Its Technical

[Bludogdem]

Twitter is a public company. Musk wants to take it private.

[gounion]

Twitter is a public company. Musk wants to take it private.

It’s all about power.

[Libertas]

It’s all about power.

Musk will reinstate trump and the other violent fascist traitors and America will disappear practically overnight.

If we dont figure out a way to SHOCK the 60 million who wont vote this Nov into voting, it will be all over.

[ap215]

EU law targets Big Tech over hate speech, disinformation

BRUSSELS (AP) — Big tech companies like Google and Facebook parent Meta will have to police their platforms more strictly to better protect European users from hate speech, disinformation and other harmful online content under landmark EU legislation approved early Saturday.

European Union officials clinched the agreement in principle on the Digital Services Act after lengthy final negotiations that began Friday. The law will also force tech companies to make it easier for users to flag problems, ban online ads aimed at kids and empower regulators to punish noncompliance with billions in fines.



https://thehill.com/policy/3460785-eu-l ... formation/

[ap215]

Leaked Elon Musk text messages confirm what everyone knew about Tesla’s take-private deal

As part of a lawsuit between shareholders and Elon Musk regarding his “funding secured” tweet, new text messages and emails between Musk and people involved have been released.

The communications pretty much confirmed how most people saw the situation: Elon Musk took a meeting with the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and had early discussions about taking Tesla private, which he took as enough to say that the “funding was secured”.

https://electrek.co/2022/04/25/leaked-e ... vate-deal/

[ProfX]

NAACP calls for Musk to keep Trump off Twitter
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3 ... f-twitter/

The NAACP on Monday issued a statement from its president, Derrick Johnson, calling for former President Trump to remain off the social media platform Twitter following Elon Musk’s purchase of the company.

“Mr. Musk: free speech is wonderful, hate speech is unacceptable. Disinformation, misinformation and hate speech have NO PLACE on Twitter,” the statement said, shortly after it was announced that the Tesla CEO had reached a deal to purchase Twitter.

“Do not allow 45 to return to the platform. Do not allow Twitter to become a petri dish for hate speech, or falsehoods that subvert our democracy,” the civil rights group’s memo added, referencing Trump and saying that “lives are at risk, and so is American democracy.”

[snip][end]

What Mr. Johnson said.

[Motor City]

NAACP calls for Musk to keep Trump off Twitter
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3 ... f-twitter/

The NAACP on Monday issued a statement from its president, Derrick Johnson, calling for former President Trump to remain off the social media platform Twitter following Elon Musk’s purchase of the company.

“Mr. Musk: free speech is wonderful, hate speech is unacceptable. Disinformation, misinformation and hate speech have NO PLACE on Twitter,” the statement said, shortly after it was announced that the Tesla CEO had reached a deal to purchase Twitter.

“Do not allow 45 to return to the platform. Do not allow Twitter to become a petri dish for hate speech, or falsehoods that subvert our democracy,” the civil rights group’s memo added, referencing Trump and saying that “lives are at risk, and so is American democracy.”

[snip][end]

What Mr. Johnson said.

The seeds of the next election scattered but falling in line to sprout like a symphony.

[ZoWie]

If the next election becomes a referendum on the abuse of everyone on this planet by the uber-rich kleptocracy and its various wannabe billionaire boys clubs, as natural disasters proliferate and Europe goes back to war, then there is a good chance of solid gains by the sanity party. (You know which one that is.)

The collapse of Big Tech in the stock market is one of the year's big stories. Musk gets off cheap on his hostile takeover of twitter at "only" $45 billion, since it would have been way more than that a few years ago. Tech is getting hammered. The twitter deal, and resulting trading halt in that stock, only hastened the slide into a bona fide crash this morning. The tech stock indices, especially FANG+, went vertically south. Since then, bargain hunting has moderated the damage quite a bit. Still, you can't undo an asteroid impact. Any time the NASDAQ drops 500 points within hours after opening, it's worth noticing, even if it gains it all back. The market is telling us something if we listen.

---

"Only" $45 billion. Musk's businesses are in LA, much as these guys ever really locate anywhere, having become transnational the same way terrorists also do. What would $45 billion have done for homelessness in this city? For school lunches? For health insurance for the poor?

Don't start me.

[Libertas]

Hate to be the messenger of bad news, but of course he will reinstate trump and other vile fascist Nazis and America will spin out of control so fast it will make your head spin.

[ZoWie]

Twitter had something very special that it lost a couple of years ago. There was a vibrancy, an interplay of ideas, and (under the radar) a real friendly environment for creative groups and synthesis of new ways to explain old stuff. Key to all this was the annihilation of distance. For example, it was normal for me to spend my late evenings exchanging exciting ideas with chipper European artists who were just finishing breakfast. This was something new and wonderful.

Twitter lost that vibrancy and edginess, and it only has itself to blame. It wasn't drumpf's fault, and it wasn't Musk's fault, and it wasn't even Nunes' fault, even though they tried their damnedest to ruin it for everyone else. The real story is far more depressing than that. What happened was that it got too big, it became a Thing, the adults in the room lost control, and then it became a primary example of how net platforms lose their mojo. It can't lose it again, since it already lost it. It's last year's news.

