Elon Musk Buys Twitter

[greysfang]

I was happy to hear that Tesla lost about $125 billion in value since Twitter. LOL.

[constancespry]

Husband says "Elon Musk" sounds like a cheap men's fragrance/aftershave. Now that's all I can think of whenever I see elon's bloated mug.

[daphodil]

And there is the Plan for the Long Con:



By KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM



PUBLISHED: 13:48 EDT, 10 May 2022 | UPDATED: 16:39 EDT, 10 May 2022




Elon Musk has revealed that he would reverse Twitter's permanent ban of Donald Trump if he completes his $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform.



Speaking virtually at a conference in London on Tuesday, Musk said that Twitter's move to ban the former US president 'was a morally bad decision and foolish in the extreme'.



'I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,' added Musk, specifically addressing Trump's removal from Twitter for the first time since launching his takeover of the company last month.



READ MORE



Trump was banned from Twitter in January 2021, in response to his supporters storming the US Capitol and attempting to block the certification of Joe Biden's election victory.



Elon Musk has revealed that he would reverse Twitter's permanent ban on Donald Trump after completing his acquisition of the social media platform

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Elon Musk has revealed that he would reverse Twitter's permanent ban on Donald Trump after completing his acquisition of the social media platform



Trump, who recently launched his own competing service dubbed Truth Social, has previously claimed that he would not return to Twitter even if he was invited back.



Appearing virtually at the FT Future of the Car conference, Musk called Twitter's ban of Trump a 'mistake'.



'It alienated a large part of the country, and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice. He is now going to be on Truth Social,' said Musk. 'So I think this may end up being frankly worse than having a single forum where everyone can debate. I guess the answer is that I would reverse the permanent ban.'




Musk said that he had discussed the subject of permanent bans, or 'permabans' with Twitter, co-founder Jack Dorsey, whom he said shared his opinion.



'He and I are of the same mind, which is that permanent bans should be extremely rare, and really reserved for accounts that are bots, or spam/scam accounts,' said Musk.



'I would reverse the permaban [of Trump],' he said, adding: 'Obviously I don't own Twitter yet, so this is not something that will definitely happen.'



Trump was banned from Twitter in January of 2021, in response to his supporters storming the US Capitol

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View gallery

Trump was banned from Twitter in January of 2021, in response to his supporters storming the US Capitol



Trump, who recently launched his own competing service dubbed Truth Social, has previously claimed that he would not return to Twitter even if he was invited back

+4

View gallery

Trump, who recently launched his own competing service dubbed Truth Social, has previously claimed that he would not return to Twitter even if he was invited back



'But my opinion, and I want to be clear that Jack Dorsey shares this opinion, is that we should not have permabans,' said Musk.



In his remarks on Tuesday, Musk also said that his acquisition of Twitter, which is still subject to a shareholder approval, could close well before the October deadline.



'Just objectively it is not a done deal,' he said. 'The best case scenario is that it would perhaps be done in two or three months.'



Trump launched his Truth Social app in February, but the service's debut was plagued by technical issues.



Musk previously mocked the Twitter clone, calling Truth Social a 'terrible name' and joking that it should be called Trumpet instead. He has said that Truth Social only exists because Twitter 'censored free speech'.



Trump had previously said that he had no intention of rejoining Twitter even if his account was reinstated, telling Fox News last month that he would instead focus on his own platform, Truth Social.



'I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on Truth,' Trump told the network. 'I hope Elon buys Twitter because he'll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth.'





Trump's final two tweets, which resulted in his ban from Twitter, are seen above




Trump was originally banned from Twitter for allegedly inciting violence with his unsupported claims that the election had been stolen.



Twitter said at the time that after a review of how Trump's tweets 'are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter' that it had banned his account 'due to the risk of further incitement of violence.'



The ban was handed down on January 8, 2021, two days after Trump loyalists attacked the US Capitol.



His final tweet read: 'To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.'



Twitter said in a statement at the time that they interpreted this remark as a potential call to violence, by further calling into question the legitimacy of the election and signaling to supporters that the inauguration would be a 'safe' target for violence.



Conservatives, who have accused San Francisco-based Twitter of bias against right-leaning views, have cheered the prospect of Trump´s return.



'He (Trump) ought to be everywhere he can,' Republican Senator Rick Scott told reporters when asked about Musk's comments.



'We ought to have free speech in this country. We shouldn't have social media companies that are restricting people's ability to get their message out,' added Scott.



Democrats have said Trump´s potential reinstatement could constitute a threat to democracy, although some hope that a frequently-tweeting Trump could upset their base and rev up turnout in the November midterm congressional elections.



Earlier on Tuesday, Twitter shares fell to a level that indicated the stock market took the view for the first time that it was unlikely that Musk would make the acquisition for $44 billion, as he originally agreed.





Minutes after saying that Twitter leans strongly left, Musk followed up with a tweet saying he believed the platform should conform to the speech laws of the country it is being used in


Musk's comments on unbanning Trump from the social network comes after he said Twitter 'obviously has a strong left wing bias'.



He later clarified that he believed that speech on Twitter should be governed by the laws of the country in which it is being used.



'Like I said, my preference is to hew close to the laws of countries in which Twitter operates.



'If the citizens want something banned, then pass a law to do so, otherwise it should be allowed.'



