The ongoing X and Elon Musk Transgressions Thread

[calculoso]

Twitter’s own lawyers refute Elon Musk’s claim that the ‘Twitter Files’ exposed US government censorship

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/06/tech/...ers/index.html

https://twitter.com/user/status/1666252614923591692

[SutterBrother]

Its sort of schadenfreud to see the 20% or so of people who use Twitter come around to realizing what most of the rest of us have seen from the outset.

It’s toxic and unhealthy. People don’t regret quitting.

Though it wasn’t his intention Musk is certainly shining a spotlight on that.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by SutterBrother

Its sort of schadenfreud to see the 20% or so of people who use Twitter come around to realizing what most of the rest of us have seen from the outset.

It’s toxic and unhealthy. People don’t regret quitting.

Though it wasn’t his intention Musk is certainly shining a spotlight on that.

I've been using Twitter almost exclusively as a "follower" to get breaking news, specifically hockey news, for a little over 13 years. It still serves that purpose quite well, although a few personalities and news sources have abandoned the platform in protest.

If you follow the right folks and resist looking at the comments it's still a useful tool. The only change has been a ramp up in useless ads, spam, bots, and hate accounts. That's all happened since Elon took over. On average I block 3-4 spam followers a week, something I didn't have to do before the Fall of 2022.

He's made it a far worse place than it was a year ago, but let's not pretend it was always some hellscape that the evolved have been above from the start.

Musk has certainly done his damage to the platform, but like any other you mostly get out of it what you want.

[PsYcNeT]

Absolutely the worst thing about twitter right now (ignoring the myriad technical issues that are suddenly prevalent every couple weeks) are Boosted Blue Checks, because the Angry Loser contingent is about 10:1 vs Legitimate Project/Person.

Seeing what would normally be completely ignored or bottom of the barrel content first thing when clicking into a post is exhausting, especially when you have to scroll past 20+ terrible takes before finding people having a real conversation.

EDIT: lol at Musk falling face first into the alt-Right pipeline

https://twitter.com/user/status/1666489810838773760

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Absolutely the worst thing about twitter right now (ignoring the myriad technical issues that are suddenly prevalent every couple weeks) are Boosted Blue Checks, because the Angry Loser contingent is about 10:1 vs Legitimate Project/Person.

Seeing what would normally be completely ignored or bottom of the barrel content first thing when clicking into a post is exhausting, especially when you have to scroll past 20+ terrible takes before finding people having a real conversation.

EDIT: lol at Musk falling face first into the alt-Right pipeline

https://twitter.com/user/status/1666489810838773760

As we used to say in the 70's

'you can take the **** out of South Africa but you can never really take the **** out of a South African'

[Fuzz]

Not sure the best thread for this, but since this is one is full of trainwrecks...

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson hosted the first episode of his new show, Tucker on Twitter, on Tuesday, in a roughly 10-minute long video titled “Ep.1.”

Carlson opened the show claiming Ukraine was behind the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, which has so far led to the displacement of nearly 3,000 people, while referring to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “sweaty and rat-like,” and “a persecutor of Christians.”

https://nationalpost.com/news/tucker...n-twitter-show

Yes, won't someone think of the poor persecuted Christians while Ukraine is decimated by Putin, who must now be cutting Tucker a cheque. And Musk probably loves the guy.

[Fuzz]

Also...

https://twitter.com/user/status/1666498723629654035

yes Elon, you make a very good point.

The report also looked at other platforms but found them less amenable to growing such networks. According to the WSJ, the Stanford investigators found "128 accounts offering to sell child-sex-abuse material on Twitter, less than a third the number they found on Instagram" despite Twitter having far fewer users, and that such content "does not appear to proliferate" on TikTok.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/0...phile-networks

Awkward.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Not sure the best thread for this, but since this is one is full of trainwrecks...

https://nationalpost.com/news/tucker...n-twitter-show

Yes, won't someone think of the poor persecuted Christians while Ukraine is decimated by Putin, who must now be cutting Tucker a cheque. And Musk probably loves the guy.

Wow. Even for Tucker Carlson.

Wow.

[The Fonz]

The Tucker episode was bananas. I can't remember who (I'm assuming the US gov?), but he was claiming they have alien bodies in their possession.

