Roundup: Who’s Back On Twitter After Musk Buyout, And Who Deleted Their Account - "A slew of conservative accounts came back to Twitter Monday, following news that Tesla founder Elon Musk has reached a deal to purchase the Left-wing site. Fox News host Tucker Carlson tweeted simply, “We’re back.”... Fellow Fox News host Mark Levin came back to the site... Anti-lockdown group Truckers For Freedom, which was banned from Twitter, came back to the platform... Actor Michael Caine, who was a supporter of Brexit and has voted conservative, sparked some attention on Twitter, too, when he posted for the first time in months... former President Donald Trump, who had his account permanently suspended in January 2021, said he will not return to the platform if his account is reinstated. Instead, Trump said, he will use his own social media platform Truth Social. “I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on Truth,” the former president told Fox News. “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. The bottom line is, no, I am not going back to Twitter.”"
Elon Musk’s Actions At Tesla Could Signal Trouble For Twitter’s Leftist Employees - "Business Insider reported that a new book about Musk’s management style at Tesla highlighted that “when an employee disagreed with the CEO they were often fired.” “For example, a paint shop manager was fired on the spot when he told Musk his production goals were not possible, and Kate Pearson, an executive in charge of delivery operations, was ousted for saying it was not feasible to hit Tesla’s delivery goal of 100,000 during the quarter,” the report said. “By 2017, Musk began flying to Tesla’s Gigafactory to frequently address issues that often led to verbal spats. Longtime Tesla employees told [the book’s author] Musk’s fury was unpredictable and often focused on public humiliation.”"
Watch: CNN’s Brian Stelter is SO angry that Twitter might have “total freedom for everybody” 😂🤡 - "Marxist wokies always need a captive audience in order to advance their unpopular ideas."
Tech employees are much more liberal than their employers — at least as far as the candidates they support - " The vast majority of those donations went to Democrats. The most extreme examples were Netflix ($321,000) and Twitter ($228,000), which had about 99 percent of employee donations go to Dems.
Employee donations to midterm candidates by party"
Hillel Neuer on Twitter - "I fear Elon Musk could undermine the ideological diversity, equity and inclusion at Twitter which currently maintains a careful balance of 98.7% for one side."
Mary Margaret Olohan on Twitter - "“You could secretly ban one party’s candidate…secretly turn down the reach of their stuff and turn up the reach of something else and the rest of us might not even find out about it until AFTER the election.”
Liberals' lack of self-awareness is so painful it's not even funny
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🤘🤘🤘 on Twitter - "Translation:we liked it better when we made the rules"
Meme - Katelyn Burns @transscribe: "I'm looking for trans people's thoughts on Author Musk's twitter takeover. My DMs are open if you prefer privacy."
Melissa Dahn @two_n_minus_one: "there are no other social media platforms that are even close to usable for trans women. whether or not this is "about" hurting us, there can be no reasonable doubt that he *will* do so with the tools available. just one more step in driving us out of public life."
When TRAs proclaim how important censorship is to them, and how fragile they are
Comment (elsewhere): "Coming from someone whose left leaning after leaving so many "leftbook" groups on Facebook this is nowhere near true. If you don't support all the made up non binary pronouns you're basically treated as Hitler. A lot of those groups are so heavily controlled that the they/them/ze/zir types have so many tightly wrapped little bubbles that they don't ever have to interact with normal people who don't believe their crap.
I still support those with genuine gender dysphoria I even have friends who are trans but so many people have grifted on to the trans movement with a bunch of fake look at me gender pronouns that it has watered down what LGBT even means.
It has put me at a bit of a crossroad politically
I think to a large degree I'm just tuning out at this point."
EU warns Elon Musk over Twitter moderation plans - "Brussels has warned Elon Musk that Twitter must comply with the EU’s new digital rules under his ownership or risk hefty fines or even a ban, setting the stage for a global regulatory battle over the future of the social media platform."
