Elon Musk $41B offer for Twitter

[bodhi]

remedy said:

bodhi said:

Bradgate said:

It will be interesting to see how many of Twitter’s predominantly young, liberal employees wish to continue working for a libertarian billionaire.

It will also be interesting to see how many of Twitter’s most-followed accounts, eg @barackobama, @Cristiano, @CNN, @BBCBreaking, @nytimes will want to continue having their brands associated with a platform owned by a libertarian billionaire.

Is leaving people alone a bad thing now?

Decidedly odd. The word 'libertarian' is being used in a very negative way.

I have noticed this in general discourse, especially over the last 2 years or so - apparently having less rules and letting people figure stuff out for themselves is now something akin to genocide and something angry single bked Austro-Germans would do - case in point:

https://twitter.com/FreeBeacon/status/151867041505...

If you were invited to a party where anything went would you go or stay home?

Um, let me consider that for a second....where do I need to be and when?

[GroundEffect]

Gweeds said:

GroundEffect said:

Twitter is probably the single most important website.

For what?

I use it regularly so I understand how excellent it is for fast breaking news etc. but fking hell it’s a cesspit already.

And it has a tiny active user base compared to Facebook, TikTok, Instagram etc.

Well, news. It's a simple way to get everything consolidated in to one place from the sources you care about, and find it out basically as it breaks.

Someone just paid $44BN for it, so it's clearly valuable.

[g3org3y]

Oh...

[Murph7355]

GroundEffect said:

Well, news. It's a simple way to get everything consolidated in to one place from the sources you care about, and find it out basically as it breaks.

Someone just paid $44BN for it, so it's clearly valuable.

Twitter is opening mouth before engaging brain, and excusing it "because the people demand to know". Look at the tweet of Peston's posted elsewhere, and that's mild.

Is "speed to market" better than "accuracy", or does it overrule "unintended consequence".

[Sway]

bodhi said:

I have noticed this in general discourse, especially over the last 2 years or so - apparently having less rules and letting people figure stuff out for themselves is now something akin to genocide and something angry single bked Austro-Germans would do - case in point:

https://twitter.com/FreeBeacon/status/151867041505...

If you were invited to a party where anything went would you go or stay home?

Um, let me consider that for a second....where do I need to be and when?

I'm pretty libertarian, but as with all things, not as an absolutist.

With the party analogy - you have seen the Purge?

[GroundEffect]

Murph7355 said:

GroundEffect said:

Well, news. It's a simple way to get everything consolidated in to one place from the sources you care about, and find it out basically as it breaks.

Someone just paid $44BN for it, so it's clearly valuable.

Twitter is opening mouth before engaging brain, and excusing it "because the people demand to know". Look at the tweet of Peston's posted elsewhere, and that's mild.

Is "speed to market" better than "accuracy", or does it overrule "unintended consequence".

"Twitter" is an absolutely huge site so a sweeping statement won't cover it. You wouldn't accept me giving even tiny Pistonheads that kind of blanket commentary.

It's all down to who you follow. I don't follow Mr Peston.

[rscott]

I'll be watching the confusion over on the DWAC Stock sub Reddit.

It's a mix of "Elon is owning the libs" and ,"Trump will be back on Twitter" against those who've realised Truth Social will now most likely flop, losing their investments.

[Dagnir]

I might actually make an account now.

[Randy Winkman]

Dagnir said:

I might actually make an account now.

You can have mine.

[bodhi]

Sway said:

I'm pretty libertarian, but as with all things, not as an absolutist.

With the party analogy - you have seen the Purge?

I have, however it didn't look anything like the parties I've been to where anything goes so I'm not entirely sure how relevant it is to the point I was making. I've also seen Hostel, but would happily fly to Amsterdam for a few days tomorrow?

Anyway from Musk's comments I don't see him as an absolutist either - he said the perfect idea of social media is where the extreme 10% on both left and right feel uncomfortable (slight paraphrase) - which I don't have an issue with. Twitter's current problem is it makes anyone outside the 30% on the left feel uncomfortable, which is an issue for general discourse imo.

[Sway]

bodhi said:

I have, however it didn't look anything like the parties I've been to where anything goes so I'm not entirely sure how relevant it is to the point I was making. I've also seen Hostel, but would happily fly to Amsterdam for a few days tomorrow?

