Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter

[Cataclysm]

Why isn't there a thread about this already?

Anyway, Elon Musk is the richest guy on the planet according to Forbes and he bought Twitter for 44 billion a couple of days ago.

His reasoning was the following:
1. Free speech is good
2. Twitter is the public square of the internet
3. Therefore Twitter should adhere to free speech
4. It doesn't do that right now so I have to make sure it does

What are your guys' thoughts? Is Elon Musk noble and care about free speech or is he just collecting data for future robots that'll replace us? If he does care about free speech, will he succeed? Is that even a noble goal? Should one person dictate what free speech is?

If he doesn't care, why would he create a robot based on Twitter conversations? Torture machine for the CIA?

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These are my kind of initial thoughts.

Removing most guidelines on a webiste the size of Twitter is a HUGE cultural event and can have very real consequenses. In my own country for instance many of the political topics are downstream from Twitter so unleashing more rightoids might sway our election this year.

What I find amusing about all of this are all liberal retards freaking out about how their conservative counterparts will have the same rights as them.

I think free speech is really good, but the 1st amendment was written when our fastes means of communication was a guy on a horse. Now it's the speed of light. That's different and I think that has to be taken into account. But I don't think the solution is to censor people with uninformed opinions. I think that proper education is what's lacking and any zoomer knows this. The teachers of today still think Wikipedia is a bad source because "anyone can edit it". Our educational system is stuck in the 20th century and we need to upgrade it quickly, otherwise more and more people are going to fall into QAnon and live in seperate realities. Critical thinking, googling, self-learning and self-motivation is what needs to be taught from a young age, maybe pre-adolescense. In order for the next generation to feel truly included in the adult world we need to provide a clear and functional path to being a productive member of society. It's not the entire solution of course, but I think it's a vital piece of the puzzle.

[xerx]

I seriously doubt that a money-making corporation could ever reliably defend free speech. Elon Musk sells Teslas in China with the approval, always conditional, of the Chinese state. While I can't claim to understand Elon's psychology, I do understand incentives. And Elon has an incentive, and now has the means, to censor criticism of the Chinese government.

As for the broader question of the limits of free speech: Who owns Twitter shouldn't have to matter. Rather than engage in hair-splitting argumentation about the definitions of "censorship" and "free speech", people should just start using multiple platforms. This is one of the original visions for the Internet: A decentralized network of infinite virtual real estate, filled with unique byways.

It will be difficult to shift the culture in this direction (attempts have so far failed), but it really is the only long term solution. There is already a common wisdom that people should consult multiple newspapers, books, and academic studies when formulating an opinion. This isn't any different.

Other than that, we should seriously restrict platforms' ability to deploy dopamine-hijacking, lizard brain-hijacking customer retention algorithms. Information (critical information, at least) should be slower and provoke reflexion and contemplation, not an immediate emotional reaction. Freedom of thought means freedom from unreflective base instincts. In that sense, Twitter has never been free.

[ouronis]

We'll see what happens, it'll be interesting either way

[Averroes]

It's still not a good idea to express any spicy/bigoted views on there unless you're a politician/pundit or from a rural area. afaik people will still be free to get upset and punish you for it/decide they don't want to associate with you

[Cataclysm]

It's still not a good idea to express any spicy/bigoted views on there unless you're a politician/pundit or from a rural area. afaik people will still be free to get upset and punish you for it/decide they don't want to associate with you

Good point. People should definitely keep in mind that their words have consequences.

[Not A Communist Shill]

I think willingness to allow "free speech" - i.e. allowing people like Trump to tweet there has a huge potential for the ruination of Twitter and something to replace it. Combined with Musk's somewhat unpredictable nature - it could be said to volatile (there's a possibility that his actions are very deliberate but I will have to take his actions at face value for now) it is difficult for me to say the takeover is a good or a bad thing.

I think there is a great potential for innovation at Twitter (after prolonged stagnation too), and Musk is exactly the right sort of person to bring about such change.

[InkBlue]

Twitter *is* the public square of the internet...
Elon Musk, someone who thinks BCIs are a good idea and co-founded Neuralink, someone who has made multiple false promises, someone who uses his social media presence to manipulate the market, someone who stole others' startups, someone who overthrew the democracy in Bolivia is literally being worshipped by the internet as a hero...
People really believe he is ''just trying to protect free speech'', huh...
Point is, he is no different from any other multi-billionaire. If anything, his ''innovation'' is really worrying...
I am concerned but honestly there is probably far worse out there. Still would rather he hadn't done it...

