Elon Musk Makes Cash Offer for Twitter

[Mrs Ms]

The name change drives me nuts because EVERY single time with zero exceptions it is “X, formally known as Twitter…” or some other phrasing of it.

[47of74]

16 hours ago, Mrs Ms said:

The name change drives me nuts because EVERY single time with zero exceptions it is “X, formally known as Twitter…” or some other phrasing of it.

Qelon is trying to emulate guys like Prince who for a while adopted the screen name "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" in the 1990s.  However Qelon is entirely devoid of any of the character, personality, or sense of responsibility that Prince had.  People still think the absolute world of Prince up here in the Twin Cities - especially in Minneapolis.  I somehow doubt a lot of these same people will give two shits about Qelon no matter how much he tries to emulate Prince.

[47of74]

Qelon suffered another setback today

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The great X spiral continued today as Sony revealed on its support site that integration with the social media platform formerly known as Twitter will be disabled on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles next week.

"As of November 13, 2023, integration with X (formerly known as Twitter) will no longer function on PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 consoles," Sony said (via The Verge). "This includes the ability to view any content published on X on PS5/PS4, and the ability to post and view content, trophies, and other gameplay-related activities on X directly from PS5/PS4 (or link an X account to do so)."

Sony's decision to drop X integration comes several months after Microsoft opted to disable uploads to the platform from Xbox consoles and the Windows Game Bar. Blizzard removed Twitter integration from the World of Warcraft MMO even earlier, back in February.

A reason for dropping the service wasn't provided, but as we noted when Blizzard elected to remove Twitter integration from WoW, changes to the Twitter API made earlier this year are the likely culprit. Access to the API, which had previously been free, was replaced with a far more restrictive option, while Basic access, "for hobbyists or prototypes," now goes for $100 per month. The next level up is the Pro tier, "for startups scaling their business," that goes for $5,000 per month, while the Enterprise tier, which I imagine is where a company of Sony's scale needs to be, offers different monthly subscription prices "based on usage and needs" that start at $42,000 per month.  

 

[47of74]

Qelon got called out for anti-semitism again today.

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Elon Musk has publicly endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory popular among White supremacists: that Jewish communities push “hatred against Whites.”

That kind of overt thumbs up to an antisemitic post shocked even some of Musk’s critics, who have long called him out for using racist or otherwise bigoted dog whistles on Twitter, now known as X. It was the multibillionaire’s most explicit public statement yet endorsing anti-Jewish views.

ICYMI: Musk was responding to a post Wednesday that said Jewish communities “have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” The post also referenced “hordes of minorities” flooding Western countries, a popular antisemitic conspiracy theory.

It’s the kind of post you can find easily on X these days, and likely would have gone unnoticed had Musk, with more than 160 million followers, not re-shared the post with the comment: “You have said the actual truth.”

 

[47of74]

Paris Hilton's company suspended its own advertising as well yesterday

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Paris Hilton’s entertainment company 11:11 Media has pulled an advertising campaign from Elon Musk’s X just one month after announcing an exclusive partnership with the platform, becoming the latest brand to halt ad spending on the site formerly known as Twitter over concerns about antisemitism and pro-Nazi content on the site.

“11:11 Media made the decision to immediately pull the campaign from the platform,” Bruce Gersh, 11:11 Media’s president and chief operating officer, told CNN on Tuesday.

The decision by Hilton’s company to pull its advertising is a blow to X and the platform’s chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, who announced a major promotional partnership with Hilton just last month. The deal, which was touted by Yaccarino as a long-term, “official partnership” between Hilton, 11:11 Media, and X, aimed to create “a launchpad for new initiatives in video and live video, live commerce, Spaces, and so much more.” The deal also established a revenue-sharing agreement between the parties.

Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal advertising chief who has been tasked with wooing wary advertisers back to X despite Musk’s tumultuous leadership, declared Hilton the “queen of pop culture” and described the partnership as “a new era” that would reside exclusively on X.

 

[47of74]

Big name sponsors have not only pulled advertising, but their twitter accounts have also gone silent as they stop posting on Qelon's site.

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In recent days, a number of prominent media brands have not only paused their paid marketing campaigns on the embattled Elon Musk-owned social platform, but have ceased posting on it altogether, going silent on the once essential site that sought to be the world’s “digital town square.”

The flagship accounts belonging to Disney, Paramount, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery (CNN’s parent company) have not posted on the platform in roughly 10 days, following Musk’s disturbing endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, which he still has not apologized for.

None of the studios commented on the record when CNN reached out for comment. But people familiar with the social media strategies of Paramount and WBD confirmed under the condition of anonymity that it’s no coincidence: the companies have made the active decision to stop posting under certain handles on X due to concerns, including brand safety.

