Elon Musk Makes Cash Offer for Twitter

[47of74]

More Space Karen idiocy

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New Twitter owner Elon Musk said Thursday that he is granting “amnesty” for suspended accounts, which online safety experts predict will spur a rise in harassment, hate speech and misinformation.

The billionaire’s announcement came after he asked in a poll posted to his timeline to vote on reinstatements for accounts that have not “broken the law or engaged in egregious spam.” The yes vote was 72%.

“The people have spoken. Amnesty begins next week. Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk tweeted using a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people, the voice of God.”

Musk used the same Latin phrase after posting a similar poll last last weekend before reinstating the account of former President Donald Trump, which Twitter had banned for encouraging the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Trump has said he won’t return to Twitter but has not deleted his account.

 

[47of74]

Half of twitter’s top advertisers have left since Space Karen took over 

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The "internet's town square" is losing some of its billboards, as half of Twitter's top advertisers have reportedly pulled out of the social media platform after Elon Musk'sacquisition. 

According to a report by Media Matters for America, a nonprofit media research organization and "misinformation monitor", 50 of the top 100 advertisers have fled the app in the wake of the billionaire's decision to "revamp" the site. As of Nov. 21, the brands accounted for almost "$2 billion in spending on the platform since 2020, and over $750 million in advertising in 2022 alone," adding to a general downward shift in advertising dollars. An additional seven major brands, totaling $118 million of ad spending in 2022, have significantly slowed advertising. 

The majority of brands are what the organization has labeled "quiet quitters," pulling out or subtly reducing their ad spending without a public announcement. Others, like Chevrolet, Chipotle, Ford, Jeep, and others, have issued statements on their departure.

Big brands have been reckoning with Musk's changes and controversial statements for weeks. Earlier this month, global corporate advertising agencies recommended that many of their largest clients pause spending for Twitter ads, including Omnicom Media (an agency representing big names like Apple, Mercedes-Benz, and McDonald's). Other brands, like Volkswagen, General Motors, and General Mills, also suspended all Twitter ad spending. Individuals and companies alike are leaving their accounts behind, like Broadway-beloved Playbill.

 

[47of74]

Space Karen says he’s going to make his own smart phone if Twitter gets booted off Apple and/or Android app stores. 

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Elon Musk said he would make his own smartphone if Google and Apple were to ban Twitter from their app stores.

Musk said in a tweet responding to conservative podcaster Liz Wheeler that he hopes the situation does not come to that but that he will make that decision if necessary.

“I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone,” he said.

Wheeler first proposed the idea, saying that half of the country would “happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone and Android.”

More likely Space Karen would buy up a manufacturer and an operating system, mash them together, then go and tell everyone he built the phone and OS from scratch. Sort of like he did with Tesla.  Otherwise you’d be looking a couple years before one of his phones would be ready for sale if he actually built one from the ground up. 

Edited November 27, 2022 by 47of74

[47of74]

Oh gee, what a surprise.  Space Karen is purging anti-fascists from his supposed "free speech" safe place.

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While claiming to have bought the social media giant in order to make it "an inclusive arena for free speech," multibillionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk is apparently overseeing what critics claim is a purge of anti-fascist voices, The Intercept reported Tuesday.

"Several prominent anti-fascist organizers and journalists have had their accounts suspended in the past week, after right-wing operatives appealed directly to Musk to ban them and far-right internet trolls flooded Twitter's complaints system with false reports about terms of service violations," The Intercept's Robert Mackey and Micah Lee wrote.

Among the suspended Twitter accounts are those of journalist Vishal Pratap Singh, who covers far-right protests in California; the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, which provides security for LGBTQ+ events in Texas; the anarchist collective CrimethInc; and anti-fascist researcher Chad Loder.

"What I believe happened is that I and other accounts have been mass reported for the last few weeks by a dedicated group of far-right extremists who want to erase archived evidence of their past misdeeds and to neutralize our ability to expose them in the future," Loder told The Intercept.

 

[47of74]

Now Tesla’s 3rd largest individual shareholder wants a new CEO for Tesla because QElon isn’t interested in Tesla anymore. 

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Investor patience in Tesla is wearing thin as CEO Elon Musk shifts his focus to running Twitter.

