Musk destroying twitter, lets hope it blows up for good

[Libertas]

Elon Musk’s Twitter Teeters on the Edge After Another 1,200 Leave
Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac, Kellen Browning
Nov. 18, 2022 Updated 4:13 p.m. ET

Mr. Musk sent emails on Friday asking to learn about Twitter’s underlying technology as key infrastructure teams have been decimated. “Anyone who actually writes software, please report to the 10th floor at 2 p.m. today,” he wrote in a two-paragraph message, which was viewed by The New York Times. “Thanks, Elon.” About 30 minutes later, Mr. Musk sent another email saying he wanted to learn about Twitter’s “tech stack,” a term used to describe a company’s software and related systems. Then in another email, he asked some people to fly to Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco to meet in person.

Twitter is teetering on the edge as Mr. Musk remakes the company after buying it for $44 billion last month. The billionaire has pushed relentlessly to put his imprint on the social media service, slashing 50 percent of its work force, firing dissenters, pursuing new subscription products and delivering a harsh message that the company needs to shape up or it will face bankruptcy. Now the question is whether Mr. Musk, 51, has gone too far. On Thursday, hundreds of Twitter employees resigned en masse after Mr. Musk gave them a deadline to decide whether to leave or stay. So many workers chose to depart that Twitter users began questioning whether the site would survive, tweeting farewell messages to the service and turning hashtags like #TwitterMigration and #TwitterTakeover into trending topics.

Some internal estimates showed that at least 1,200 full-time employees resigned on Thursday, three people close to the company said. Twitter had 7,500 full-time employees at the end of October, which dropped to about 3,700 after mass layoffs earlier this month. The employee numbers are likely to remain fluid as the dust settles on the exits, with confusion abounding over who is keeping a tally of workers and running other workplace systems. Some employees who quit said they were separating themselves from the company by disconnecting from email and logging out of the internal messaging system Slack because human resources representatives were not available.

Mr. Musk and representatives for Twitter did not respond to requests for comment. But the billionaire on Friday tweeted what he said would be changes to Twitter’s content policy. Hateful tweets will no longer be promoted algorithmically in users’ feeds, he said, but they will not be taken down. He also reinstated several previously banned accounts, including the comedian Kathy Griffin and the author Jordan Peterson.

Perhaps the most crucial question now is how Twitter can keep running after the giant reduction to its work force in such a short time. The effects of the cuts and resignations have played out across the company’s technology teams, people with knowledge of the matter said.

More at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/18/tech ... -quit.html

FB next. I actually like these platforms but not under the management of musk or zucky baby.

[ZoWie]

I will miss twitter if it goes. It really was different than the other platforms... at one time.

Twitter's peak was the Japanese earthquake that caused the 100 foot tsunami that caused the nuclear disaster. TweetDeck was still an independent vendor's software that used the API to harvest tweets, and you could still start columns that would list tweets searched out by keyword match. This earthquake was live tweeted all the way through. It scrolled so fast that you couldn't read it all. You didn't need news media. You had people tweeting during aftershocks, tsunamis, and finally the nuke meltdown. It was live and real.

This was a suggestion of what the Internet could really do for us.

Twitter bought TweetDeck and changed it, eliminating the real time searching, and they also modified their API to be less of a resource hog. That slowed down the immediacy a bit, but it was still THE place to do certain other things, like sell art. Artists were among the closest knit communities there. I made a lot of friends worldwide, who I still tweet at from time to time. I got a lot of good creative ideas and made an awful lot of good art, some of which even sold.

That's gone too. It didn't survive the drumpf years. First everything got scary and nasty, then it got quiet. Too quiet... like the war movie cliche. If you use their app on a cell phone, it pushes ads at you with tempting clickbait. Woe betide those who are fooled into thinking they're real people tweeting. If you connect directly, it asks you every five minutes if you want to see something their AI thinks you might like. Who wants to interact with a digital con man?

Musk bought, with Saudi assistance that is being investigated as a possible national security threat, a shell of the Twitter glory years. It was still a pretty good platform, even functioning at 1% of what it had shown it could do in the past, but Musk has been working on that too. He really is the boss from hell. There are many stories, none of which can be confirmed because people value their careers, but too many to ignore. Leaving politics and wealth out of it, he's still a lousy boss. People are tools to be used until they wear out, then replaced. He seems to have some of the same narcissistic personality problems that drumpf has. It's too bad that our culture can't get over rewarding that particular disorder.

[Motor City]

Hes just preparing for the next election to get things off balance in a way that is helpful for regressive and crazy candidates.

[carmenjonze]

Hes just preparing for the next election to get things off balance in a way that is helpful for regressive and crazy candidates.

He would probably try to run for office himself, had he not been born in Apartheidville. :problem:

[ProfX]

As predicted, Musk said Trump is welcome back on Twitter.