The blackout on X extends beyond these companies’ corporate accounts, in some cases. For instance, the most high profile accounts affiliated with Disney have gone dark on X, such as @StarWars, @Pixar, and @MarvelStudios, which were previously posting multiple times a day on the platform to their millions of followers. Instead, these brands have switched over to the Meta-owned rival Threads, where they have started actively posting.

 

[47of74]

Qelon recently showed how unhinged he is now

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The billionaire, one of the most consequential figures to walk the Earth, spent another weekend swimming in the right-wing fever swamps of X — a bad habit that was apparent when his interview with Don Lemon was released Monday morning.

In the contentious interview, Musk equated moderating dangerous and appalling hate speech to “censorship,” bashed the press for legitimate reporting, assailed DEI programs without supporting evidence, skewered advertisers who fled the X platform last year and yet again gave credence to the racist Great Replacement theory, among other things.

To those not fluent in the intricacies of right-wing media, some of what Musk said may have sounded bizarre or even foreign. But in the right-wing fever swamps, where Musk is now deeply entrenched, these are the issues that animate the masses.

Musk’s comments on the premiere episode of Lemon’s new online show added to an unhinged 72-hour posting spree on X, in which the erratic businessman raged against the “woke mind virus” and said its “goal” is “the destruction of America,” agreed with a user who wrote “Fake News is the Enemy of the People,” said the press is “basically the [Joe] Biden cheering squad,” accused the news media of “lying” about Donald Trump’s “blood bath” comments, called NPR a “nice version of Pravda,” alleged Google “manipulate[s] their search results with left wing bias,” said the January 6 insurrection was “not a ‘bloodbath’ by any definition,” and argued that if there is not a “red wave” in November, “America is doomed.”

I'm considering getting a Servo 7.0.  Tesla is not even in the running now because Qelon's leadership role in the company and down the road I wouldn't buy one as long as Qelon has any sort of leadership role or is a majority shareholder in the company.  Maybe not even then.

[CultureVulture]

It would be so entertaining to see Qelon's X site start tanking. 

I mean, huge, significant and total loss.  On the scale of the orange idiot's rant palace and the now-defunct Parler.  

[47of74]

Even one of Qelon's biggest cheerleaders is saying fire Qelon now

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Tesla is on the brink again. Sales are slowing even after the company slashed prices. The company is laying off 10% of its workforce — 14,000 workers from Shanghai to San Jose, from the factory floor to the executive suite. The company had to recall every single Cybertruck it shipped. And Tesla's position in China, a country that has become critical to its future, is getting shakier.

There's only one person to blame for the company's shambolic state and only one person whose exit could save Tesla: Elon Musk. For the past few years, Tesla has looked unstoppable, but during those high times, Musk failed to implement any strategy that would insulate the company from what has become a violent global electric-vehicle price war. The company is incinerating cash, losing market share, and holding more aging inventory than ever before.

Tesla reported its first-quarter earnings on Tuesday and missed expectations across the board, even though Wall Street was already expecting the worst. Earnings per share came in at $0.45, lower than analysts' expectations of $0.52. Free cash flow fell a stunning 674% as Tesla focused on AI research and making capital improvements. Gross profit fell 18% from the same time a year ago, and gross margins fell from 19.3% to 17.4% over the same period. If Tesla the company were a car, this is when you start to hear it make a rattling sound.

The company's problem isn't a matter of getting through "production hell" or "delivery hell" on a new model, which Tesla has been able to survive. Hell is, at the very least, a location. Tesla's problem is that it has no clear direction. It doesn't matter how much cash a company has on hand if it's blowing it on products that aren't ready to scale — like a robotaxi. Or cars that no one wants — like its dated models. Investors want to see a concrete plan for a whole new fleet of Teslas made for a leaner, meaner EV market.

 

[FriendlyCare]

It seems Qelon's hold on Twitter/X is rapidly deteriorating. All of the signs pointed out in your recent posts are quite troubling - loss of major advertisers, prominent accounts going silent, and now even one of his biggest supporters calling for him to be fired. His erratic behavior on the platform surely isn't helping matters either.

[Smash!]

6 hours ago, FriendlyCare said:

It seems Qelon's hold on Twitter/X is rapidly deteriorating. All of the signs pointed out in your recent posts are quite troubling - loss of major advertisers, prominent accounts going silent, and now even one of his biggest supporters calling for him to be fired. His erratic behavior on the platform surely isn't helping matters either.

I do hope Qelon sells Twitter - it‘s still the place to get the latest scientific information. I had high hopes for Jack Dorsey‘s Bluesky but it‘s been pretty disappointing so far.