KoGuan Leo, Tesla's third largest individual shareholder, tweeted that it may be time for a new CEO.

"Elon abandoned Tesla and Tesla has no working CEO. Tesla needs and deserves to have working full time CEO," Leo tweeted on Wednesday.

 

[47of74]

QElon strikes again

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Twitter on Thursday evening suddenly suspended several high-profile journalists who cover the platform and Elon Musk, one of the richest people in the world, who acquired the company just a few months ago.

Hours after the suspensions took hold, Musk faced off with one of the journalists he suspended in a Twitter Space audio discussion before an audience of more than 30,000 listeners. The suspended journalist, along with several others, found a backdoor way onto the platform through the website's audio function.

The accounts of Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O'Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Matt Binder of Mashable, Micah Lee of The Intercept, Steve Herman of Voice of America and independent journalists Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann and Tony Webster had all been suspended as of Thursday evening.

The Twitter account for Mastodon, a platform billed as a Twitter alternative, was also suspended early Thursday evening. Twitter accounts operated by NBC News journalists were unable to tweet any links to Mastodon pages. Mastodon was, however, trending on Twitter.

Yeah so much for free speech. 

[47of74]

The EU is not happy with QElon right now

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The EU has threatened Twitter CEO Elon Musk with sanctions after several journalists covering the social media platform and its new owner saw their accounts suddenly suspended.

Reporters for The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and Voice of America were among those whose accounts were taken down. The official account for Mastodon, a decentralised social network billed as an alternative to Twitter, was also banned.

“News about arbitrary suspension of journalists on Twitter is worrying,” tweeted European Commissioner Vera Jourova, who leads the EU's work on values and transparency.

"Elon Musk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon”.

 

[47of74]

Yeah I wouldn't trust QElon that much either.

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Paul Krugman compared Tesla to bitcoin, saying hype and faith underpin both assets' prices.

The Nobel Prize-winning economist argued Tesla lacks the networks effects of Apple and Microsoft.

Krugman took aim at Elon Musk, joking he wouldn't trust the controversial Tesla CEO to feed his cat.

 

[47of74]

QElon is getting sued on both sides of the Atlantic

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It’s no secret that Twitter has fallen on hard times. And things aren’t quite looking up for Elon Musk’s most recent acquisition. The company is facing two fresh lawsuits from different landlords, adding onto a plethora of existing legal trouble.

The United Kingdom’s Crown Estate is suing Twitter over unpaid rent at the company’s London Headquarters, according to reports from multiple news outlets including the BBC, the Guardian and Bloomberg. The Crown Estate manages property owned by the British monarch (i.e. King Charles III), which apparently includes Twitter’s office space in central London near Piccadilly Circus. The royal real estate corporation reportedly contacted Twitter about its rental debts, to no avail, before taking legal action last week. 

It’s unclear exactly how much money is tied up in the U.K. lawsuit. Gizmodo reached out to the Crown Estate via email and did not immediately receive a response. 

Then, on the U.S. side of the Atlantic, very similar trouble is brewing. Twitter didn’t pay rent at its San Francisco headquarters in December 2022 or January, according to a lawsuit filed by the building’s landlord against the company on Friday . The summons notifying Twitter of the suit was filed Monday.

 

[47of74]

El doucherino got a worst persons trifecta on Keith Olbermann's podcast today for that bullshit he was pulling with the algorithm along with other bullshit. 

 

[47of74]

Elon is such a fuck

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You might think one of the founders of Tesla, now one of the most valuable companies in the world, would have been in high demand when he was back on the job market, but Martin Eberhard told Insider he was unemployed and running low on money after he was pushed out as CEO in 2007.

"After I left Tesla, I was basically unemployable for about two years because of the intellectual-property agreement I had with Tesla and with Tesla being as litigious as they are," Eberhard told Insider. "So for the first couple of years, I was, first of all, out of money and, second of all, unemployed."

Eberhard and his longtime friend Marc Tarpenning came up with the idea for Tesla during one of their weekly catch-ups, but Eberhard's contract with Tesla meant the company owned the rights to the work he produced at the electric-car maker. It also prohibited him from working with another automotive company for two years.

