Everyone must know by now that ultra-rich boy, Elon Musk, has finally purchased Twitter. It is safe to say that Elon is upsetting people.
Elon Musk “doesn’t know what he’s doing” with Twitter and is “making everyone alarmed”, a former executive has said, after major brands paused their advertising spend on the platform and the company laid off thousands of staff.
‘Elon Musk doesn’t know what he’s doing’, says former Twitter executive, theguardian.com
Update: Twitter might be dead
Nov 18 (Reuters) – Hundreds of Twitter Inc employees are estimated to have decided to quit the beleaguered social media company following a Thursday deadline from new owner Elon Musk that staffers sign up for “long hours at high intensity,” or leave.
After Elon Musk’s ultimatum, Twitter employees start exiting, Reuters
Twitter has told employees that the company’s office buildings will be temporarily closed, with immediate effect.
Twitter locks staff out of offices until next week, BBC
Removing moderation in the name of “free speech”
But so far, Musk seems to equate “free speech” on Twitter with “looser moderation.”
Op-ed: What Elon Musk really gets out of owning Twitter, CNBC
While Elon talks about transparency and free speech, what he seems to want is a free-for-all more akin to 4Chan or other unsavoury parts of the web.
He has echoed complaints from the right wing that Twitter suppresses their ideas and posts, saying repeatedly that Twitter should be politically neutral and “upset the left and right equally.” He’s said he would reverse the permanent ban on former President Donald Trump, whom Twitter kicked off after Jan. 6, citing a risk of further incitement to violence, although Musk more recently said nobody’s getting reinstated for at least a few more weeks.
Op-ed: What Elon Musk really gets out of owning Twitter, CNBC
What this loosening of moderation does to Twitter is to make it a free-for-all hellscape where marketing, journalism, scams, fake news, and propaganda are indistinguishable. This is perfect if you plan to use it for marketing your business as Elon Musk probably plans.
For users, though, this is bad news all around.
Legitimacy for rent – verified status is now for sale
Twitter’s blue tick used to mean that the user was who they said they were. It was a way for users to be sure they really were following the real deal and not a fake.
Musk has thrown that out by letting anyone buy a blue tick for $8 a month. Rather than improve transparency as he claims, Elon has reduced it.
Prior to the take-over, Twitter identified trustworthy and known users with verification – indicating who could be trusted. Very few people got the blue tick making it a measure of trustworthiness.
Now though you can just buy that same status regardless of if the user is authentic, truthful, or even real.
Experts have raised grave concerns about upending the platform’s verification system that, while not perfect, has helped Twitter’s 238 million daily users determine whether the accounts they were getting information from were authentic. The update Twitter made to the iOS version of its app does not mention verification as part of the new “blue check” system.
Twitter launches $8 monthly subscription with blue checkmark as Musk moves quickly to overhaul platform, Fortune
Twitter Blue was exactly as bad as we expected
Someone created a fake Ely Lilly And Co “verified” Twitter account and then tweeted that insulin was now free. While it may have been coincidental. the real drug company’s stock did take a dive.
Live blog: Twitter chaos – what’s going on?, techradar
Fix your companies. Or Congress will.
Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts
Twitter suspended paid account verification less than two days after launching its new Blue subscription. While the service was available, trolls used it to impersonate celebrities, politicians and brands, leading to chaos on the platform. One account pretending to be LeBron James claimed the NBA star had requested to be traded by the Los Angeles Lakers. Another one tanked the stock of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.
Senator Ed Markey tells Elon Musk: ‘Fix your companies. Or Congress will’, Engadget
Fake and spam accounts now look “official”
Shortly after the company’s paid verification scheme went live, fake accounts shelled out for a subscription and got themselves verified. That led to legitimate-looking accounts tweeting out questionable things, such as a fake Nintendo of America posting a picture of Mario giving Twitter the middle finger and a fake LeBron James announcing that he was requesting a trade.
Twitter starts doling out ‘official’ checkmarks – again, Engadget
Twitter is more toxic now
Elon Musk’s deconstruction of the verification system (blue ticks) and reduction in moderation has led to an uptick in toxic and hateful content.
Already, experts have noticed hateful content has skyrocketed since Musk closed his acquisition of Twitter.
Use of the n-word has increased by nearly 500% on the platform, according to the Network Contagion Research Institute, which identifies “cyber-social threats.”
Twitter’s blue tick will cost $8 a month, says Elon Musk, giving ‘power to the people’, Sky News
Elon is a bad boss
Elon, it is reported, has been demanding only hardcore workers remain. Now he is in danger of losing all his engineers.
Earlier this week, the billionaire CEO sent an email to staff telling them that they “need to be extremely hardcore” and work long hours at the office, or quit and get three months severance, as The Washington Post reports.