The experience of twitter should be instructive to all of us. Unrestrained free speech on the Internet was a dream we had, but in reality it leads to online lynchings, ruined careers, and dire legal consequences. There was also some of the infamous Russian disinfo, but actually that was a lot worse on farcebook. Twitter was old news way before this week's depressing events solidified the situation.

The fall of twitter is not a simple thing. It's the stuff of history dissertations in another 75 years. It'll probably wind up as yet another story of something that humans just weren't ready for yet.

Europe has cracked down on Internet abuses, but I don't see that happening here. The American way is to leave its dead bodies twisting slowly, slowly in the wind. There are certainly getting to be a lot of those stinking up American media.

[ProfX]

Mr. Free Speech Absolutist isn't absolute. Quel surprise.

Elon Musk says he wants free speech, but his track record suggests otherwise
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/25/elon-mu ... aging.html

Musk’s free speech advocacy seems to apply mostly to his own speech or that of his fans and promoters.
When it comes to his employees’ free speech, Musk demonstrates little tolerance.
Musk has repeatedly sought control over what journalists, bloggers, analysts and other researchers say about his businesses, their products, and himself.

[snip]

When it comes to his employees’ free speech, Musk demonstrates little tolerance.

Under his leadership, when Tesla has laid off employees, it’s asked them to sign separation agreements including a strong non-disparagement clause with no end-date. These kinds of agreements are not uncommon in the industry, but Musk is far from a free-speech absolutist here.

[snip]

Like most large companies, Tesla also requires workers to sign an arbitration agreement upon employment. That means to speak freely in court, where their speech will become part of a public record, workers need to get an exemption from the arbitration agreement from a judge first.

Under Musk’s leadership, Tesla scores of workers have alleged racist, sexist and other types of harassment, discrimination and unsafe working conditions. Many have also alleged retaliation after they spoke out about problems.

[snip]

Musk has repeatedly sought control over what journalists, bloggers, analysts and other researchers say about his businesses, their products, and himself.

Memorably, the Tesla CEO berated and cut off an analyst on an earnings call in 2018. “Excuse me, next, next. Boring, bonehead questions are not cool,” the CEO said after a question about his company’s capital requirements. The automaker had just posted its worst quarterly loss in its history. Musk later apologized for this, and now sometimes skips speaking on Tesla earnings calls.

Musk and Tesla have also asked reporters to sign NDAs or show story drafts to the company to obtain approvals before publishing.

[snip]

Musk and Tesla have also sought -- not always successfully -- to silence customers. For example, Tesla used to compel customers to sign agreements containing non-disclosure clauses as a prerequisite to have their vehicles repaired.

In 2021, Tesla asked customers to agree not to post critically to social media about FSD Beta, an experimental driver assistance software package that some Tesla owners could test out using their own cars and unpaid time to do so.

In an agreement that Tesla sent to drivers earlier this year for FSD Beta access, the company asked them to “keep your experiences in the program confidential” and not to “share any information about this program with the public” including by taking screenshots, creating blog posts, or posting to social media sites.

[snip][end]

Seems as fond of NDAs as Trump.

Yeah, free speech for me, but not for thee, especially if you are critical of me.

Let's see how tolerant he is of people on Twitter criticizing his management. I've got popcorn.

[ZoWie]

Make mine buttered, please.

Free speech on twitter is old news, and I described at length its failure in a previous post. Twitter has already proved that the free exchange of ideas via the Internet is a dream that will forever remain just that.

[ProfX]

Dunno. I watched the early days, I mean the really early days when it was more an academic playground than anything else - I know you know those days too.

Back in the day, I remember when there were these things called MOOs and MUDs and MUSHs. Think of them as text-based predecessors of MMOs. No graphics. Then there was this great article called "A Rape in Cyberspace" detailing how some guy on a MOO was actually manipulating other peoples 'avatars' and forcing them to rape other users.

Pretty quickly, I think people noticed people in Internet spaces, much like real ones, behave badly. Maybe more so because they have a perception of anonymity, and a feeling they can avoid consequences. These places and spaces cannot exist, or at least not well, without moderation. The Libertarians might have wanted to mold it into their paradise. But, most normal people noticed how badly that was going to go, probably about as bad as "Columbia" turned out in Bioshock.

BTW, the EU has already sent him a message reminding him, private or public, if he's going to operate in Europe, Brussels also says their regulations apply to Twitter's content moderation policies, too. Hope he's ready, he's got more than the U.S. to answer to.

[ZoWie]

Yeah, I remember all that text based stuff, online D&D, early multi-user things, even earlier text and UUencoded pictures on USENET, the whole thing.

Twitter for whatever reason just seemed to have something special. I think it's because for a time it seemed like just about everyone with Internet capability was on it, and also the 140-character tweets (basically SMS derived with the other bytes reserved for the username) forced people to keep their thoughts short, like in live conversation.