The Tesla cofounder lost his role as CEO of Tesla about three years after Elon Musk began investing in the electric-car maker. Eberhard previously told Insider that Musk and Tesla's board had met behind his back and voted to replace him as CEO. Eberhard transitioned to the role of president of technology at Tesla but said he was moved off almost every responsibility, save for troubleshooting and a handful of peripheral issues.

 

[47of74]

Qelon's twitter laid off a pregnant woman right before she was due to start maternity leave.

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Bim Ali was early in her first pregnancy when billionaire Elon Musk agreed to buy Twitter, where she worked as an engineer on the Redbird core technologies team. During the months of intense uncertainty that followed, Ali stuck with the company, attempting to tune out the deluge of news about the on-again, off-again deal to focus on her health and the health of her child.

“I was really happy, I loved my team, I loved contributing,” Ali said. “I was also pregnant, so [leaving] didn’t even make sense on any level” because that maternity leave might not be guaranteed as a new hire at a different company, she said.

But in November, shortly after Musk completed his acquisition and weeks before she was set to start her five-month maternity leave, Ali was laid off as part of the first round of mass job cuts under the new owner.

January 4 marked Ali’s official separation date from Twitter, leaving her without health insurance, which her job had provided for her family. Her baby was born a week after. Two months later, she has yet to begin looking for a new job, as she is instead spending time with her newborn.

I suppose all the douche bros and Qelon worshipers are high fiving each other and giving each other Ice House toasts. 

[47of74]

Of course Qelon had to mock a disabled worker who had been laid off.

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Elon Musk has apologized after publicly scoffing at a Twitter employee’s uncertainty about whether he had been laid off in a recent round of cuts and speaking dismissively of the employee’s disability in a series of tweets Monday night.

Earlier, Haraldur Thorleifsson, an Iceland-based Twitter senior director, tweeted at Musk that access to his computer had been cut off nine days earlier, when Twitter reportedly laid off some 200 employees. But, Thorleifsson said in his tweet, “your head of HR is not able to confirm if I am an employee or not.”

Musk responded in a tweet asking, “what work have you been doing?” When Thorleifsson provided a list of his tasks in response, Musk appeared to cast doubt on several points. “Pics or it didn’t happen,” he tweeted. In a separate tweet, the billionaire said Thorleifsson “did no actual work, claimed as an excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing.”

Thorleifsson clarified in a tweet that he has muscular dystrophy, a degenerative disease that he says put him in a wheelchair more than 20 years ago. Thorleifsson, who founded a digital branding company acquired by Twitter in 2021, has been recognized by the United Nations and the president of Iceland for spearheading a charitable effort to build 1,000 wheelchair ramps around Reykjavik to increase the city’s accessibility.

Seriously, shut the fuck up Qelon.  And wipe that dumb ass smile off your face. 

[Destiny]

1 hour ago, 47of74 said:

Of course Qelon had to mock a disabled worker who had been laid off.

Seriously, shut the fuck up Qelon.  And wipe that dumb ass smile off your face. 

Elon is the fucking worst.

At least he ended up backtracking. Apparently, the guy is practically a national hero in Iceland and it probably won't go well for Elon if they end up in Icelandic court.

[47of74]

I rejoined Twitter using my old account name today.  My first tweet under the restored account was that rejoining was not an endorsement of that fuck Qelon, Tesla, or any other bullshit Qelon spouts.  Just wanted to make sure there were no squatters.  I'm going to try to avoid using it for the foreseeable future.  Maybe I'll be back more if that fuck Qelon goes away or gets ousted from Twitter.  I already made sure to block him and Tesla from my account. 

[47of74]

Qelon shows that he’s the second biggest man child in the world behind fuck face

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Twitter CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that he was the one responsible for covering up the “w” in Twitter’s name with a white tarp a few days ago—and he’s done it again. This is how new “Titter” was born.

While the new “Titter” sign debuted to praise from Musk fans, Twitter’s landlord was not amused. As told by Musk, Twitter’s landlord said the company was legally required to keep the name “Twitter” on its sign. The billionaire’s solution: Paint the “w” a background color. “Problem solved!” Musk declared on Sunday night.

