I think we should let the dogs bark before suggesting anything political from Musk. One thing I'd like to believe in is that Musk grew up in South Africa and Canada.and, as such, has a very different understanding than Americans have of what freedom and speech mean in a pluralistic society.
Within hours of purchasing Twitter -- Musk has been personally reversing well-deserved bans on right-wing figures who promoted hate & disinformation on the platform - -based on appeals of their supporters. As outlined in the articles -- even responding to the supporters that he would fix it. There are numerous examples. The advertisers have a clear view that Twitter under Musk is quickly opening the doors for disinformation and hate. Do you want your ads appearing next to tweets from the these people.
It’s ok but your computers and phones will be totally changed by virtual computing/virtual reality. I totally get it’s an over the horizon thing right now and what it is being used for right now is very dorky but the ultimate end will change everything. We can move on because it’s very abstract and I don’t want to claim to be able to fully explain the “meta verse.”
Yep that was on my mind, but normally he is proactive and innovative and I expect to act quickly but anyways we will see...
One key point - “The idea of forcing people to pay for blue checks gets Twitter’s value proposition totally backward,” he argued. “For Twitter to have value it needs to provide valid information from legitimate sources. If anyone can pay for the appearance of validity, the site loses all value.” Horror master Stephen King slams Elon Musk’s plan to charge for Twitter verification: ‘$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that’ https://fortune.com/2022/10/31/step...sk-verification-subscription-plan-blue-check/ If Elon Musk hopes he can persuade Twitter’s users to pay extra for a coveted blue check mark, he may need to go back to the drawing board. The initial results of a Twitter poll conducted by Jason Calacanis, a venture capitalist and podcaster angling to be CEO, suggest there is precious little appetite for the privilege of simply tweeting as a verified account. This could deal a considerable blow to Musk’s hopes. With over 800,000 responses and counting, four out of five accounts surveyed said they were unwilling to fork over a minimum of $5 dollars per month. Users still have plenty of time to cast their vote, though, as the poll will close in just under a week. The verification feature is intended to distinguish credible accounts from impostors adopting a similar name and avatar: These can vary from parody or fan accounts to scammers looking for victims on which to prey. Supporters believe a monthly fee for this service may be a good fit for businesses and influencers looking to expand their reach, while others claim it is already a broken system with Twitter unevenly applying the verification policy. Acclaimed horror author Stephen King was particularly damning about the prospect of paying for verification. Political activist and Democratic Party supporter Max Berger, who himself tweets from a blue check account with 73,000 followers, blasted the idea and compared it to paying for Super Likes on the hookup app Tinder. “The idea of forcing people to pay for blue checks gets Twitter’s value proposition totally backward,” he argued. “For Twitter to have value it needs to provide valid information from legitimate sources. If anyone can pay for the appearance of validity, the site loses all value.” The CEO of Complexly media company, Hank Green, with 1.4 million followers, called the proposition “100% cringe.” Signs of support Notably, however, the other fifth polled did signal a willingness—in theory at least—to pay for verification. A very small number, under 6%, voted they were even prepared to shell out $15 just to tweet from a blue check account. Nevertheless, the platform boasts 238 million users worldwide, including nearly 42 million in the United States alone, so even a small number willing to subscribe would generate significant revenue. Responding to the poll, Elon Musk simply wrote, “Interesting,” without elaborating further. The company’s “chief twit” as he calls himself splashed out $44 billion as part of the deal, much of it from selling his Tesla stock, to acquire a social media platform almost exclusively funded by ad spending. This is proving problematic, especially as companies tend to cut their marketing budget when economic conditions darken. To generate a return on his hefty investment, Musk told his wealthy clique of coinvestors he wants more stable recurring revenue going forward. According to the New York Times, subscriptions should generate nearly $10 billion in revenue come 2028. A pitch deck sent to third party financiers like Andreessen Horowitz back in May refer to a 2023 product called “X” that should boast 9 million users in its first year before growing to 104 million five years later. More than Netflix or Xbox Game Pass The social media platform, which posted a first-half net loss of $400 million excluding disposal effects, does currently offer a premium service called “Twitter Blue.” Subscribers can better organize bookmarked tweets and remove a tweet before it is posted, rather than simply delete it afterward and try again. Nevertheless, it lacks the edit function so many have called for, and does not remove ads or promoted content from user feeds. With so few killer features, it has enjoyed very limited success, and has thus far only been rolled out to the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. According to data from app market researcher Sensor Tower published in July, consumer spending captured through vendors like the App Store and Google Play amounted to just $3.7 million worldwide since Twitter Blue launched in June 2021. By comparison Snapchat’s premium service garnered $6 million, it found, eclipsing Twitter Blue in the space of just three weeks after going live. Despite the seemingly stunning failure, Twitter hiked the price from $3 to a hefty $5 per month for U.S. users effective the end of July. A report from The Verge suggests this could soon soar to $20 a month, according to current plans. That would price it well over the cost of entertainment subscriptions such as a premium Netflix or ultimate Xbox Game Pass account. Allegedly those who fail to sign up within 90 days will lose their verified account status. “Apparently Elon Musk greatly overestimates how much I care about my blue check mark,” said Phil Williams, an investigative journalist and Pulitzer finalist working for Nashville’s NewsChannel 5, in response to the story.