Along with (for one brief shining moment) a true global art movement happening in real time, the other high point for me was the day I was testing out the multi-thread capability of the original Tweetdeck, the one that twitter bought and scaled down so it would stop melting their API. I had five columns going on-screen when the earthquake happened in Japan, and people there were tweeting it live. You've never seen a computer light up faster. There were five columns of real time descriptions of all the stuff you heard about later on the news.

That was another era for the Internet, and one that's gone forever, and there's no way to get it back. The culture has moved on.

[ZoWie]

Look what just this second dropped, on twitter ironically enough, from the NYT:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/26/busi ... tw-nytimes

In other words, Twitter is no ordinary corporation. It serves as something akin to a public utility, a unique global means of communication.

So should Twitter be governed like a conventional public company, with a board of directors focused primarily on reaping the greatest amount of money possible for shareholders, with little regard to the interests of other groups?

In the eyes of some influential business and legal experts, the answer is no. The company’s directors should have also evaluated the qualifications of Mr. Musk to serve as a responsible steward for a vital public communications channel — and, based on the public comments made by Twitter’s board of directors, there is no evidence that it did so.

[Libertas]

Look what just this second dropped, on twitter ironically enough, from the NYT:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/26/busi ... tw-nytimes

When musk reinstates all the fascist putin lovers, like rump, shit will go bad and fast.

[ZoWie]

Sounds like the solution might be to actually HAVE a REAL public utility that does something akin to what twitter did before the Internet became the hottest new corporate profit center since the rise of broadcast TV.

Do I see a potential UN agency here?

[Bludogdem]

I just don’t get the angst and wailing and gnashing of teeth on this musk thing. So if this goes through he owns twitter. Big whoop.

On a bright note, hordes of twitter employees are going to cashing some big assed checks. Those future options vest on the sale. Kaching.

And then there’s the whiners in congress. Warren with its “dangerous for our democracy”. What a pant load. And she uses this for her idiotic call for a “wealth tax”. I suggest she get busy on the necessary constitutional amendment to accomplish that goal.

And then the morons in the press claiming musk doesn’t pay taxes. “ Musk, according to a Pro Publica report in June, paid no federal income tax in 2018 and paid only $65,000 in 2017 and $68,000 in 2015.”. Now why did they leave out the part where in 2014 and 2016 he paid $455,000,000 in taxes. Why do that. I guess there is an agenda.

https://www.boston.com/news/politics/20 ... democracy/

[Libertas]

God i hate rightwingers

[carmenjonze]

I just don’t get the angst and wailing and gnashing of teeth on this musk thing. So if this goes through he owns twitter. Big whoop.

On a bright note, hordes of twitter employees are going to cashing some big assed checks. Those future options vest on the sale. Kaching.

And then there’s the whiners in congress. Warren with its “dangerous for our democracy”. What a pant load. And she uses this for her idiotic call for a “wealth tax”. I suggest she get busy on the necessary constitutional amendment to accomplish that goal.

And then the morons in the press claiming musk doesn’t pay taxes. “ Musk, according to a Pro Publica report in June, paid no federal income tax in 2018 and paid only $65,000 in 2017 and $68,000 in 2015.”. Now why did they leave out the part where in 2014 and 2016 he paid $455,000,000 in taxes. Why do that. I guess there is an agenda.

https://www.boston.com/news/politics/20 ... democracy/

What wailing and gnashing of teeth?

This Apartheid person whose father was a bona fide white nationalist, this guy whose company is in several EEOC lawsuits because of 60s era discrimination against people of African descent..this person is privatizing a major social media platform.

Being a dim witted white-supremacist yourself, no, no one would expect you to understand why this level of privitization by your WS role model is a problem.

[ZoWie]

Elon Musk is the symptom from which we get an accurate diagnosis of the disease.

The disease leads to total human extinction if not treated.

[Libertas]

What wailing and gnashing of teeth?

This Apartheid person whose father was a bona fide white nationalist, this guy whose company is in several EEOC lawsuits because of 60s era discrimination against people of African descent..this person is privatizing a major social media platform.

Being a dim witted white-supremacist yourself, no, no one would expect you to understand why this level of privitization by your WS role model is a problem.

God I

FUCKING HATE RIGHTWINGERS but the ones I hate even more are the ones who pretend not to be...

[carmenjonze]

I just don’t get the angst and wailing and gnashing of teeth on this musk thing.

Wow, how do you manage to be both a deceptive person AND a gullible, blithering idiot? Elon Musk is bad for business. Too bad you've got too many stars in your eyes about this WN to see it.
__________

Joanne martinez
@Mamamartinez7

This is how open & tolerant Musk’s “freedom of speech” is. Already from 40 to 60 of my Resister followers have been suspended, on day 1. Post this image every time you see MAGA cheering “freedom of speech”, their OWN, that is, which promotes fascism & Putin.



https://twitter.com/Mamamartinez7/statu ... 7163010048

[carmenjonze]

God I

FUCKING HATE RIGHTWINGERS but the ones I hate even more are the ones who pretend not to be...

It takes so much self-deception to be a con. I don't know how these people can get up in the morning and even look themselves in a mirror.

[carmenjonze]

Elon Musk is the symptom from which we get an accurate diagnosis of the disease.

The disease leads to total human extinction if not treated.

Very well said. F. this guy.