[Santa Claus]

[ouronis]

Weren't you already doing that?

[Santa Claus]

Weren't you already doing that?

I was going to but then I realized I didn't have $140 billion needed to get a 50% share.

[SacredKnowing]

Literally everything Elon Musk does is done to advance evil.

[Cataclysm]

Literally everything Elon Musk does is done to advance evil.

Can you explain?

[Hot Scalding Gayser]

Nobody that wealthy is truly noble. He's coming off like a saint helping society but he's just a spoiled rich brat that makes overpriced cars that keep getting recalled and they have bad safety marks.

Free speech isn't a thing - at least not in a campy way. To really have "free speech" that was sustainable - you'd have to make it clear that certain speech about hurting innocent kids wasn't allowed or some other crap. True 'free speech' would be like Yahoo Messenger Chat in the 1990s and that was shut down by the feds and FBI for being too pedo and animalistic like. I mean obviously, there are always limits to 'freedom.' When most people talk about free speech, I wonder sometimes if they don't have Olenna Tyrell's weakness on Game of Thrones. They might be too naive to what people's imaginations can really be like... is that the type of freedom most people really want to be known advocating for?

I never liked or used twitter much myself- I made an account just to mock it before. And I doubt my opinion of it is gonna change any just because it has a new owner. It always seemed like something for Te overlord Lizards and not for me. I'm more into stopping Te valuers trying to ruin my Final Fantasy game with their bullshit- so I want to pick my own battles more wisely.

I just can't care about Twitter. LoL.

[Ave]

Symbolically, I like the idea that different political and social views can be expressed on Twitter, since that hardly feels like the case right now. Not sure it will change much in practice though but we will see.

[Ave]

I don't really have a problem with Musk as a person. Few people are truly evil or truly good and he is neither. I do have a problem with a system based on accumulating capital since to me such purely materialistic concerns are the opposite of noble, Musk himself plays this game (and it's paying off for him better than anyone else) but ultimately did not create it.

[Aster]

I think it’s hilarious. When I heard, I was just imagining all the Karen tears

he’s an odd guy and seems to be slowly gliding towards the center of the spotlight. I have a feeling he’s into some seriously weird shit. so really idk what to think of him. but I feel cautious.

[Fake Intellectual]

Can you explain?

/sarcasm/

Quite simple. He doesn't completely agree with me politically, therefore he is evil.

[Poptart]

[Poptart]

How quickly Elon Musk goes from free speech absolutist to humorless totalitarian mod lmao.

[godslave]

How quickly Elon Musk goes from free speech absolutist to humorless totalitarian mod lmao.

[xerx]

All social media companies are locked into a regime of censorship. It should be obvious that any advertising platform has to avoid controversy if it wants to draw advertisers.

And even if social media companies stepped down from censoring controversial content, credit card companies will pick up the slack instead. They're emerging as the biggest regulators of the web (https://www.economist.com/finance-an...e-web/21805450) from fear of reputational risk.

[Poptart]

All social media companies are locked into a regime of censorship. It should be obvious that any advertising platform has to avoid controversy if it wants to draw advertisers.

And even if social media companies stepped down from censoring controversial content, credit card companies will pick up the slack instead. They're emerging as the biggest regulators of the web (https://www.economist.com/finance-an...e-web/21805450) from fear of reputational risk.

Makes sense. If I were an advertiser or credit card company, I would not want to work with the likes of 4chan (which is what these social media platforms would turn into with zero regulation)

[Popcorn]

I think two things could happen

1. As a man that's often overpromised and oversold technology he doesn't really have or can't sell for a competitive price and has often made claims that falls short (despite the cool shit he has helped happen), he's going to ruin Twitter by under or over-regulating it and trying to make money off of it. Something else will pop up in its place and will draw people away.

2. Because he always aims high, he might actually find ways to make it less toxic and more of a place for people to learn from each other, drawing in more people and transforming it into something that helps bring people together in a positive way, something opposite to everything else going on in news and media.

I suspect if 2 ever happens, it will come after 1.

[xerx]

I've been gone from the Internet for a few days. What's the deal with Alex Jones' and Kanye's bans?

[Poptart]

I've been gone from the Internet for a few days. What's the deal with Alex Jones' and Kanye's bans?

I’ve been trying to avoid the Kanye stuff because I don’t like watching him sink his career. I think he went on Alex Jones’ show and defended Hilter. I don’t know about bans tho.

[FreelancePoliceman]

How quickly Elon Musk goes from free speech absolutist to humorless totalitarian mod lmao.

People tend to lose their principles once they've got a little bit of power.

