Elon buys Twitter

[TheLastStarfighter]

I’ve been banned for life from Twitter…so I guess the algorithm felt I was antisocial.

They just don't like your driving.

 

[TheLastStarfighter]

You'd be hard pressed to find a better person to invest. He's a free speech absolutist, so his goal here is obvious. He's stated that Twitter's algorithms should be open source. Some don't like the idea - including those that work at Twitter - which tells me there is likely things in the code that some people wouldn't like, and how vital openness truly is. If social media is being screened and cultivated, we should now how, and ensure that it isn't bias. Social media is supposed to be user created content, but it is one of the most powerful tools ever for shaping opinions and controlling if not used ethically.

Social Media is the new communications utility of the 21st century, and quickly becoming the most important. It should be a place of 100% free speech, and for the most part free of monitoring. It's illegal for the government or anyone else to read your mail or listen to your phone calls without a warrant. The same should apply to Twitter and Facebook. These companies shouldn't shield you from "dangerous" content or curate what you see. You shouldn't be banned for dissenting views or even misinformation. Users should be able to block content or decide their feed preferences, but companies should not do that in secret. The aggressiveness of muting any questioning of covid vaccines during the pandemic has truly terrified me that we are only a few steps away from a very bad situation. So I welcome this news.

 

[JudgeMetal]

Bot spam, scams, and abuse are not 'dissenting views.'

-Crissa

It must be great to have no legitimate opposition to your viiewpoint.

 

[Tinker71]

It must be great to have no legitimate opposition to your viiewpoint.

I have never known Crissa to shoot down a dissenting option. In fact she comes to the aid of people picked on when the abuser cannot make a logical argument sometime even if it is not her political sway.

 

[John K]

Musk: buys 9.2% passive roll in Twitter shares

The world: (blink) buy Twitter shares

Twitter: (blink) Put Musk on the board of directors

Musk: you do understand what a passive roll is?

Twitter: Ha Ha Ha… now Musk is on the board, he cannot own more than 14.8% stake

Musk: (blink) I guess I have no choice but to help forge a path

World: Buy buy buy

One guy: Other than Musk buying, what changed with Twitter?

World: (blink) Sell!

*This is an act of fiction, any resemblance to actual events are purely coincidental and does not reflect any facts nor information regarding the CT

 

[Tinker71]

Elon's 3 fears are religious extremism, declining birthrates, and out of control AI.

I think the Twitter purchase is his action against #1. Politics are our new religion. People are taking sides, often extreme sides. It is the saddest thing I have personally witnessed in the last 12 years. It is dividing families and polarizing the country. For Elon I think it is mostly a distraction from his vision of the future. If we are fighting each other we can't move forward effectively. I hope he has a plan to stop the infighting. We need dissent, we need to be challenged, we need free speech for both of these. How to stop the clickbait attention grabbing hyperbole, pure lies and disinformation on social media without squelching free speech? Maybe his new functionality button is the answer.

What I don't understand is his support for someone like Joe Rogan. Rogan promoted ivermectin, which was not data driven. People followed Joe for the 'cool factor'. Many were injured because of this.

I think Elon has a need to be considered cool and needs the attention, but if his goal is to fight extremism, some of his actions are incongruent.

 

[JBee]

I expect EM has spent $3billion intentionally. Very intentionally.

That means he has a plan, and I expect that that plan might not sit well with many who would rather see corporate censorship strive and social discourse become just regurgitated force fed mob bias to stifle meaningful progress and change.

It would seem completely understandable that if he was previously talking about creating his own twitter-like social media, that instead of investing money into that and starting from scratch, he'd rather buy established with the customer base and infrastructure it comes with.

The result is much faster, plus he actually has influence over twitter, that otherwise would remain his main competitor as well if he created his own.

To boot he will make some money with it to pay for it. Twitter stock has gone up since.

Don't underestimate EM. Change is coming.

 

[Ogre]

Weird Thought. What if SpaceX moved Twitter‘s servers into orbit?

Musk’s free speech stance might put him on a collision course with China.

 

[Ogre]

I think when Musk said “Passive Roll” I thought he was ordering sushi.





”I’d like a Dragon Roll and a Passive Roll, I can eat while attending the Twitter board meetings.”

 

[JBee]

Weird Thought. What if SpaceX moved Twitter‘s servers into orbit?

Musk’s free speech stance might put him on a collision course with China.

Not just Twitter and social media. Marketspace and advertising. Trade and block chain contracts, Crypto and banking. Policy voting. Idea perpetuation. All out of reach of global governments.

 

[Tinker71]

Not just Twitter and social media. Marketspace and advertising. Trade and block chain contracts, Crypto and banking. Policy voting. Idea perpetuation. All out of reach of global governments.

Interesting concept. Which country will be first to blow it up? I am generally a fan of libertarianism, but there are some bad people out there worse than a clunky sometimes corrupt governments.

 

[JBee]

EM already said he can put them up faster than they can shoot them down.

(the US is both his greatest ally and his greatest threat btw)

 

[Crissa]

I agree about the open source, at least on the face of methodology.

But...

These companies shouldn't shield you from "dangerous" content or curate what you see. You shouldn't be banned for dissenting views or even misinformation.

No.

There are millions of users. It would be impossible for each user to curate a stream without abuse and misinformation from the millions of others. You'd literally be overwhelmed.

Being liable for what you are publishing means being held responsible scamming and abuse. There is no reason a platform should be party to your crimes.

Freedom of speech has never meant freedom to steal, scam, or abuse. Why should a platform be required to host such things?

-Crissa

 

[JBee]

I agree about the open source, at least on the face of methodology.

But...

No.

There are millions of users. It would be impossible for each user to curate a stream without abuse and misinformation from the millions of others. You'd literally be overwhelmed.

Being liable for what you are publishing means being held responsible scamming and abuse. There is no reason a platform should be party to your crimes.

Freedom of speech has never meant freedom to steal, scam, or abuse. Why should a platform be required to host such things?

-Crissa

So those social media platforms are allowed to do that to us though with impunity and without consent?

Lol you're funny.

 

[Crissa]

This is too close to political, but hear me out. This shouldn't be a partisan position.

It must be great to have no legitimate opposition to your viiewpoint.

I'm fine with discussing different potential ways of doing things.

But there are limits. Allowing people to come to harm from the discussion is one of them. Actions which destroy the usefulness of a platform is another. Discussing things which lead to real people being discriminated against or actually killed gets serious really quickly.

Which is why some topics are off limits here. And why the host (either Twitter or Cybertruck Administrator) has to set limits as to what's allowed.

If everything is allowed, the worst actors will take advantage and commit abuse of the system. Others will commit crimes. And others will target others for abuse.

And that denies not just the bad actors, but anyone targeted from participating. So how is that free speech, if it's only free for those not targeted by abusers?

-Crissa