For his part, maybe because he has financial and personal investment in the errantly named "Truth Social," Trump for the moment is staying there.

[Libertas]

As predicted, Musk said Trump is welcome back on Twitter.

For his part, maybe because he has financial and personal investment in the errantly named "Truth Social," Trump for the moment is staying there.

Of course Trump is coming back, yet another easy prediction when dealing with such scum bags.

The next two years will be a nightmare for the human race.

[ZoWie]

As always, this guy gets it right.

This Week, Billionaires Made a Strong Case for Abolishing Themselves
Nov. 19, 2022
Anand Giridharadas

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/19/opin ... aires.html

In tweeting through one of the most extraordinary corporate meltdowns in history, Mr. Musk has been performing a vital public service: shredding the myth of the billionaire genius.

His particular pretension of benevolence is that his uncontainable genius can solve any challenge. Now he is lavishing his mind and time on electronic money, now on colonizing Mars, now on electric cars and solar panels, now on saving Thai soccer players trapped in a cave, now on liberating speech from its liberal oppressors.

Mr. Musk’s genius pose has long been undermined by his actual record, which is defined by claiming credit for what others have built and is shot through with complaints of discrimination, mismanagement and fraud.

But it wasn’t until Mr. Musk took over Twitter that his claim of infinitely transferable genius truly fell apart. That what Mr. Musk has called the global town square can be eviscerated in a time period somewhere between a Scaramucci and a Truss makes one wonder if we should be more skeptical of all the other billionaire geniuses with ideas for our schools, public health systems and politics.

The whole column at the link is a good, if depressing, read. As always, this guy gets it.

[carmenjonze]

I hope they abolish themselves to another galaxy. Tomorrow.

[ap215]

Twitter’s copyright strike system appears to be broken. Naturally, one user took this as an opportunity to post the entire The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift movie in a series of two-minute clips spanning nearly 50 tweets. The thread has been up for almost a whole day now, and the fact that it hasn't been taken down yet is a likely side effect of the hundreds of employees who resigned from Twitter earlier this week.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/19/234 ... -be-broken

[ZoWie]

You can see in a matter of minutes how the platform is barely staying operative. Worse, the soul is gone. Were there any alternatives, I would have nuked my account and moved on days ago. The closest one seems to be Instagram. Yeah, right. No, thanks.

I assume that a Truss refers to a unit of time equal to how long Liz lasted as prime minister. After all, the symbolic but still necessary royal consent to her assuming the position was the last real thing the queen did before she shuffled off this mortal coil two days later. (Presumably the two events are not linked, though given the toxicity of Ms. Truss, one has to wonder.) Had the UK not spent two weeks mourning their departed and beloved monarch and not doing much else, Liz might have lasted a couple of weeks instead of a whole month and a half.

Twitter seems to have lasted, for all usable purposes, for a period closer to a week after the deal closed. That's closer to a Scaramucci, which after all is a period of ten days, since that's how long Tony lasted as drumpf's comm director. Twitter's implosion is going into history as one of the most spectacular acts of self-immolation in the admittedly short history of the World Wide Web. I can't think of anything even close. Even that crypto guy who made several gigabucks of other people's money disappear in a couple of days pales in comparison.

It all feels like a bad remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. We need someone to run right at camera, scream "You're next," and die just before the last fade out.

[Number6]

I wondering if Musk drives Twitter into obligation or to the point it's unprofitable how will those who financed his takeover react? People like Musk use little of their own money and put up their assets to finance their projects so very little of the $44 billion used to buy Twitter is his money. If the financial backers of Musk demand re-payment how much of his empire will disintegrate?

[Motor City]

Musk demands Twitter workers take a loyalty oath

In an email to remaining Twitter employees Tuesday night, Musk laid down an ultimatum: Agree in writing to work “long hours at high intensity,” or receive three months worth of pay and get lost.

Sounds like he wants the employees falling asleep while driving to and from work or else no employment can be had at all.

[Bludogdem]

I wondering if Musk drives Twitter into obligation or to the point it's unprofitable how will those who financed his takeover react? People like Musk use little of their own money and put up their assets to finance their projects so very little of the $44 billion used to buy Twitter is his money. If the financial backers of Musk demand re-payment how much of his empire will disintegrate?

“ Factbox: Who is financing Elon Musk's $44 billion deal to buy Twitter?”

“ Oct 6 (Reuters) - Elon Musk has pledged to provide $46.5 billion in equity and debt financing for his acquisition of Twitter (<TSLA.O>), which covers the $44 billion price tag and closing costs.

While Musk will provide much of the funding after selling down his stake in electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc (<TSLA.O>) and by leaning on equity financing from large investors, major banks have committed to provide $13 billion.”