The battle over the exit compensation for Twitter executives will probably take years. And seeing that Elon Musk fired more people over the weekend including the senior engineering director of platform services who had quite a bit to say about the situation -- it does not appear the transition is going very smoothly. Especially since Musk is taking steps to screw all the employees out of their stock payment due on November 1st. Don't take bets on Twitter's workforce being very cooperative with Musk's vision or receptive to his bullying. Fired Twitter Execs Face A Long, Ugly Battle With Elon Musk Warns Expert https://www.slashgear.com/1079645/f...long-ugly-battle-with-elon-musk-warns-expert/ Elon Musk hasn't just cleaned house at Twitter, but taken a scorched-earth approach. Less than a week has passed since his $44 billion deal to purchase the social network closed, and already Musk has ousted top execs — including Twitter's former CEO, Parag Agrawal — and installed himself as new chief executive. The big question is, with Twitter going private, has Musk also opened himself up to legal backlash? According to a report from The New York Times, Musk has not only shown Twitter's former C-suite the door, but is claiming that the terminations were "for cause," too. If that's upheld, it could shield the Tesla CEO from millions in so-called golden parachute payments that Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, former general counsel Sean Edgett, and former top policy and legal exec Vijaya Gadde would otherwise be contractually due. It's a big bill if Musk has to pay up: anywhere up to $60 million, according to reports. On the flip side, dragging out that liability through the courts could also be costly. SlashGear spoke to a legal expert to figure out just what Musk's game-plan might be. "This all boils down to a contract dispute," attorney Ron Zambrano, the employment litigation chair at Los Angeles-based West Coast Trial Lawyers, told SlashGear. "Are the fired executives entitled to their severances under their respective contracts because the contention by Musk that they were fired for cause is either made in bad faith or completely baseless? Or did these executives do things that could be viewed as violating their employment contracts? If they did, then Musk would have grounds to fire them for cause." What isn't good reason to contest Musk's decision, however, is his new strategy for Twitter. While ousting the whole board and assuming total control himself might seem extreme — not to mention give Tesla shareholders some legitimate concerns that the chief executive's attentions are divided, albeit with potential benefits there too — it's actually not grounds for a lawsuit. "Based on news reports, the motivation behind these terminations of employment is Musk's desire to replace the leadership at the highest executive levels with folks that he wants in those roles," Zambrano explains. "This motivation is lawful." What legal experts say Elon Musk should do next The question, then, is just what might make for a compelling case? As Zambrano tells it, the only real justifications for a lawsuit from the former Twitter execs would be if it could be proved Musk singled them out because of protected class — including race, gender, or national origin — or if they'd been targeted as whistleblowers or similar. "Barring those exceptions," the attorney says, "these folks have not suffered a violation of their employment rights and it all comes back to what's in their contracts." It won't only be contracts that are being examined with a fine-toothed comb, however. Asked what he'd be recommending Elon Musk do next, Zambrano says the big thing is digging through whatever the former C-suite has left behind that could count against the execs. It's from that evidence that a "for cause" dismissal case could be built. "Musk and his team should start scouring internal Twitter communications and activity to support a for cause finding for terminating the executives he has fired," Zambrano says he'd advise Musk, were the new Twitter owner his client. "If there are in fact admissions and evidence by these affected employees that should have led to their involuntary exit beforehand, that would totally bolster his defense to any claim that firing these executives for cause was done in bad faith." Even an expensive lawsuit is small change, comparatively While litigation is seldom inexpensive, it may not be the dissuading factor to drag the former Twitter execs through the courtroom that you might think. In fact, Zambrano says, Musk's costs for that — even if considerable by normal lawsuit standards — would still likely only amount to a fraction of what the golden parachute payouts would reach. "In a worst-case scenario, Musk may be looking at a $1 million legal tab," Zambrano suggests. "Strategically, Musk will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to reduce what he has surely been told is the money these employees are probably owed in payouts. He can drag this out in the courts for so long the fired executives will eventually compromise just to get it over with and receive some money." While the Twitter purchase may have been completed relatively quickly, with Musk rapidly stepping in — complete with a sink in his arms — to seize control at the social media company, a lawsuit with the former execs would be a far longer affair. In fact, Zambrano predicts, it could stretch from three to five years following appellate review. In the end, it may all come down to who has the most patience.
I get that you're upset Musk will allow alternative viewpoints on Twitter, but really. Making up more shit isn't the way forward.
Yeah... back in South Africa they didn't use the n word -- they used the k word. Yeah, I am sure that Musk as a different understanding of "free speech". Post Elon Musk acquisition, hate speech on Twitter soars https://mobilesyrup.com/2022/10/31/post-musk-acquisition-hate-speech-on-twitter-soars/