Anyway from Musk's comments I don't see him as an absolutist either - he said the perfect idea of social media is where the extreme 10% on both left and right feel uncomfortable (slight paraphrase) - which I don't have an issue with. Twitter's current problem is it makes anyone outside the 30% on the left feel uncomfortable, which is an issue for general discourse imo.

Then you haven't really been in a long term scenario where 'anything goes'... st devolves pretty quickly.

[bodhi]

Sway said:

bodhi said:

I have, however it didn't look anything like the parties I've been to where anything goes so I'm not entirely sure how relevant it is to the point I was making. I've also seen Hostel, but would happily fly to Amsterdam for a few days tomorrow?

Anyway from Musk's comments I don't see him as an absolutist either - he said the perfect idea of social media is where the extreme 10% on both left and right feel uncomfortable (slight paraphrase) - which I don't have an issue with. Twitter's current problem is it makes anyone outside the 30% on the left feel uncomfortable, which is an issue for general discourse imo.

Then you haven't really been in a long term scenario where 'anything goes'... st devolves pretty quickly.

I'm about 21 years in and still here to tell the tale...

[gregs656]

I’m amazed people are getting so excited about this.

[dundarach]

I'm guessing Elon is smarter than me

I'm guessing his 'team' make him even smarter than Smarty McSmartyPants

HOWEVER

What am I missing?

Does Twitter turn enough of a profit to spend $41B?

What a strange thing to buy!

[Leithen]

dundarach said:

What am I missing?

Does Twitter turn enough of a profit to spend $41B?

What a strange thing to buy!

He believes it will remain the primary source of breaking news that all other platforms will follow.

As long as that remains the case, his investment remains safe.

Whether he can avoid completely fking it up and destroying his investment is another matter entirely.

[Julian Thompson]

Will be watching TSLA closely. I guess that’s how he’s financing it…. Ouch?

[Gecko1978]

Julian Thompson said:

Will be watching TSLA closely. I guess that’s how he’s financing it…. Ouch?

Not really ouch is it he is worth circa 300bn if day after he buys it he is worth 200bn....Still.richest guy on the plant 100bn top 5 etc. He wants it so he has bought it. Could ahut it down next day if he wants

[Mojooo]

GroundEffect said:

Gweeds said:

GroundEffect said:

Twitter is probably the single most important website.

For what?

I use it regularly so I understand how excellent it is for fast breaking news etc. but fking hell it’s a cesspit already.

And it has a tiny active user base compared to Facebook, TikTok, Instagram etc.

Well, news. It's a simple way to get everything consolidated in to one place from the sources you care about, and find it out basically as it breaks.

Someone just paid $44BN for it, so it's clearly valuable.

Its the fact that very important people using it as their main mouthpiece - for example our own Prime Minister used to to apologies to Angela Rayner before it was published anywhere else (as a example).


My guess is he will be free speech/say what you want - but will also probably find ways to monetise it.

[InformationSuperHighway]

Mojooo said:

Its the fact that very important people using it as their main mouthpiece - for example our own Prime Minister used to to apologies to Angela Rayner before it was published anywhere else (as a example).


My guess is he will be free speech/say what you want - but will also probably find ways to monetise it.

Eh? It’s already hugely monetized?

[Byker28i]

Murph7355 said:

pquinn said:

Byker28i said:

Matt Bruenig
how sweet is that first trump tweet going to be
https://twitter.com/MattBruenig/status/15185812215...

Funny that people on either side think Elon is going to run some extreme right wing 'free speech absolutist' platform, given that nothing he has done ever before points that way.

Maybe sometimes things have lined up that way at certain times when it suited him (all his Covid bks), but he's been just as quick to get the CCP to block Tesla critics in China when that was in his interest.

He's a very philanthropic person and is clearly only buying Twitter for the good of the world (and who knows, to prove calling people 'pedo' is a jokey phrase after all ).

No such thing as free speech, and those calling for it most often just mean "my speech"...

Which is why
NAACP statement: "Mr. Musk: free speech is wonderful, hate speech is unacceptable. Disinformation, misinformation and hate speech have NO PLACE on Twitter. Do not allow 45 to return to the platform. Do not allow Twitter to become a petri dish for hate speech."