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Elon Musk purchasing Twitter

Palamon

Palamon

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    • I honestly don't really care, and if people are complaining about it, then just leave like you claim you will, it's not that hard.
     
    Megan

    Megan

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    I'm not sure what to think when rich people talk about free speech, tbh. Musk probably just wanted a new plaything to fiddle around until he gets bored.

    Well, I honestly don't really care. I left Twitter a couple years ago.
     
    Orion☆

    Orion☆

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    • What does Elon Musk want Twitter for, anyway? It's the closest place to Hell on Earth that I have ever been in - and I survived mid-2010s Dunglr Tumblr!

    If he's buying the garbage to recycle it, good. But if he's buying garbage for the sake of just having garbage... he's in for a nasty surprise.
     
    Hyzenthlay

    Hyzenthlay

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    • 44 billion dollars. What does he even want it for? I've not kept up with Musk, nor do I use Twitter so it doesn't affect me personally. I used to browse it for art but since you need to sign up now, I stopped visiting it at all.

    Honestly, it just exasperates me. I think of all the things 44 billion dollars could go into. The refugee crisis, the wars, the floods, getting homeless people off the streets, slowing climate change, supporting the elderly, donating to hospitals that need it, promoting smaller businesses, putting it into medical research, paying to halt land destruction, help create affordable housing - the list goes on. But no. I guess you don't get this mega rich and influential without caring solely for your own gains.
     
    Zeostar

    Zeostar

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    Hyzenthlay said:
    44 billion dollars. What does he even want it for? I've not kept up with Musk, nor do I use Twitter so it doesn't affect me personally. I used to browse it for art but since you need to sign up now, I stopped visiting it at all.

    Honestly, it just exasperates me. I think of all the things 44 billion dollars could go into. The refugee crisis, the wars, the floods, getting homeless people off the streets, slowing climate change, supporting the elderly, donating to hospitals that need it, promoting smaller businesses, putting it into medical research, paying to halt land destruction, help create affordable housing - the list goes on. But no. I guess you don't get this mega rich and influential without caring solely for your own gains.
    Click to expand...

    I abhor the pressure for signing up. Reddit does the same thing, trying to force you to download an app to view entire conversations.

    Unrelated, but it's interesting that despite all the money, Elon Musk no longer owns a house.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2022/04/19/elon-musk-tesla-no-house/7364902001/
     
    Frequency

    Frequency

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    • (insert gripes about using 44Bs to buy Twitter and not spend that money on world issues here)

    I suppose I could offer the big brained conspiracy opinion that is "He's buying into people and an information feed" but this is Elon we're talking about, so if anything I just want to know WHY he's buying it...
     
    _confused_piplup_

    _confused_piplup_

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    • Tbh I have no idea about it. Now Musk is a person that "plays a character" when he's in public. Not sure which are and will be the changes. I stay on twitter for information and the few accounts I follow. I have a closed profile so I can avoid people's unnecessary hate. If it changes in better, I am glad. If it doesn't, I don't really care. I think the point of the question is trying to understand for what kind of political/economical reasons he did it. I have no idea because I don't know much about Musk and I am not really interested in that.
    Obviously, defending the "free speech" philosophy isn't the only reason he bought Twitter, there must be something deeper, but I don't know tbh
     
    Nah

    Nah

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    For the answer to the question of "why", it's usually a safe bet in a capitalist world that whenever a very wealthy person does something, it's not for good reasons, and that's sort of all you really need to know. The whole "I want to defend free speech and democracy" and "I want to make Twitter better" bits is just a veil attempting to hide his real intentions.
     

    Corrin

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    • Nah said:
    For the answer to the question of "why", it's usually a safe bet in a capitalist world that whenever a very wealthy person does something, it's not for good reasons, and that's sort of all you really need to know. The whole "I want to defend free speech and democracy" and "I want to make Twitter better" bits is just a veil attempting to hide his real intentions.
    Click to expand...

    By free speech he means no punishments for targeted harassment, hate speech, or just harassment in general.
    It's frightening. Especially since I've seen so many users on there tell others to "k*ll themselves" already.

    Removing moderation means pretty much anything can happen.
     
    Fairy

    Fairy

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    "Fuck your tunnels. Fuck your cars. Fuck your rockets. Fuck your cars again."
    - Penelope Scott
     
    VisionofMilotic

    VisionofMilotic

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    • I think Elon Musk buying Twitter has potential for some interesting things happening. The changes that he says he wants to make like not restricting content and views- even if they are subversive, having open source algorithms for greater transparency, creating an edit button, and adding stronger spam protections are things that I don't see a reason not to support.