Lots of other crazy #### too.

[photon]

I guess WFH is back on the menu, Twitter being evicted from their Boulder, Colorado offices.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/14/tw...r-unpaid-rent/

[Fuzz]

https://www.platformer.news/p/twitter-stiffs-google


They've also stopped paying Google. Deadbeats!

[GordonBlue]

what else has Musk been up to?

Twitter hit with $250 million lawsuit from music publishers over alleged copyright infringement

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/15/tech/...ght/index.html

Music publishers sued Twitter for more than $250 million in damages on Wednesday, alleging that the social media platform “breeds massive copyright infringement that harms music creators.”

The lawsuit alleges that for years, Twitter has allowed users of its platform to share copyrighted songs without a license. It also claims Twitter’s misconduct has only gotten worse since Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion last fall and slashed staff.

Twitter’s alleged permissiveness around users sharing copyrighted songs, combined with the social network’s promotion of tweets with copyrighted music, has unlawfully helped fuel the company’s growth, according to the National Music Publishers’ Association, whose members include Universal, Sony and Warner Music Group.

“Providing free, unlicensed music gives the Twitter platform an unfair advantage over competing platforms, such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and others.”

Twitter’s competitors, the music publishers said, all pay licensing fees to rightsholders for the ability to use the copyrighted music.

[Fuzz]

Musk's twitter feed has basically devolved into anti-trans re-tweets, promotional posts for his products, and Tucker Carlson. Does any doubt remain about this delinquent loser?

[GordonBlue]

last year Musk said "I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means"

today:

Twitter has suspended the accounts of a prominent Tesla and Elon Musk critic, PlainSite founder Aaron Greenspan

Greenspan told CNBC on Thursday that he has not yet received information from Twitter saying why the company suspended his accounts, though he has requested a reinstatement of both.

He also discussed some of the reasons why he started the “legal transparency initiative” PlainSite, and how he came to be regarded as an Elon Musk nemesis.

[Fuzz]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1670117122650050561


LOL. Hilarious. No one left at the company knows about this code, because I fired everyone who might have a clue why it was there. Could you be any thicker? And people think this guy is smart?

Seems pretty obvious to me, someone has a really low reputation they are probably a #### poster making your platform worse, and you don't really want them to trend, right? This seems like common ####ing sense to me. So perhaps if Elon's account ended up on it, there is probably a decent reason.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

LOL. Hilarious. No one left at the company knows about this code, because I fired everyone who might have a clue why it was there. Could you be any thicker? And people think this guy is smart?

Seems pretty obvious to me, someone has a really low reputation they are probably a #### poster making your platform worse, and you don't really want them to trend, right? This seems like common ####ing sense to me. So perhaps if Elon's account ended up on it, there is probably a decent reason.

He's dumb and his followers are dumber. It's why the worship him so much. Remember when Matata said that Twitter stock price "has never been higher"?

These people are a match made in heaven.

[Matata]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

He's dumb and his followers are dumber. It's why the worship him so much. Remember when Matata said that Twitter stock price "has never been higher"?

These people are a match made in heaven.

Confession time, I'm barely paying attention to this except the parts I think are hilarious.


I thought we were friends now, what gives?

[Locke]

I dont know about the rest of you but I havent had this much free Corporate Entertainment in a long time.

Hey, if its not something I've invested in or care about then I'll just sit back and watch it burn, and you've gotta admit...this is no ordinary Corporate Campfire, Elon is not sparing the accelerant.

[wireframe]

A new engineer joined my team today. He previously worked for Twitter for 8 years and only left in May. I asked if it's as chaotic as the news tells us - yes it is. But he also pointed out that they are still maintaining the application with 25 of the original engineering staff.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by wireframe

A new engineer joined my team today. He previously worked for Twitter for 8 years and only left in May. I asked if it's as chaotic as the news tells us - yes it is. But he also pointed out that they are still maintaining the application with 25 of the original engineering staff.

without context, I don't know if that's useful information. Your new guy seems to indicate that's sufficient.
how many were there before Musk fired everyone? What's the minimum needed to keep the thing running properly? how many are too busy working on whatever Musks whims are and are not doing their actual job?

too many questions.