Elon Musk Releases Statement After Taking Over Twitter - "“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”... Musk contacted the The Babylon Bee earlier this year, before buying a large portion of the company, after the company said that they had been suspended for a satirical article that jokingly named Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine “Man of the Year.” “Musk reached out to us before he polled his followers about Twitter’s commitment to free speech,” Seth Dillon, CEO of The Babylon Bee, tweeted. “He wanted to confirm that we had, in fact, been suspended. He even mused on that call that he might need to buy Twitter. Now he’s the largest shareholder and has a seat on the board.”"
ZUBY: on Twitter - "Millions of Twitter users are upset today. Not because they fear they will be banned or censored. But because they fear the people that disagree with them may not be banned or censored."
Ajit Pai on Twitter - "I’m so old I remember being told in 2017 that “unfettered access to the Internet is essential” and that we didn’t want corporations to “censor news or websites that don’t match their political agenda.”"
Why We Must Protect Net Neutrality | Robert Reich - YouTube
Meme - "Private companies can do what they want"
*amazon, Twitter, Apple, Disney, reddit, Google, YouTube, Facebook*
Liberal: "OMG YES!"
"Private companies can do what they want"
*Goya, Foxconn, GM, FOX, HOBBY LOBBY, Chick-fil-a, BP, The Salvation Army, Nestle, Literally every fucking small business*
Liberal: *upset*"
Mexico President Hopes Musk 'Cleans Up' Twitter - "Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Tuesday that he hoped billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk would rid Twitter of corruption and censorship after buying the social media platform. "I hope they clean it up... of the corruption that's there, manipulation with bots," Lopez Obrador told reporters. He said he wanted to see "an end to manipulation and censorship... so that we all have the possibility of communicating." Lopez Obrador has previously accused Twitter and other social media including Facebook of censoring content, arguing in favor of freedom of information. In January 2021 he criticized major social media platforms for locking out then-US president Donald Trump"
Twitter’s top lawyer reassures staff, cries during meeting about Musk takeover - "top Twitter lawyer Vijaya Gadde called a virtual meeting with the policy and legal teams she oversees to discuss what the new ownership could mean for them."
Twitter's 'chief censor' making $17m per year could be fired - "The Musk tweet as well as a critical tweet by journalist Saagar Enjeti, who called Gadde Twitter’s “top censorship advocate” who “censored the Hunter Biden laptop story,” prompted pro-Musk Twitter users to criticize her."
Flashback to when Elon Musk cancelled 'rude' blogger's Tesla order
Weird. Liberals keep telling us that freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences. I guess "consequences" only apply to people they dislike. And in this case it's just a private company cancelling a transaction
Elon Musk says suspending NY Post from Twitter was 'incredibly inappropriate' - ""Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate"... The piece was banned by major social media sites in the weeks before the election, with Twitter justifying accusations of censorship by labeling the story “content obtained through hacking that contains private information.” “The images contained in the articles include personal and private information — like email addresses and phone numbers — which violate our rules,” the company tweeted about the article at the time. Many mainstream outlets also discredited the article, before later reporting on its veracity long after President Joe Biden was elected. The Republican National Committee accused the site of being in cahoots with the Biden campaign, but the Federal Election Commission ruled that Twitter did not suppress the article in an effort to tip the scales to the Democrats."
