Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44 billion

[Occam's Banana]

Let the copium flow through you.

Twitter Is a Far-Right Social Network
It can no longer be denied.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/05/elon-musk-ron-desantis-2024-twitter/674149/
[archive link: https://archive.is/2h2oo]
Charlie Warzel (23 May 2023)

[...]

Holy shit! It gets even better. That was written by the "critical thinking is bad" guy.

https://twitter.com/michaelmalice/status/1661215404448964608

 

[devil21]

Published Apr 14, 2023

Elon Musk founds new AI company called X.AI

X is a symbolic term. There's a reason that credit card receipts and other contracts have an "X" to mark where we sign (sin).

.........................

Elon introducing DeSantis' campaign
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/d...e-house-campaign-twitter-livestream-elon-musk

It's another shocking development.

 

[Occam's Banana]

Musk moves in on Murdoch
https://www.axios.com/2023/05/24/musk-murdoch-twitter-conservative-media
Sara Fischer & Mike Allen (24 May 2023)

Elon Musk has displaced Rupert Murdoch and Fox News as the king of conservative media in recent weeks.

Why it matters: Fox News used to be the place where conservatives went to break news. But the right-wing ecosystem has turned on the network, leaving Twitter as the center of media gravity for the Republican Party just as the 2024 election heats up.

Consider that it's been exactly one month since Fox fired Tucker Carlson and in that short period of time:

• Fox's ratings have sunk in the 8 p.m. hour as viewers flock to rival Newsmax.
• Tucker Carlson announced plans to bring a "new version" of his old Fox News show to Twitter, while arguing, " the news you consume is a lie."
• Ben Shapiro's conservative media company The Daily Wire told Axios it plans to put its entire slate of podcasts, which are almost all recorded as videos, on Twitter beginning May 30.

The biggest blow to Fox is coming Wednesday night, when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is expected to announce his 2024 presidential campaign during a Twitter Spaces event with Elon Musk.

Be smart: In choosing to bypass Fox News for Twitter, DeSantis is sending a signal to conservatives that Fox News is just as much a part of the mainstream media as CNN or any other news network.

Between the lines: Conservatives aren't just defecting to Twitter — they are throwing grenades at Fox News along the way.

• On Monday, The Daily Signal — a conservative publication owned by the Heritage Foundation — published a report based on a leak from a 2021 Fox News employee handbook that said employees are allowed to use bathrooms aligned with the gender they associate with.
• That leak sparked outrage from right-wing voices, including one of The Daily Wire's most popular podcasters, Matt Walsh, who said on Twitter, "Fox News is fully woke on trans ideology." Now that Tucker Carlson's gone, "there’s no stopping Fox’s march leftward," he added.
• Carlson is preparing to unleash allies to attack Fox News in an effort to bully the network into letting him out of his contract, Axios' Mike Allen reported. Already, some allies, such as Megyn Kelly and Brett Favre, have been publicly railing against Fox News in its legal battle with Carlson.

“The old system is collapsing,” Carlson told Axios. “You can’t claim you’ve got a democracy if all the information voters receive before a presidential election has been curated by the people already in charge."

Zoom out: While Elon Musk has said that he plans to vote Republican, it's unclear which candidate, if any, he would support.

• Musk said last year that he would back for DeSantis if he runs for president, but then praised Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) for his latest campaign ad last week.
• Fox News had been trying to move away from Donald Trump, but it did grant him a primetime interview with Carlson. That was shortly before it fired Carlson in the wake of its $757 million defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.

By the numbers: Fox News is still by far the highest-rated cable news network in America, averaging at least 1.5 million viewers per night in prime time. But cable news is rapidly declining. Today, only 66 million U.S. households pay for a cable subscription.

• Because Twitter is a private company, public data is no longer available about its operations, but third-party estimates suggest its monthly active user base in the U.S. will be roughly 55 million this year.
• While it's impossible to compare audience figures from television to social media, research suggests more Americans are leaning into personalities over institutional media brands to get their news.
• The most popular public individual that Americans follow for news is Tucker Carlson, according to a new Gallup survey out Tuesday.

The big picture: DeSantis isn't the only presidential contender to use social media as a part of his official campaign kickoff, but will likely be the first candidate to announce his campaign for presidency alongside a tech mogul in a social media interview.

• Nearly every candidate in the past decade has launched a social media campaign in conjunction with their official announcement. Some, like Barack Obama in 2012, have launched their campaigns online.

What to watch: Former president Trump has not engaged with the current conservative frenzy on Twitter — he has cited his loyalty to Truth Social, the fledgling Twitter rival he set up after Twitter shut down his account.

• While Musk has revived Trump's account, the former president has yet to tweet any content, despite posting on YouTube and Facebook.

