Elon Musk - the world's "greatest" spiv?

[dgl]

Though I assume free speech will be so long as you don't criticise Elone, he dosn't seem to be someone that can cope with negativity towards himself.

At some point his would will come crashing down and he'll owe a lot of people a lot of money, he may be the richest man in the world at the moment but I bet the likes of Bill Gates or Carlos Slim have more actual/physical money.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

P45s (or "pink slip" equivalents) in the course of preparation for the existing Twitter Inc. board?

 

[takno]

P45s (or "pink slip" equivalents) in the course of preparation for the existing Twitter Inc. board?

To be fair I suspect many of them are people who are sitting on a pile of shares with preconditions which mean they can't dump them in the open market. Nothing blunts the pain of a pink slip like a really big pile of money

 

[AlterEgo]

There isn’t really any meaningful free speech on a platform dominated by bots anyway.

 

[Busaholic]

I'm off Twitter then (share price crashes 0.0000000001 cent ) Shame, as I got banned from Facebook before I'd even posted anything! Still, they got my mobile phone no. together with my undying hostility to anything they ever do.

 

[jon0844]

He must have done very well investing in Twitter, then pretending he wanted out and then securing funding (other people's money) for a hostile takeover.

I'm sure he'll use the platform only for good and won't also use it to manipulate share prices...

But on the plus side, we're going to get an edit button at some point now.

 

[birchesgreen]

The tech bros are going to be even more unbearable now.

 

[brad465]

Though I assume free speech will be so long as you don't criticise Elone, he dosn't seem to be someone that can cope with negativity towards himself.

Of course Musk is the one who got in trouble for "that remark" he made about those involved in the Thai Cave rescue.

At some point his would will come crashing down and he'll owe a lot of people a lot of money, he may be the richest man in the world at the moment but I bet the likes of Bill Gates or Carlos Slim have more actual/physical money.

Yes Musk's wealth has largely come from the false economy driven by The Fed's photocopier. While there is a strong reluctance to return monetary policy to how it was pre-2008, inflation is soaring and snookering central banks as a result; the bubble is going to have to burst at some point.

 

[nlogax]

I assume that Trump is gleeful at the possibility of getting his Twitter account back .

 

[birchesgreen]

I assume that Trump is gleeful at the possibility of getting his Twitter account back .

Why? I thought he has his own bestest beautiful social media network?

 

[jon0844]

Why? I thought he has his own bestest beautiful social media network?

All the other platforms fail because the right want to 'own the left' and once a platform is nothing but an echo chamber, there's no point. Parler, Truth Social and God knows what else are all failures (although I believe Parler proved very useful for investigators of the Jan 6th insurrection given how many people posted content and their names, faces etc).

If Trump is allowed back on Twitter, it's going to become pretty awful and if Elon thinks he can just allow anything to be said, it will be unbearable. It's hardly great as it is.

 

[nlogax]

As of this afternoon the GOP are already pushing Musk on nixing Trump's ban. If Musk intends on being consistent with his desire to 'allow free speech' then the outcome is inevitable and Trump will distance himself from Truth Social in the process.

 

[takno]

I've just deleted everything from all my accounts. It was already a dangerously vapid awful platform, so the growing moral imperative not to support it was just a bonus really.

 

[MCSHF007]

I'm feeling positive here. A little less supine pandering to the "woke"/"politically correct" brigade is always welcome

 

[dgl]

What I suspect will end up happening is some really nastly people will be allwed to spout what they like, Twitter will now do nothing about it "because free speech" and they are going to face many lawsuits over it which could end up with Musk being booted out by his financiers.

You might be allowed to say what you like now on Twitter (so long as you don't hurt poor Musk's feelings) but if that harms someone else you can bet the harmed will take action. Also if the more reasoned people start to leave then we could end up with another truth social, the right want to attack the left where they can see the attacks as they crave the backlash, if there is no one on the left to see them the right will end up leaving.

Maybe this will help to show more people what Musk is really like and his world might start coming crashing down.

 

[birchesgreen]

Twitter is still bound by the same national laws no matter who owns it.

 

[dgl]

Twitter is still bound by the same national laws no matter who owns it.

Quite, and Elon will do well to realise that, wheather he cares or not is another matter.

 

[brad465]

I'm feeling positive here. A little less supine pandering to the "woke"/"politically correct" brigade is always welcome

"Woke" means "an alert to injustice in society", how this came to be used as an insult baffles many.

What I suspect will end up happening is some really nastly people will be allwed to spout what they like, Twitter will now do nothing about it "because free speech" and they are going to face many lawsuits over it which could end up with Musk being booted out by his financiers.

You might be allowed to say what you like now on Twitter (so long as you don't hurt poor Musk's feelings) but if that harms someone else you can bet the harmed will take action. Also if the more reasoned people start to leave then we could end up with another truth social, the right want to attack the left where they can see the attacks as they crave the backlash, if there is no one on the left to see them the right will end up leaving.

Maybe this will help to show more people what Musk is really like and his world might start coming crashing down.

Yes I can see much of this happening too.

 

[nlogax]

"Woke" means "an alert to injustice in society", how this came to be used as an insult baffles many.

Well, quite. Though extremism on Twitter cuts both ways..the left have resorted to the same incoherent yelling as the right in order to get its points across and no one is really listening to each other. As a result Twitter has been a bin fire for years.