Twitter executive accuses Elon Musk of MISOGYNY for criticizing firm's top lawyer - "Lara Cohen, Twitter's global head of partners, reacted with anger to Musk and his followers' attacks on singling out of the firm's top lawyer Vijaya Gadde, and chief marketing officer Leslie Berland... Yet Gadde and Berland were not the only ones in the spotlight: Musk himself also singled out Jim Baker, Twitter's lawyer, after conservative commentator Mike Cernovich called out Baker's work. 'Twitter lawyer Jim Baker, when general counsel of the FBI, personally arranged a meeting between the FBI and Michael Sussmann. In this meeting, Sussmann presented fabricated evidence in the Alfa bank matter,' Cernovich tweeted. '@elonmusk, this is who is inside Twitter. He facilitated fraud.' Musk then replied: 'Sounds pretty bad …' Musk continued his criticism of the platform he is buying, noting that more people were downloading Donald Trump's rival, Truth Social, than Twitter... Twitter staff have been told their jobs are safe for the six months the transfer of ownership is expected to take. But after that, workers like Gadde are likely to be among the first to get the boot. She was pivotal in the decision to ban Donald Trump from the platform for inciting unrest, and also played a key role in the decision to remove The New York Post's account when they tweeted their reporting into Hunter Biden's laptop... Saagar Enjeti, host of a conservative YouTube show, tweeted a link to Politico's report about Gadde's tears, commented: 'Vijaya Gadde, the top censorship advocate at Twitter who famously gaslit the world on Joe Rogan's podcast and censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, is very upset about the @elonmusk takeover.'... Star Trek actor George Takei also voiced his fears over Musk. But he said he was not quitting Twitter, because giving a greater platform to extremists meant that moderates like him were even more important... Geraint Davies, a senior staff video engineer for Twitter, wrote: 'Anyone in need of a software engineer with 40 years of experience? Asking for a friend.' Twitter engineer Jay Holler wrote: 'For the first time, Twitter leadership includes someone that I had proactively Blocked on this platform.' Gerard Taylor, a senior software engineer, was conflicted: 'My current sentiment: Stock is up! YAY! But what about our company culture?' Chloe Barnes, Twitter's lead for global curation standards, added: 'Totally understand that this is entertainment for some. But please know that this is certainly not entertainment for me.' Cassie Nick Rumbaugh, a data scientist, bemoaned Musk's alleged transphobia and wrote: 'I'm honestly kinda terrified rn.' Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, to the contrary, found the takeover from Musk to be exciting news. After posting a Spotify link to the Radiohead song 'Everything in it's Right Place,' Dorsey elaborated on his thoughts. 'I love Twitter. Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness. The idea and service is all that matters to me and I will do whatever it takes to protect both. 'In principle, I don't think anyone should own or run Twitter,' he added. 'It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the only solution I trust.' He said that Musk's goal of 'creating a platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is the right one.' 'I'm so happy Twitter will continue to serve the public conversation. Around the world and to the stars!'"
Criticising a liberal woman is "misogyny"
Anyone who disagrees with a liberal is an "extremist"
Dataracer on Twitter>/a> - "Here's some of the death threats Elon Musk is getting after buying Twitter. Radical actvists are claiming its ok to send death threats now because it's "free speech."
PerfectStranger917 on Twitter - "I'm laughing at the people saying Elon Musk could have given $44 Billion to "help the poor and feed the hungry". Why aren't they saying that about Soros, Bezos, Buffett, and Bloomberg?"
Ben Shapiro on Twitter - "Elon Musk has committed to nothing except more transparency and more free speech -- and the Left is melting down. Which shows two things:
Elon Musk’s Acquisition of Twitter Will Probably Suck for Women - "“Free speech” as it’s defined in the Constitution—which means the government cannot arrest you for expressing opinions it doesn’t like—actually has very little to do with Twitter, a private corporation with full authority to ban as many Nazis, public health threats, and abusive, revenge porn-posting exes as it deems fit... And because he has $44 billion in cash (which is a lot of money just to stop this image from being circulated), we all have to just watch it happen. The last person in the world I’ll be taking lectures about “free speech” from, mind you, is a man who has fired employees over inane YouTube videos and barred workers from attempts to organize at his extremely dangerous, low-paying factory."
Facebook - "Pretty hilarious series of tweets. Twitter engineer tries to defend the Biden laptop suppression by Twitter by claiming the laptop was hacked (it wasn't, even NYT admitted it wasn't), essentially publicly refuting his new boss with fake news. His account has now disappeared. Maybe an algorithm got him for sharing fake news (lol as if, fake news moderation only applies on conservatives)."
Bokhari: 6 Steps for Elon Musk to Restore Free Speech on Twitter - "It conjures memories of Donald Trump winning the Presidency in 2016, only to find himself saddled with a bureaucracy determined to undermine his agenda at every turn...
