is it the cleanup? Or a coincidence? I completely stopped though, which is good.
Now, this was just about a movie and a studio and it didn't radicalize me or anything. Think about other topics they're able to radicalize people with. Scary shit right there.
Here's something I wanna share, of my own recent personal Twitter experience.
2 years ago, I retweeted a couple of tweets about Zack Snyder's Justice League, the Snyder Cut, etc. Didn't follow any group or whatever. Yet, from that very moment, I've had a literal TON of suggested and sponsored content about the Snyder Cut, the Ayer Cut (Suicide Squad), toxic fan groups bashing the shit out of WB and their executives, saying they're evil. DC sucks, Black Adam and The Rock are evil. What the hell, man! It wouldn't stop.
No matter how many times I'd hide these posts or what I'd do, I'd keep seeing them every day in my feed. Again, didn't follow anyone in those groups, and didn't retweet or interact with "them" anything for more than a year.
Then a couple of weeks ago, it all stopped. It went from full throttle Anti-WB toxic propaganda, to absolute zero. I didn't do anything. It feels as if I had been targeted or something. I'm not sure what happened. Is it the cleanup? Or a coincidence? I completely stopped though, which is good.
Now, this was just about a movie and a studio and it didn't radicalize me or anything. Think about other topics they're able to radicalize people with. Scary shit right there.
I had a similar experience; it kept suggesting I follow Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama, Joe Biden, Stacy Abrams, Beto O'Rourke and people like that. No matter how many times I went "the other way" with who I followed or interacted with, it would keep shoving that stuff into my feed.
A couple days after the layoffs, all of that stopped. Now I see people like illuminatibot and generally no-name people that actually post things I'm interested in.
The 8 dollar thing is summarized pretty well in Yoel's thread here:
I'm not a fan of this guy at all, but the way he lays it out here makes sense to me. The tl;dr is:
No solution is perfect, but I think they're iterating closer and closer to one that makes the most sense and has the biggest impact. I've seen screenshots across the internet that show the same exact message being posted in multiple Twitter threads by multiple accounts, flooding the conversation and pushing the narrative in a particular direction. This change will get rid of that shit, which is one of the biggest barriers to "free speech"..
A couple days after the layoffs, all of that stopped. Now I see people like illuminatibot and generally no-name people that actually post things I'm interested in.
The 8 dollar thing is summarized pretty well in Yoel's thread here:
I'm not a fan of this guy at all, but the way he lays it out here makes sense to me. The tl;dr is:
- Impersonation has always been against TOS, but parody is recognized as part of free speech
- When verified accounts decide to become parody accounts, it's confusing and manipulative
- It's been long-standing policy to ban verified accounts who do that (though I would argue it's even-handed enforcement is)
- Twitter Blue ($8) makes verification accessible to all
- Making verification more accessible raises those impersonation/parody stakes, and they'll have to work harder to manage that
- The main point of verification should be to show you are a HUMAN, it should not be a status symbol
- Verified is not the same as notable, something hard to apply fairly on a global scale
- $8 is a a low barrier for real people, but a big wrench in the cogs for spammers and bot farms
- At scale, verification for bots and spammers isn't practical - And then they have to get through mobile device and payment processor defenses on top of Twitter's
No solution is perfect, but I think they're iterating closer and closer to one that makes the most sense and has the biggest impact. I've seen screenshots across the internet that show the same exact message being posted in multiple Twitter threads by multiple accounts, flooding the conversation and pushing the narrative in a particular direction. This change will get rid of that shit, which is one of the biggest barriers to "free speech"..