    I think he probably did buy Twitter because he likes the place, holds some anti-censorship views, and wanted to bring more people into the discourse. Now whether he actually holds to this over time is another story. I'll wait to see what he actually does with the platform over the next few months, and not just what he says.

    Though I am sure that he will try to make some money off of the thing, I don't think he would buy Twitter for 44 billions dollars if his sole interest was the money, because Twitter doesn't make that kind of money.

    Twitter is a socially influential platform, but the media makes it seem more significant to everyone's lives than it really is, as it's their preferred place for hanging out and sharing thoughts. Twitter is a space where artists and entertainers, politicians, business people etc have their accounts, so if you're interested in those worlds it's a good spot to frequent, but just in terms of the amounts of visitors or revenue it does not generate what YouTube, Tiktok or Facebook would.

    Twitter might make a couple billion a year-- what Musk would need just to pay back the loans each year he borrowed against his Tesla stock to buy Twitter, and not rack up debt. It could take several years before he breaks even, let alone sees a lot of money from this venture. I'm not saying he won't still come out of this deal on top. He can make flying cars and hyper loop transporters, and send folks to Mars, so he probably could find a way of getting richer off of Twitter too. It's not a quick or guaranteed money maker though, so I think if he was just after the cash then there are simpler ways for him to do that.

    This still doesn't mean he's a good guy, there's much about Elon Musk that I think is very problematic just like the other big tech Billionaires, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg etc.

    A broken clock can be right twice a day though, and I guess it's possible that believing in free speech is that one area of his philosophy where he is not terrible, the other being environmental issues.
     
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    Fairy

    Fairy

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    Musk has now, as of like 8(?) hours ago, confirmed he would reinstate Trump's account if the sale goes through. :/
     
    Orion☆

    Orion☆

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    • Fairy said:
    Musk has now, as of like 8(?) hours ago, confirmed he would reinstate Trump's account if the sale goes through. :/
    Click to expand...

    Goddammit. So much for "freedom of speech." 🤦

    It also turns out that ever since Musk bought Twitter, you can't even use it as an image board of sorts to view fanart, because the "log in/sign up" message is turning up way more often than it used to. I've found a way around it (unlike in Dunglr) but I'd be lying if I said it isn't annoying as hell. I feel guilty going into sites like Danbooru because they're full of unauthorized reposts, but at least they've got the links to the Twitter originals and it's easier to find and access them.

    Honestly? Musk can keep the hell bird for all I care. If he screws the site up, the people who need it will migrate elsewhere, just as it happened with Dunglr.
     
    Tsutarja

    Tsutarja

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    • i don't care about whether or not he's gonna let trump back on or not. it should be worrisome that he plans to take twitter private which means no board of directors to check him and he can get away with shit by dodging sec filings for not being a public company

    he's power hungry and wants to take quite the power trip
     

    colours

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    • another move by an attention-seeking billionaire who's probably going to back out of it seeking how tesla's stock is plunging...
     
    Fairy

    Fairy

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    colours said:
    another move by an attention-seeking billionaire who's probably going to back out of it seeking how tesla's stock is plunging...
    Click to expand...
    Tesla stock is back up a bit as of this morning. but the downward trend seems as consistent as ever.

    But I had heard he was backpedaling and considering walking after learning that like approx. 30% of all Twitter accounts are bots / fake. The whole narrative of "well now you have to accept a lower price or get bot accounts to >5%!" just comes off as Musk in a panicked scramble to find any excuse to bail in light of Tesla's plummeting stock. Even my second-cousin's mother-in-law's older brother's sugar baby's ex-dog walker knows there's a metric ton of bots on Twitter. :/
     
    VisionofMilotic

    VisionofMilotic

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    • My initial thought was curiosity. I wasn't necessarily of the mindset to not go to Twitter, if he became the owner. I was ready to wait and see how the platform looked overtime before making up my mind. Not anymore though after reading that he settled a lawsuit for flashing and putting his hands on one of the employees on his airplane.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/spa...accused-elon-musk-of-sexual-misconduct-2022-5

    I knew that he didn't protect his workers like not giving them unions or sick leave during lockdown, but I didn't know that it was to the point of allegations that he sexually exploited staff. This is the deal-breaker for me.
     
    Orion☆

    Orion☆

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    • Thought I'd pop in again to share what has come of Musk buying Twitter.

    Musk foolishly gave an ultimatum to the employees to start working long, grueling hours. Unsurprisingly, the staff began leaving in droves, to the point he had to shut down all offices to prevent further resignations.

    The news broke in a couple of hours ago. There's a very real risk that Twitter might disappear for good this time, if they cannot keep it running with the right staff. People are already saying their goodbyes, and #RIPTwitter is trending.

    Honestly... just kill the blue bird off already. Musk needs to learn his lesson, even though we all know he won't.
     
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