Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter may soon go through

[Ag3ma]

Also relevant:

Elon Musk ordered Starlink to be turned off during Ukraine offensive, book says

Biography alleges Musk told engineers to turn off communications network to hobble Ukraine drone attack on Russian warships

www.theguardian.com

One billionaire capitalist can single-handedly end a country offensive action at his personal whim. I'm not sure this would even be a good thing were that billionaire a well-intentioned defender of peace and justice, which Musk emphatically is not. We likewise need to be concerned what such people can do with the "public forum" they control.

 

[Absent]

Bots on X worse than ever according to analysis of 1m tweets during first Republican primary debate

Researchers identify sprawling bot network of 1,305 accounts active during Republican debate and Donald Trump interview

www.theguardian.com

 

[hamishduke]

On a related note, Facebook/Meta's new Twitter competitor 'Threads' will not launch in the EU alongside the US/UK, I'm guessing because of EU data protection compliance, since the new app is designed to piggyback off Instagram data. Good.

why Elon Musk's change the name after purchasing twitter?

 

[Thaluikhain]

why Elon Musk's change the name after purchasing twitter?

He likes stupid names, and has used the X thing for other companies. Terrible idea, of course, but nothing new from him.

 

[Bedinsis]

why Elon Musk's change the name after purchasing twitter?

Welcome to these forums!

Because he loves the letter X.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

why Elon Musk's change the name after purchasing twitter?

Because he's a manchild who thinks "X" is "super-edgy" and makes him cool.

 

[BrawlMan]

Welcome to these forums!

Because he loves the letter X.

Because he's a manchild who thinks "X" is "super-edgy" and makes him cool.

He likes stupid names, and has used the X thing for other companies. Terrible idea, of course, but nothing new from him.

why Elon Musk's change the name after purchasing twitter?

​

 

[Ag3ma]

Few months old. (How did I miss this?) Thoroughly nails pretty much every major internet firm.

The ‘Enshittification’ of TikTok

Or how, exactly, platforms die.

www.wired.com

As this thread's about Twitter, I'm just going to point out this delicious put-down from that article:

"As I said at the start of this essay, enshittification exerts a nearly irresistible gravity on platform capitalism. It's just too easy to turn the enshittification dial up to eleven. Twitter was able to fire the majority of its skilled staff and still crank the dial all the way over, even with a skeleton crew of desperate, demoralized H1B workers who are shackled to Twitter's sinking ship by the threat of deportation."

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Hey, speaking of, X is removing the ability to easily see stats on quote retweets after Elon got tired of being rationed to oblivion by claiming all the monkeys that died during the nurallink thing were already terminally ill

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Hey, speaking of, X is removing the ability to easily see stats on quote retweets after Elon got tired of being rationed to oblivion by claiming all the monkeys that died during the nurallink thing were already terminally ill

Well, duh. He didn't spend all that money to give people the ability to voice their opinions; he spent it for the ability to voice his!

 

[BrawlMan]

Relevant, as Twitter/X is just as involved with this.

​

 

[Chimpzy]

 

[Baffle]

What's he going to do next, threaten to pay my gas bill for me?

 

[Ag3ma]

What's he going to do next, threaten to pay my gas bill for me?

"Stamp out bots", Musk says, as if the real issue wasn't that Twitter has a massive revenue problem. Although I can't see any way that Musk could empty Twitter faster than by demanding money from its users.

Also, I can't help but point out that if it's the digital "public square", I'm not billed for walking through the plazas of my city.

 

[Chimpzy]

"Stamp out bots", Musk says

I'm about 99% sure that when Musk says 'bots', what he actually means is 'anyone who doesn't drink my koolaid'. Or rather, that in his mind, the two are equated.

 

[Baffle]

I'm not billed for walking through the plazas of my city.

Shhh! Liz Truss will get an idea!

 

[Thaluikhain]

He's ruining the thing, sure, but he's taking ages to do it. Either run it properly or kill it off quickly, this long and drawn out business is getting tiresome.

 

[Ag3ma]

Shhh! Liz Truss will get an idea!

She'd privatise the air we breathe if she thought she could get away with it.

 

[Baffle]

She'd privatise the air we breathe if she thought she could get away with it.

I wasn't paying attention and she privatised my legs, got to pay a quid a mile now.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Oh, so this explains the dance party at Mastodon HQ. And the sad thing is, Musk probably honestly believes we'd all pony up money just to hear his ramblings.