Shaun King on Twitter - "I am told this morning that Apple and Google will remove Twitter from the App Store if it does not moderate and remove hate speech under @ElonMusk. This isn’t a new policy, but a commitment already made. Amazon Web Services has the same commitment. So there’s that."
Meme - Temi @temi_suyi: "We'll soon start logging on to twitter dot com and elon musk bros will be calling us dirty monkey niggers but we cannot report the tweet because of free speech."
Defending Speech We Hate | News & Commentary | American Civil Liberties Union - "The record demonstrates the ACLU’s unwavering commitment to First Amendment rights for all."
Meme - (silll888.tez) @silll888: "Musk spent $44 Billion on Twitter. The World's population is & billion. He could have given each person $5 billion and still have money leftover. I feel like a cheque for $5 billion would be life changing for most people. Yet he wasted it all on Twitter."
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter - "Tired of having to collectively stress about what explosion of hate crimes is happening bc some billionaire with an ego problem unilaterally controls a massive communication platform and skews it because Tucker Carlson or Peter Thiel took him to dinner and made him feel special"
Meme - Jeremy Prime @DDayCobra: "NPCs got their update!"
Elon Musk and the Tech Bro Obsession With 'Free Speech' - "“It does seem to be a dominant obsession with the most elite, the most driven Elon Musks of the world,” says Fred Turner, professor of communication at Stanford University and author of several books about Silicon Valley culture, who argues that “free speech seems to be much more of an obsession among men.”"
Facebook - "The "I can't pay off my $120,000 in student loans from my anger studies degree" crowd thinks it can spend $44 billion better than Elon Musk can. My children, you can't even spend an hour of your own time well."
Geoff Russ: The world isn't ending because Elon Musk is buying Twitter - "Musk’s South African heritage was enough for another activist, Tim Wise, to proclaim in a (promptly deleted) tweet that, “We’re gonna have to deal with Nazis the way our grandparents did, because Elon Musk is gonna let them say what they want in the name of free speech.” People under 30 who are seeking to help fund their retirement should bet against the possibility that Musk’s Twitter purchase will result in the need to re-liberate Europe... The world will keep on turning, regardless of whether Twitter is owned by Elon Musk, or members of the Saudi royal family, who are among the platform’s biggest shareholders. Many progressives clearly preferred that their favourite social media platform be owned by some of the world’s leading human rights abusers, rather than a self-professed “free-speech absolutist” like Musk. Even though most people who are currently threatening to leave Twitter will return sooner, rather than later, their unhinged ravings after the change in ownership was announced is proof enough that they could use a break from social media. Normal people should be content with the fact that life will go on, and ignore the dire warnings littering everybody’s social media feeds."
‘Anti-racism educator’ says we’re ‘gonna have to deal with Nazis the way our grandparents did’ because of Elon Musk
Meme - Tim Wise @timjacobwise: "Fuck Elon Musk. Apartheid Baby. You, your company, and everyone who Stans for you. I'm saying this on your platform now and will keep saying it. Let's see how committed you are to free speech when we start roasting your ass...
Research: Conservatives Gained 17K Twitter Followers on Average After Musk Takeover, Leftists Lost 6K - "According to research that looked at 100 prominent conservatives and leftists, conservatives gained an average of 17,229 followers after Musk’s takeover, while leftists lost an average of 6,062 followers... prominent conservative accounts have increased their follower count by approximately ten times the average daily rate for the month leading up to the acquisition. In comparison, popular left-leaning accounts collectively lost hundreds of thousands of followers on April 25 and 26. The Verge alleges that the move is most likely an organic reaction to the news of Musk’s takeover rather than a change in the platform... Twitter told NBC News that the fluctuation in follower count was “a result of an increase in new account creation and deactiviation,” which would represent a shift of hundreds of thousands of users over a single day."
Clint Ehrlich on Twitter - "A blue-check reporter, who has worked for the NYT and the Guardian, posted an entire thread supporting the Karachi suicide bomber. This is how Twitter works today: Conservatives can't get verified, but "journalists" can openly advocate terrorism."