 

[Occam's Banana]

https://twitter.com/loganclarkhall/status/1661429094699991054

 

[69360]

It's telling of how fucked up this country has become that they consider Musk far right.

 

[Occam's Banana]

EU official says Twitter abandons bloc’s voluntary pact against disinformation
https://apnews.com/article/twitter-...ial-media-eu-34072bfe3c348aed86c390fdc97d4667
Kelvin Chan (26 May 2023)

[footnote added - OB]

LONDON (AP) — Twitter has dropped out of a voluntary European Union agreement to combat online disinformation, a top EU official said Friday.

European Commissioner Thierry Breton tweeted that Twitter had pulled out of the EU’s disinformation “code of practice” that other major social media platforms have pledged to support. But he added that Twitter’s “obligation” remained, referring to the EU’s tough new digital rules taking effect in August.

“You can run but you can’t hide,” Breton said.

San Francisco-based Twitter responded with an automated reply, as it does to most press inquiries, and did not comment. [1]

The decision to abandon the commitment to fighting false information appears to be the latest move by billionaire owner Elon Musk to loosen the reins on the social media company after he bought it last year. He has rolled back previous anti-misinformation rules, and has thrown its verification system and content-moderation policies into chaos as he pursues his goal of turning Twitter into a digital town square.

Google, TikTok, Microsoft and Facebook and Instagram parent Meta are among those that have signed up to the EU code, which requires companies to measure their work on combating disinformation and issue regular reports on their progress.

There were already signs Twitter wasn’t prepared to live up to its commitments. The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s executive arm, blasted Twitter earlier this year for failing to provide a full first report under the code, saying it provided little specific information and no targeted data.

Breton said that under the new digital rules that incorporate the code of practice, fighting disinformation will become a “legal obligation.”

“Our teams will be ready for enforcement,” he said.

[1]	https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1637420728743088130

//

 

[Occam's Banana]

https://twitter.com/TitterDaily/status/1663193681354956804

//

 

[Occam's Banana]

Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44 billion

TRAILER: Elon Musk & The Babylon Bee At Twitter HQ
The Babylon Bee sat down with Elon Musk for a wide-ranging interview discussing free speech, his purchase of Twitter to free The Bee, and - most importantly - what video games he's playing right now.
https://odysee.com/@TheBabylonBee:7/trailer-elon-musk-the-babylon-bee-at:f


See the thread at Twitter for various clips.

https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1664014211956236288

 

[AngryCanadian]

//

Ah "Disinformation" anything that is agaisnt their narrative.

 

[Occam's Banana]

Twitter's head of trust and safety says she has resigned
https://www.reuters.com/article/twi...nd-safety-says-she-has-resigned-idUSKBN2XN3WY
Sheila Dang (01 June 2023)

(Reuters) - Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, told Reuters on Thursday that she has resigned from the social media company, which has faced criticism for lax protections against harmful content since billionaire Elon Musk acquired it in October.

Irwin, who joined Twitter in June 2022, took over as head of the trust and safety team in November when previous head Yoel Roth resigned. She oversaw content moderation.

An email to Twitter returned an automated reply with a poop emoji. Irwin declined further comment and Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Irwin’s departure comes as the platform has struggled to retain advertisers, with brands wary of appearing next to unsuitable content.

Musk announced earlier this month that he hired Linda Yaccarino, former NBCUniversal advertising chief, to become Twitter’s new CEO.

Fortune earlier reported that Irwin’s internal Slack account appeared to have been deactivated.

Since Musk’s acquisition, Twitter has cut costs dramatically and laid off thousands of employees, including many who had worked on efforts to prevent harmful and illegal content, protect election integrity, and surface accurate information on the site.

Musk has promoted a feature called Community Notes, which lets users add context to tweets, as a way to combat misleading information on Twitter.

The company is also facing increasing scrutiny from regulators over its moderation efforts. Twitter withdrew from a voluntary agreement with the European Union to tackle disinformation, while saying it was committed to complying with upcoming internet rules in the EU.

EU industry chief Thierry Breton warned Twitter last week that it would not be able to avoid legal obligations in the EU after quitting the voluntary agreement.

 

[devil21]

TRAILER: Elon Musk & The Babylon Bee At Twitter HQ
The Babylon Bee sat down with Elon Musk for a wide-ranging interview discussing free speech, his purchase of Twitter to free The Bee, and - most importantly - what video games he's playing right now.
https://odysee.com/@TheBabylonBee:7/trailer-elon-musk-the-babylon-bee-at:f


See the thread at Twitter for various clips.

https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1664014211956236288

Notice that Elon is giving the same handsign as Trump always does, in the Bee video. Jesuit/Templar/Mason handsign. "44 billion won't be worth much"



Morpheus handsign. TV insignia. Jesuit signature.