Employees had until 5 pm on Thursday to click “yes” and be part of Twitter moving forward or take the money and part ways. The problem for Musk? According to former Uber engineer Gergely Orosz, who has had a close ear to Twitter’s recent inner turmoil, “far fewer than expected [developers] hit ‘yes.'”
So many employees called Musk’s bluff, Orosz says, that Musk is now “having meetings with top engineers to convince them to stay,” in an embarrassing reversal of his public-facing bravado earlier this week.
Panicked Elon Musk Reportedly Begging Engineers Not to Leave “Sounds like playing hardball does not work.”, Futurism
Bans based on bugger-all
At the same time, he has cracked down on anyone who disagrees with him or just makes jokes he doesn’t get. Humour was supposed to come back but suddenly satirical handles are out.
Elon can’t take a joke, it seems
The man who says he loves a joke and was bringing humour back to Twitter maybe is not as fun-loving as he claims.
Days after Elon Musk declared that “comedy is now legal on Twitter,” the platform banned several comedians for parody tweets in which they impersonated its new owner.
Twitter Bans Accounts Mocking ‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk, Time
Muck claimed that he wanted to keep Twitter neutral and fair. Then he immediately endorsed a political side. When comedian Kathy Griffon mocked Musk for this, he banned her.
Griffin had tweeted about the US midterm elections under Musk’s name, with one tweet saying: “After much spirited discussion with the females in my life. I’ve decided that voting blue for their choice is only right (They’re also sexy females, btw.) #VoteBlueToProtectWomen”. Musk tweeted about the account ban, saying Griffin had been removed for “impersonating a comedian” but could have her account back for $8.
Twitter bans comedian Kathy Griffin for impersonating Elon Musk, The Guardian
Elon Musk is chasing advertisers away
Even so, Twitter appears to have spooked some advertisers, with several reportedly having paused their ad spend and others understood to be considering their position.
‘Elon Musk doesn’t know what he’s doing’, says former Twitter executive, theguardian.com
No one believes musk’s “free speech” claims
Musk claims he wants to enhance free speech – which is good. However, all he seems to be doing is removing the safeguards against toxic, untrue, and unsafe content. The exact free-for-all hellscape he said he wanted to avoid.
Musk tried to reassure advertisers last week, saying Twitter would not become a “free-for-all hellscape” because of what he calls his commitment to free speech.
But concerns remain about whether a lighter touch on content moderation at Twitter will result in users sending out more offensive tweets. That could hurt companies’ brands if their advertisements appear next to them.
Twitter launches $8 monthly subscription with blue checkmark as Musk moves quickly to overhaul platform, Fortune
Regulators are concerned about Musk’s Twitter
A US regulator says it is watching events at Twitter with “deep concern” after the platform’s top privacy and compliance officers reportedly quit.
Twitter boss Elon Musk ‘not above the law’, warns US regulator, BBC News
He blames others for the losses
Musk told the world that he wants to stop “fake accounts” and pursue truth despite taking steps to make telling lies easier and parody (a good check against lies) harder. Then, when this backfired, he blamed others. Those others seem to be demographics he fundamentally disagrees with or that are critical of him.
Musk blamed Twitter’s “massive drop in revenue” on a coalition of civil rights groups that has ramped up pressure on advertisers, demanding they suspend ads globally after he laid off roughly half of the staff.
Elon Musk tells Twitter advertisers he wants to stop fake accounts, pursue truth, Reuters
Driving people to Mastodon
Mastodon is basically what would happen if Twitter were to exist in lots of places all at the same time but still acted like it was one thing. It is a little more fiddly to get going with and tended to attract enthusiasts.
Now users are fleeing Twitter in droves. High-profile users such as Stephen Fry have delegated their Twitter accounts and shifted to Mastodon instead.
Hashtags #TwitterMigration and #TwitterExodus are gaining popularity, and the most common name found in conjunction with it is Mastodon – the new home for fleeing tweeters.
What is Mastodon? The ‘Twitter alternative’ that people are flocking to, Metro
Mastodon server managers have been discovering what a massive surge of new users does to their servers.
I guess we might all want to do as others have -join Mastodon because Mastodon isBrill.com.
Matt says:
Who doesn’t like voting in polls? Not us – we love them. From learning about our follower’s worldviews to goofing around with silly questions, we are here for all of it.
No longer active
Due to Musk ruining Twitter, pollspollspolls is no longer a thing.
Matt says:
Many users are leaving Twitter either entirely or partially. Many of those users are heading to Mastodon servers But why? One man – Elon Musk. All the reasons why Musk is frightening away users and advertisers are documented on a sister site page elons-twitter.ispants.com.