Woke journalists are now accusing Elon Musk of targeting Twitter employees for harassment. They show only 3 screens shots, and say Twitter employees are terrified asking for protection. Here's >80 death threats sent to Elon Musk today by an actual violent mob.
Twitters Saftey executive Vijaya Gadde sent these 3 tweets to the journalist herself to smear Elon Musk. They were all screen captured within 1 min of being posted, at a similar time, on 3 different posts. None by Elon Musk. Kinda sloppy on this hit job."
Liberal logic - death threats they support are free speech, but facts they disagree with are hate speech. That is why Twitter is fine with death threats against JK Rowling but not biology that TRAs hate
1. They hate transparency and free speech;
2. They always assumed Twitter opposed both, then gaslit everyone that Twitter wasn't biased."
Liberals admitting that women and "marginalized people" need the kid gloves, while pretending that they don't already bully people all the time on Twitter, and showing a massive ignorance of both history and the rest of the world by pretending that free speech is only about the First Amendment (and then doing a bait and switch)
These are the same people who go on about "white fragility"
Where's the fact check about Musk using $44 billion in cash? Considering that not even all of the money is coming from him (let alone in cash), that's outright fake news
Saagar Enjeti on Twitter - "Twitter engineer @ConnorC94096361 replies to his new boss @elonmusk defending their takedown of the Hunter Biden laptop"
1. Personnel is Policy...
Before Musk can do anything, he must solve the personnel problem. The threat of internal sabotage from frothing-at-the-mouth progressive employees is so dire that Twitter locked down its source code within hours of announcing its deal with Musk, presumably to prevent malicious tampering. Musk simply cannot expect any part of his vision for Twitter to be enacted until he answers the personnel question. The first and most important department for Musk to overhaul will be the office of Internal Audit. The Internal Audit department will be the eyes and ears of Musk inside Twitter... It took Trump three years before he found a good “internal auditor” to smoke out saboteurs in the federal government — Musk, confronted with his own Deep State, might want to get some tips from Johnny McEntee’s team. The next most important position is that of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). All internal security measures at Twitter, from catching foreign spies to catching woke saboteurs, are the CISO’s responsibility. Of course, the CISO is just one person — it is more than likely that the entire internal security team will need to be replaced, and replaced with loyalists. Other people that Musk will have to keep a close eye on, or replace, will be those in charge of the Site Reliability Engineers — the people with high-level access to Twitter’s systems, who both keep the site running smoothly, and have enough access to be effective saboteurs. And, of course, the content moderation operation will need to be overhauled, stat.
2. Become Antifragile...
Even if you mandate free speech on your platform, powers beyond your control can still censor you. Twitter is no different. It relies on access to the Apple App store, the Google Play Store, and Amazon Web Services, the cloud hosting provider that effectively banned Parler from the internet last year, and which currently has the power to do so to Twitter as well. There are viable alternatives that are not owned by Elon-hater Jeff Bezos, such as Microsoft Azure and the Google Cloud, but they will also demand content moderation. Word on the street is that IBM’s cloud service is desperate for business, but that too will face pressure to cut service to any genuine free speech platform. Luckily, Tesla is dabbling in its own cloud infrastructure... As a temporary solution to the problem of App Store censorship, Musk’s Twitter could learn a trick from conservative-run competitor Parler, which separated content moderation on its browser version from content moderation on its iOS App in its successful bid to return to the App Store. Content that would have resulted in an App Store ban was blocked on the iOS app, but users could still view it through browsers... Ultimately, a permanent solution to the problem of App Store censorship will require the owners of third-party apps, like Musk, to band together and demand regulations that prevent Apple and Google from blacklisting apps on a whim. There is a bill going through Congress, the Open App Markets Act, which would strengthen the hand of app creators, but still contains massive loopholes allowing censorship. Musk could be a powerful force on the side of app creators against app stores. Unless Musk decides to launch a Tesla Phone to compete with Apple and Google, only regulation will break the app store chokehold. The ultimate goal of these efforts should be to make Twitter antifragile. Whenever it is targeted by a hostile web host, app store, or payment processor, it should have the ability to quickly bounce back through alternative (perhaps Tesla-owned) providers or court injunctions backed by new anti-blacklisting laws... When highly publicized external attacks prove ineffective, it strengthens the reputation of a platform as a safe harbor for rebels — an antifragile digital fortress.