Renaming Twitter as “Titter” and going against his landlord’s wishes doesn’t exactly sound like the best plan right now, though. Back in January, landlord SRI Nine Market Square LLC sued Twitter for $6.7 million in unpaid rent for its San Francisco headquarters and other damages. That same month, Twitter got sued in the U.K. by the Crown Estate, which manages the properties owned by King Charles III, for not paying rent on its London offices. 

 

[47of74]

Qelon thought it'd be a great idea to compare himself to Inigo Montoya.  Fail

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Inigo Montoya is a character driven by his own mourning over his father’s death. Revenge fuels him and when he finally comes face to face with the six-fingered man he knows to be responsible for the murder, he essentially tells him that the man can offer him all the things he wants in life but he doesn’t care because it won’t bring his father back—”you son of a bitch.” It’s pretty straightforward and makes it very clear what Inigo Montoya is saying.

The iconic role was played by Mandy Patinkin in the film The Princess Bride and is a character that fans around the world love very dearly. And yet somehow, Elon Musk watched that movie and completely missed the entire point of that specific moment in the movie.

During an interview with CNBC, Musk was asked whether he was worried that his tweets might be bad for business, Musk responds by comparing himself to Inigo Montoya. Already, annoying. For some reason, the people who think they’re the most like characters from The Princess Bride are consistently people who misunderstand the movie and its characters.

But this is just really pathetic when you look at it because it shows that Musk really has no ability to understand anything. “There’s a scene in The Princess Bride,” Musk says before he and CNBC’s David Faber both say “Great movie.” He continues: “Where [Montoya] confronts the person who killed his father. And he says ‘Offer me money, offer me power. I don’t care.'” And then Faber confirms that what Musk is saying is that he doesn’t care if his businesses are affected by his own terrible tweets. And this is a thing, remember, that he’s comparing to a character’s lifelong quest to avenge his father’s murder.

Patinkin wasn't having that bullshit

 

I wonder if Patinkin asked Mush if his mother mated out of season (ht Alien Nation).  That would've been my first question if that fucker misappropriated something I did. 

[47of74]

Qelon hinted twitter might require payments from users. 

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In a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the billionaire said a payment system was the only way to counter bots.

"We're moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the system," the Tesla and SpaceX boss said.

The BBC approached X for further details but has not yet received a statement from the company.

It is unclear whether this was just an off-the-cuff comment, or a signal of firmer plans that have yet to be announced.

And I hope Qelon knows what he can go do to himself if he thinks I’m going to pay to use his services. 

[viii]

Final nail in the coffin. I hope he does do it - the less I have to hear about Twitter/X and Elon Musk, the better. 

[47of74]

1 hour ago, viii said:

Final nail in the coffin. I hope he does do it - the less I have to hear about Twitter/X and Elon Musk, the better. 

Right now it looks to be more of a Qelon floating a trial balloon but if he does go ahead with that it would bury twitter. 

[47of74]

Qelon now thinks he's going to replace all banks and other financial institutions by the end of next year.

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Elon Musk wants X to be the center of your financial world, handling anything in your life that deals with money. He expects those features to launch by the end of 2024, he told X employees during an all-hands call on Thursday, saying that people will be surprised with “just how powerful it is.”

“When I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life,” Musk said, according to audio of the meeting obtained by The Verge. “If it involves money. It’ll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever. So, it’s not just like send $20 to my friend. I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account.”

X CEO Linda Yaccarino said the company sees this becoming a “full opportunity” in 2024. “It would blow my mind if we don’t have that rolled out by the end of next year,” Musk said.

The company is currently working on locking down money transmission licenses across the US so that it can offer financial services. Musk told employees Thursday that he hopes to get the others X needs in “the next few months.”

Someone ought to go tell that horse's ass that's a hard no from me.  There's no way I'd trust him with my money.

[AmazonGrace]

Ooh fun days, every bill will come with a 280 character FU message.

[rosamundi]

A fully-fledged bank and a dating site? Welcome to your one-stop shop for romance scams.

[AmazonGrace]

Where to find your next ex? X

[Smash!]

To me Twitter was where I got my information during the pandemic. I hate that Jack Dorsey sold it to Musk. I left and found my new home on Bluesky.