 

[dannno]

...

 

[GlennwaldSnowdenAssanged]

IMHO Musk is an asset.

 

[Occam's Banana]

Twitter's head of trust and safety says she has resigned
https://www.reuters.com/article/twi...nd-safety-says-she-has-resigned-idUSKBN2XN3WY
Sheila Dang (01 June 2023)

(Reuters) - Twitter’s head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, told Reuters on Thursday that she has resigned from the social media company [...]

h/t [MENTION=1874]Brian4Liberty[/MENTION]: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...-then-Renegs&p=7175539&viewfull=1#post7175539

Woke Twitter employees exit the company in fallout over ‘What Is A Woman’ censorship
One of the employees in question, Maie Aiyed, who served as the company’s program manager for brand safety, was exposed for having previously published posts disparaging white people following her exit.
https://www.rebelnews.com/woke_twit...ny_in_fallout_over_what_is_a_woman_censorship
Ian Miles Cheong (02 June 2023)

[bold emphasis added - OB]

Several high-profile Twitter employees have exited the company following their decision to undermine the leadership of Elon Musk in censoring the Daily Wire’s documentary on trans-affirming surgeries for minors, “What Is A Woman?”

One of the employees in question, Maie Aiyed, who served as the company’s program manager for brand safety, was exposed for having previously published posts disparaging white people following her exit.

Aiyed shared her departure from Twitter, colloquially referred to as "the bird app," through a post on a verified account linked to her. Although the tweet did not detail the reasons for her exit, it extended gratitude to some of her colleagues.

The departure announcement coincided with the news of Ella Irwin's resignation, the chief of Twitter's trust and safety department, and the platform's restriction on the premiere of The Daily Wire's documentary, "What Is A Woman?".

Elon Musk confirmed on Friday that their departures were directly related to the effort to censor the documentary.

Historical posts from Aiyed, exhibiting a pattern of dismissive remarks towards white people, resurfaced among users following the news of her departure. Her previous posts, dating back to 2017, ranged from undermining white individuals' comprehension of other cultures to caricaturing their behaviors and preferences.

As detailed by Fox News producer Gregg Re, Aiyed tweeted various racial grievances against white people.

https://twitter.com/gregg_re/status/1664439367933280259

Aiyed's account portrays her as having Egyptian heritage, frequently posting about video games and an array of other subjects, often in a sardonic tone.

LinkedIn data indicates that Aiyed has held the role of a program manager for Brand Safety Partnerships at Twitter in the San Francisco Bay Area since March 2022, a tenure that predates Elon Musk's acquisition of the company. Her professional history includes employment at other major tech companies such as YouTube, Patreon, and Dropbox.

 

[acptulsa]

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1664388745313787907

 

[GlennwaldSnowdenAssanged]

Elon should offer up a Presidential debate platform to any and all candidates that choose to run as Independents.

 

[devil21]

Exactly. It’s the new form of shadow banning. You can see it under engagements for any given tweet. A new account with no followers may get 100-300 views. In extreme cases, they get in the thousands or tens of thousands.

A shadow banned user, whose “reach” has been limited, will get 10-20 views, even if they have thousands of followers.

Musk has reinstated high profile users, but he certainly is not reviewing the accounts of every peon user. Who makes the decisions to limit “reach”? The same moderators as before? An AI moderator trained in wokeism and govt censorship agendas?

I testd it on YT a few days ago in the comments on a new Taylor Swift video. Vapid (advertising bot) comments made days after my comment received thousands of likes and hundreds of comments, mostly from other obvious bots. My comment got zero of either. No interaction whatsoever. Speech yes but reach no. My account, or at least the keywords I used in my comment, is shadowbanned.

....................

It's telling of how fucked up this country has become that they consider Musk far right.

They don't consider Musk far right. They just hope you might. Overton window...

 

[ClaytonB]

TRAILER: Elon Musk & The Babylon Bee At Twitter HQ
The Babylon Bee sat down with Elon Musk for a wide-ranging interview discussing free speech, his purchase of Twitter to free The Bee, and - most importantly - what video games he's playing right now.
https://odysee.com/@TheBabylonBee:7/trailer-elon-musk-the-babylon-bee-at:f


See the thread at Twitter for various clips.

https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1664014211956236288

Worth a watch:

 

[devil21]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
No, it's really not worth a watch, unless you want to watch a couple relatively small players kiss the ass of a big player for access to keep their revenue stream going. Perhaps it is an unveiling of the inner workings of (fake money) power shown to the masses, yes, but unless you're recognizing it for what it is, no it's not worth a watch.

 

[unknown]

https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1665788669481852929