His remarks came as he hit back at a liberal reporter calling for violence against anti-abortion groups.



Caroline Reilly, a reporter for Rewire News Group, had shared a New York Times story about the burning and attempted bombing of a Wisconsin pro-life group's office.



'More of this,' she wrote in a now-deleted tweet. 'May these people never know a moment of peace or safety until they rot in the ground.'



Reilly was slammed by conservatives on the site in the immediate aftermath, and Mike Cernovich - a conspiracy theorist known for his propagation of the baseless Pizzagate theory that high ranking Democrats were running a pedophilic sex-trafficking ring out of a D.C. pizza shop - made sure Musk knew about the tweet.



He tagged the Tesla CEO in a tweet accusing the platform of allowing verified accounts to incite violence in the name of liberal causes on Sunday evening.



'Here you go @elonmusk, when Twitter employees invariably lie to you about enforcement policy, maybe they can explain why a verified account is allowed to incite terrorism without any care in the world about being banned.'



Musk later replied to Cernovich, writing: 'Twitter obv has a strong left wing bias.'

[brookie]

If Trump is allowed to return, he'll lose a lot of followers. Including me.

[Pixie]

May 10, 2022 22:25:35 GMT daphodil said:

Musk later replied to Cernovich, writing: 'Twitter obv has a strong left wing bias.'

Ah ah ah ah ah my man, have you BEEN on Twitter?

[sputnik]

ugh libertarian bros.

that said, trump's return if musk buys twitter was a given. if only enough people would sacrifice their egos and actually shut down their twitter accounts and turn it into another parler, and musk's plan would backfire. unfortunately, he's counting on people (and really, the 10% of twitter users that actually keep the platform going and make most of the tweets) to act the way they always do and basically blow hot air at the problem.

[MsDark]

Looks like dude is trying to back out. 

www.cnbc.com/2022/07/08/elon-musk-notifies-twitter-he-is-terminating-deal.html

Oops.  

[sputnik]

[Pixie]

So that idiot finally did buy Twitter

[greysfang]

It has become such a cesspool in the past couple days that my company has now blocked it.

[notoriousmkg]

I never had an account there. Anything I ever saw was because someone cross posted it.

[kittylady]

An app called Mastodon is showing a decent uptick in new users as people are starting to drift from Twitter and look for alternatives - something like 70k just on the day after Musk took over. Also, Musk's idea of charging users $20 a month to be a Verified User seems to be going down like a lead balloon, with Stephen King among those objecting.



Also, there's reports that Musk is demanding things be done within crazy unrealistic timeframes and demanding 80+ hour weeks from the Twitter workforce. The speculation on social media sites like Reddit is that he's trying to force as many staff to quit as possible to avoid unemployment payments and to also cull the staff before stock option bonuses are due.

It's going to be interesting to see how fast he can push Twitter down the shitter.

[no1novice]

BBC News.

Elon Musk has said Twitter will charge $8 (£7) monthly to Twitter users who want a blue tick by their name indicating a verified account.

As part of changes after a $44bn (£38bn) takeover of the social media site, Mr Musk said it was "essential to defeat spam/scam".

A blue tick mark next to a username - normally for high-profile figures - is currently free.

The move could make it harder to identify reliable sources, say critics.

Mr Musk, the world's richest person, added that paid users would have priority in replies and searches, and half as many advertisements.

"Power to the people! Blue for $8/month," the billionaire said on Twitter, criticising the old method of blue tick verification as a "lords and peasants system".

Twitter's former method of verifying users for a blue tick included a short online application form, and was reserved for those whose identities were targets for impersonation, such as celebrities, politicians and journalists.

The company introduced the system in 2009, after it faced a lawsuit accusing it of not doing enough to prevent imposter accounts.

But Mr Musk is facing a hefty challenge as he works to overhaul Twitter's business, which has not posted a profit in years.

He has said he wants to reduce Twitter's reliance on advertising, even as some companies have grown concerned about advertising on the site under his leadership.

Elon Musk buys Twitter in billion dollar deal
What next for Twitter?

General Motors - a rival of Mr Musk's electric car company Tesla - said last week it was suspending advertising on the site.

Meanwhile, some other major brands have more quietly put a temporary halt to advertising on the platform as they wait to see how Mr Musk's changes play out, a media buyer for a leading advertising firm told the BBC.

On Monday, one of the world's biggest advertising companies, IPG, advised its clients to suspend Twitter adverts for a week, citing a need for more clarity on the Twitter's plans to ensure "trust and safety" on the platform. IPG is given billions of pounds per year, by some of the world's biggest brands, to handle their marketing budgets.

The charge for blue tick privileges drew scepticism after original reports that said the charge could be $20 (£18) monthly.

Many on the platform echoed the statement of author Stephen King, who wrote in response to reports of changes that instead Twitter "should pay me".

Mr Musk wrote to Mr King saying, "We need to pay the bills somehow!"

[Pixie]

For a supposed genius, he spectacularly failed at seeing that King’s objections weren’t about the amount it would cost, but the sheer fact that it would cost. Genius my ass.

[ravenna]

I can't wrap my mind around paying 44 billion dollars for an unprofitable company that produces nothing of real value. Of course he tried to get out of it. He might want to look into treatment for ADHD.