 

[gg1]

Of course Musk is the one who got in trouble for "that remark" he made about those involved in the Thai Cave rescue.

Indeed, the episode which cemented my current very low opinion of Musk as a human being.

 

[jon0844]

Twitter is still bound by the same national laws no matter who owns it.

Yes, but an awful lot of people don't understand that or what freedom of speech means. It's also funny that some people think he's going to somehow change the terms to match the US constitution, forgetting it is a global operation.

Fan boys are going to see Twitter as Elon's personal mouthpiece. Trumpers will think it now means Donald winning in 2024...

 

[GusB]

I was somewhat amused earlier when I had a quick glance at my Twitter feed. There was a sponsored tweet from eToro saying that Tesla was on fire. I assume they were referring to the share price, but it seemed rather unfortunate given Tesla's record in producing combustible motors!

 

[Cloud Strife]

All the other platforms fail because the right want to 'own the left' and once a platform is nothing but an echo chamber, there's no point. Parler, Truth Social and God knows what else are all failures (although I believe Parler proved very useful for investigators of the Jan 6th insurrection given how many people posted content and their names, faces etc).

I remember having this discussion with a friend who is very deep into social networks as a business. He pointed out that the 'own the libs' brigade are really, really poor customers. They don't buy from sponsored adverts, they take up a lot of resources (moderation especially), and they drive away people who are actually doing the buying. If they're allowed to dominate Twitter, the left/centrist type people will simply move elsewhere, and the 'own the libs' types will simply stop posting once there's no-one to offend.

 

[GusB]

I remember having this discussion with a friend who is very deep into social networks as a business. He pointed out that the 'own the libs' brigade are really, really poor customers. They don't buy from sponsored adverts, they take up a lot of resources (moderation especially), and they drive away people who are actually doing the buying. If they're allowed to dominate Twitter, the left/centrist type people will simply move elsewhere, and the 'own the libs' types will simply stop posting once there's no-one to offend.

Some years ago I was fairly active on Google+, a platform that I enjoyed using because was mainly geeky types who were there. Unfortunately, with the run up to Brexit, it became rather more toxic and the types that you've mentioned tended to shout the loudest. Block them from commenting on your posts and they screamed blue murder about their freedom of speech being infringed.

With Twitter I don't get involved in political stuff any more for the same reason.

 

[Cdd89]

I think the free speech issue is a distractor and am more interested to see how he intends to monetise Twitter. That’s what everyone would be talking/fearful about, were it not for the controversial lede.

My guess is it will start by squeezing money out of influencers (actual or aspiring).

 

[Cloud Strife]

Some years ago I was fairly active on Google+, a platform that I enjoyed using because was mainly geeky types who were there. Unfortunately, with the run up to Brexit, it became rather more toxic and the types that you've mentioned tended to shout the loudest. Block them from commenting on your posts and they screamed blue murder about their freedom of speech being infringed.

With Twitter I don't get involved in political stuff any more for the same reason.

Yes, and it's exactly that type of person who kills communities. People don't want to engage with them, nor can they be bothered with their ranting about freedom of speech - it's just tiresome and not worth listening to.

I'm the admin of a fairly popular Facebook group, and anyone coming with a 'own the libs' mentality is banned on sight. I cannot be bothered with them, I don't care about their alleged freedom of speech, and it's much easier to get rid of them on sight than to let them bring their toxic behaviour into the group.

 

[takno]

I think the free speech issue is a distractor and am more interested to see how he intends to monetise Twitter. That’s what everyone would be talking/fearful about, were it not for the controversial lede.

My guess is it will start by squeezing money out of influencers (actual or aspiring).

That's an interesting plan in theory, but ultimately the entire influencer marketplace involves money going the other way, and Twitter isn't driving much of any value to any influencers. Compared to Insta, YouTube or even Facebook it's just a worthless time-sink. If Twitter aren't even able to monetize the output that influencers provide to them for free, then what exactly are they there for?

I think the only even-nearly viable thing for Twitter to squeeze revenue out of as it stands is the businesses using it as a customer support channel. The problem with that is that those businesses can easily enough engage with their customers elsewhere, often providing a better experience all-round, and the market value of companies offering this are all rather lower $45 billion.

 

[GS250]

Well, quite. Though extremism on Twitter cuts both ways..the left have resorted to the same incoherent yelling as the right in order to get its points across and no one is really listening to each other. As a result Twitter has been a bin fire for years.

Probably because 'Woke' causes omit one particular demographic......

 

[Cdd89]

That's an interesting plan in theory, but ultimately the entire influencer marketplace involves money going the other way, and Twitter isn't driving much of any value to any influencers. Compared to Insta, YouTube or even Facebook it's just a worthless time-sink

I guess a “pay for your followers” model might be a way to do it.

0—500	£0/month
501—5,000	£5/month
5,001—50,000	£20/month
50,001—500,000	£40/month
500,001—5,000,000	£100/month
5,000,001+	£200/month

As long as the price is carefully structured (like the above isn’t!), and it’s free for casual users and very cheap for active users, I don’t see why this wouldn’t work.

Someone with 500 followers likely gets as much enjoyment out of Twitter as Disney+, for example, and people happily pay £79/year for that.

 

[birchesgreen]

I have 651 followers, i'd be deleting 151 of them if they put that pricing scheme in