3. Conquer D.C...
The ink was scarcely dry on Twitter’s press release when the White House warned the platform not to host “misinformation” (meaning information outside their preferred narratives). In order to secure anti-deplatforming laws that protect Twitter from hostile app stores and other third parties, he will also need to go on the offensive, backing legislation that will shield the platform from external foes. Like never before, Musk will need resourceful allies in Washington. Another key hire for Musk will be an employment lawyer (or ten) for Twitter. California law allows businesses to fire their employees at will, but there are still plenty of grounds for unlawful termination lawsuits...
4. Unravel the Algorithms
Censorship is more than just bans. It is an intricate system built up by deranged social justice warrior coders over the course of more than five years. It is shrouded in vague terminology like “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” or deceptive enforcement actions like classifying conservative accounts as “bots.” That’s before we even get to the more obvious pretexts for politically motivated banning, like “hate speech” and “disinformation.”...
5. Embrace Self-Sovereign Identity...
On the outer edge of innovation, a new technology has developed that would allow platforms to “authenticate real humans” while also protecting privacy and anonymity: it’s called Self Sovereign Identity. It works by separating the business of identity verification from centralized actors. Instead of verifying your identity to Google, or to Facebook, or to Twitter, you verify your identity to a third party whose sole purpose is providing secure, privacy-protecting verification. Once this is done, you are given a digital passport proving you are a human (but not necessarily revealing any other personal data) that can be used by platforms like Twitter to ensure new users are not bots. If Musk embraces this technology, he can kill multiple birds with a single stone: he will solve the problem of authenticating humans, while making Twitter more privacy-friendly than any of its competitors, while at the same time mainstreaming a technology that has enormous potential: for platforms, for users, and for the future of secure online conversations.
6. The Great Unbanning
The most obvious point is saved for last, yet unbanning people, like every other step on the road to restoring free speech on Twitter, will be no straightforward task. While the more prominent victims of Twitter censorship, like Donald Trump, will be easy to identify, there are thousands upon thousands of smaller accounts that have been banned for bogus reasons and will also need to be restored. As I explained in my book on tech censorship, DELETED, leftist-run platforms like Twitter spent the last half-decade developing tools to target not just individual users, but entire networks of users. How will those users be identified? Will there be a general amnesty? If there is a general amnesty, how will the flood of unbanned spambots, phishers, sharers of illegal material, and other genuinely unwelcome accounts be dealt with?"
Darren J. Beattie 🌐 on Twitter - "The American Regime and free-speech are incompatible"
Meme - Temi @temi_suyi: "White people are a pandemic"
Anti-racists are the biggest racists
Reuters on Twitter - "Human rights groups including the ACLU and Amnesty International raised concerns about hate speech on Twitter and the power that Elon Musk, a self-described 'free speech absolutist,' would have after his acquisition"
Ironically, especially given the recent civil war in the ACLU over defending Nazis
Facebook - "LMAO! Sexually frustrated Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez only hates Elon Musk because she wants to date him. Hey Weirdo, stop projecting your sexual frustrations on him, perverted degenerate."
Comment (elsewhere): "She is projecting more than one thing. Elon wants to make the algorithm public and transparent while the left was the one keeping twitter opaque and whimsical. Until and unless there is evidence new twitter actively suppresses the left like the right has been pre Elon then this is 100% bull like most of the nonsense she says."
Cheri Jacobus @CheriJacobus: "Elon Musk is rapidly becoming a bigger danger than Trump."
Apparently it's a good thing that women don't care about free speech. Civil rights and a healthy democracy are only good when they benefit liberals
Apparently the Nazis were for free speech
We're gonna have to deal with Nazis the way our grandparents did because Elon Musk is gonna let them say whatever they want in the name of free speech. Cool, there are other options..."