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/who- ... 022-10-07/

Twitter is a money loosing operation. In 2018-2019 they made $1 billion.


Keep in mind that musk and equity investors won’t loose money. Any losses simply reduce tax liability on profits. Musk especially. He’s looking at untold billions in future stock options and awards. Twitter losses will simply offset tax liabilities.

[ProfX]

Those investors include Saudi princes like Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Jack Dorsey (yep, him too), and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ify%20wall

[ZoWie]

Yup. Follow the money. Billionaires are leveraged, they rarely put up their own money which is tied up in various tax dodges and dummy accounts worldwide. Billionaires hire people skilled in the ways in which massive transactions can be made using other people's money. This money trail is being investigated by the US government. The executive branch, the one that doesn't change every other year.

Saudi influence is especially likely, given their campaign to raise oil prices, damage the US economy, and get the people who'll pimp for them elected to run our country. The Saudis know we're onto them, and they're getting a bit desperate. There's no doubt that Musk, as a transnational member of the billionaire unofficial ruling class, is in with them, not to mention most of the other well known scalawags that seem to be achieving world dominance everywhere we look. The names are familiar and something of a rogue's gallery. Lots of oil sheikdoms, little nasty emirates with slaves and F1 circuits, free-trade islands, and of course our perennial friends the Russian oil-and-gas-igarchs.

Can we go back in time and alter WWII so Russia doesn't get the Caucasus?

[Libertas]

Board cons Love it when our enemies get power here as long as their political party benefits.

Yikes, my bad I apologize, Republicans are not a political party anymore. They are a terrorist organization.

[ZoWie]

Unfortunately they are a political party that is currently under the control of terrorist sympathizers. Were they merely terrorists, we could lock them up. It's much more insidious than that.

[Libertas]

Unfortunately they are a political party that is currently under the control of terrorist sympathizers. Were they merely terrorists, we could lock them up. It's much more insidious than that.

Evidently not, trump is free. The House members like Boebert and whoever who gave tours to the insurrectionists the day before, nobody even talks about it anymore.

ABSURD

[Libertas]

Musk just restored MTG's personal Twitter account,

seen on du

[ZoWie]

Why the outrage? It's counterproductive. We all know that he's going to let all the scalawags back on. That was always why their support network put up much of the $44 billion deal in the first place. Our anger is better put toward supporting means of disrupting the current lock that a miniscule oligarch class has on our business financing.

[Bludogdem]

Those investors include Saudi princes like Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Jack Dorsey (yep, him too), and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ify%20wall

The Saudis owned $1.9 billion in stock before the buyout. They just decided to let it ride.

[ap215]

Why the outrage? It's counterproductive. We all know that he's going to let all the scalawags back on. That was always why their support network put up much of the $44 billion deal in the first place. Our anger is better put toward supporting means of disrupting the current lock that a miniscule oligarch class has on our business financing.

I agree Z i also learned one thing about Social Media who controls it Jack Dorsey is a right winger & he started Twitter along with the system being broken i hope when the public see the filth the GOP posts on any social media platform it comes back to bite them in the ass in future elections.

[plunderer]

I kinda hope twitter dies, because I want to see Musk fail. But honestly, I have no dog in the fight. I never had any use for the platform.

-P

[ZoWie]

Musk demands Twitter workers take a loyalty oath



Sounds like he wants the employees falling asleep while driving to and from work or else no employment can be had at all.

A real problem. It's endemic in the movie business, and one of the reasons I'm no longer in it. You'd be amazed how many people die in road accidents from nodding off at the wheel. It's also a major cause of on-set accidents, because a totally fatigued worker is not an aware worker. Another problem is that if you work you have money but no life, and if you don't work you have no money and also no life.

The IATSE was all hot to strike over killer hours, but then when it came to a vote they chickened out.

History is full of accounts of people dying in labor disputes over this sort of thing. Why did our generation give in to it?

[carmenjonze]

A real problem. It's endemic in the movie business, and one of the reasons I'm no longer in it. You'd be amazed how many people die in road accidents from nodding off at the wheel. It's also a major cause of on-set accidents, because a totally fatigued worker is not an aware worker. Another problem is that if you work you have money but no life, and if you don't work you have no money and also no life.

The IATSE was all hot to strike over killer hours, but then when it came to a vote they chickened out.

History is full of accounts of people dying in labor disputes over this sort of thing. Why did our generation give in to it?

The generation before us gave into it in the 80s with unions hopping into bed with management.

By the time we were getting our first jobs, union membership wasn't a big option and especially not if you came into a non-guild career in the 90s.

Oh and good luck getting into a guild career in the 90s if you're not a white male.

The union and labor movement had nowhere to go but up for our generation, which is a little nuts, because so many of our parents were union.