[Manatroid92]

I’ve been trying to avoid the Kanye stuff because I don’t like watching him sink his career. I think he went on Alex Jones’ show and defended Hilter. I don’t know about bans tho.

It wasn't just defending Hilter, he also said he literally loved Hilter, and called himself a Nazi.
Even Alex Jones was taken aback.

Oh, and he also wore a black mask/balaclava over his head during the interview, no idea what that was for.

People tend to lose their principles once they've got a little bit of power.

I disagree that power makes people lose their principles, I think it's mostly that those who seek power are generally the ones who do it for themselves.

Robert Caro said it best:

“Power doesn't always corrupt, power always reveals. When you have enough power to do what you always wanted to do, then you see what the guy always wanted to do.”

In fact, Elon has long had a history of being a less-than-stellar boss/role model. People who have worked in Tesla factories and the like have mentioned he would sometimes arrive and make an example of employees or just generally impose himself upon others He's always been someone who enjoyed the limelight (remember when he was everyone's favourite tech-bro on Twitter?) for its own sake, but it was shown to ultimately be a facade when he started picking fights with others for no real reason.

I understand idealizing him as he 'used' to be, as I even thought he was just an egocentric but fun genius way back when. But it's just an image he endeavored to have crafted of himself, same as many egocentric individuals.

[godslave]

Imho the power that corrupts is the political one and it's not about central or absolute individual power. It doesn't always corrupt though. People enter the circle of powers with good intentions and they eventually find themselves trapped in some kind of place where their idealistic dreams get lost in dark corridors in which corruption is as insidious as a viral infection. I used to call the politics world the valley of lepers because if you enter it you'll get infected sooner or later even if you have the best intentions. Like I said, corruption comes from disillusionment, reality is just like Balzac describes it in his Great Work "La comedie Humaine" and a lot of dreams just like illusions are made to be lost. Imagine joining a group with an Idea of how the world work and you find out as a new insider that all that you thought was true is just an illusion. That's a theme which has been explored and developed in literature since forever, and where there's smoke there's fire.

Sorry for the ramble and note that I don't know what I'm talking about !

[on a peaceful hiatus]

I've been gone from the Internet for a few days. What's the deal with Alex Jones' and Kanye's bans?

Kanye said to Alex Jones "I don't like the word evil next to nazis". It's interesting to watch all of this from a german perspective. Kanye seems to be completely lost in Ni fantasy land.

[Manatroid92]

Imho the power that corrupts is the political one and it's not about central or absolute individual power. It doesn't always corrupt though. People enter the circle of powers with good intentions and they eventually find themselves trapped in some kind of place where their idealistic dreams get lost in dark corridors in which corruption is as insidious as a viral infection. I used to call the politics world the valley of lepers because if you enter it you'll get infected sooner or later even if you have the best intentions. Like I said, corruption comes from disillusionment, reality is just like Balzac describes it in his Great Work "La comedie Humaine" and a lot of dreams just like illusions are made to be lost. Imagine joining a group with an Idea of how the world work and you find out as a new insider that all that you thought was true is just an illusion. That's a theme which has been explored and developed in literature since forever, and where there's smoke there's fire.

Sorry for the ramble and note that I don't know what I'm talking about !

Very true, merely existing or taking part in a circle/inner society that's based upon obtaining and withholding power (ie. politics) can eventually erode either your own good intentions, or cause you to take avenues that you wouldn't otherwise to fulfill a benevolent ideal (ie. ends justify the means). Sometimes this means cutting a deal with a lesser evil to achieve a result you likely couldn't have gotten otherwise.
And, of course, everyone has their own idea of what constitutes as an ideal world, too, so even in the case that everyone is acting in good faith, someone can only integrate their ideals so far.

[xerx]

So.... he just dropped a nuke by banning reporters from CNN, NYT, and the Washington Post. He also banned Mastodon's official account. Any insight into this?

[Poptart]

Idk but Tesla stock is plummeting and investors are mad

[Metamorph]

Idk but Tesla stock is plummeting and investors are mad

The showman is revealed as the fraud he is to dudebros (and the fairly-common chicksis) and not only to people like me who actually know things.

[FreelancePoliceman]

So.... he just dropped a nuke by banning reporters from CNN, NYT, and the Washington Post. He also banned Mastodon's official account. Any insight into this?

Idk but Tesla stock is plummeting and investors are mad

All of this is great.

[xerx]

Ride a populist wave to overthrow the previous administration -> become an even worse administration -> be overthrown by the next populist wave. The revolution turns full circle.

[Renna]

He’s funny.