Twitter accepts Elon Musk's buyout deal

[Montecfo]

Musk will improve Twitter. It's not a high bar.

The platform is famous for silencing views they dislike, for made up reasons.

I'm looking forward to that changing.

 

[Car-Guy]

Musk will improve Twitter. It's not a high bar.

The platform is famous for silencing views they dislike, for made up reasons.

I'm looking forward to that changing.

I "think" that is spot on. But 44 billion, wow....

 

[Out of Steam]

I have been actively posting on Twitter since mid-2020, but will go silent under Musk ownership. While I respect much of what he's done, I deeply dislike him personally. It's also likely that my participation was a pandemic thing, and I would have stopped posting soon anyway.

Agree with other posters that Twitter's view is that an account is an account, making a bot from a foreign intelligence service just as good as any other account. There is much room for improvement there.

 

[ivinsfan]

OOS does that mean you'll never buy a Tesla
I'm curious how you deeply dislike someone you have never met

 

[Koolau]

I have been actively posting on Twitter since mid-2020, but will go silent under Musk ownership. While I respect much of what he's done, I deeply dislike him personally. It's also likely that my participation was a pandemic thing, and I would have stopped posting soon anyway.

Agree with other posters that Twitter's view is that an account is an account, making a bot from a foreign intelligence service just as good as any other account. There is much room for improvement there.

Just a thought. Wait around to see if things improve (in your opinion). Just 'cause you dislike the guy doesn't mean he might not work wonders for Twitter. He seems to have a reasonable handle on electric cars. Who knows?

Like I said. Just a thought so YMMV.

 

[Koolau]

I don't use Twitter, but Musk owing Twitter has me curious on the impact. I think to see will he run Twitter responsibly or just use for self promotion.

In your example, can you filter out some of the stuff Joe Blow tweets? or is that an block/no block thing?

If he runs Twitter responsibly (heh, heh, in MY opinion, anyway) then I could care less whether he shamelessly self-promotes. I recall (the good old - REALLY good old days) when Walt Disney - you know, the GUY Walt Disney - in PERSON presented programming to us kids. We loved it and we loved him for it. AND we dutifully watched Anette - I mean the Micky Mouse club - and EVERY SHOW in which old Walt shamelessly plugged his latest movie or Disneyland. And I dutifully went to every one of them and enjoyed them.

I call that doing well by doing good. Maybe EM will do the same but I guess YMMV.

 

[CaptTom]

Agree with other posters that Twitter's view is that an account is an account, making a bot from a foreign intelligence service just as good as any other account. There is much room for improvement there.

That was one point Musk made in the interview I linked to, above. He wants to stop bots which work together to inflate their own influence. Most of the rest of what he said I agreed with. That part about not banning people and focusing on "free" speech did make me a little nervous. But if he can make the algorithms more transparent and less easy to game, I'm in.

Also good point about using Twitter for getting news as it happens. I started doing that back when the Boston Marathon bombing happened, and the news outlets were still scrambling to figure out what was going on.

That said, I still don't really "get" twitter. I follow a few people, but when I log on I don't see their tweets, just the crap the algorithm feeds me, in between all the ads which look like tweets. No thanks!

 

[easysurfer]

If he runs Twitter responsibly (heh, heh, in MY opinion, anyway) then I could care less whether he shamelessly self-promotes. I recall (the good old - REALLY good old days) when Walt Disney - you know, the GUY Walt Disney - in PERSON presented programming to us kids. We loved it and we loved him for it. AND we dutifully watched Anette - I mean the Micky Mouse club - and EVERY SHOW in which old Walt shamelessly plugged his latest movie or Disneyland. And I dutifully went to every one of them and enjoyed them.

I call that doing well by doing good. Maybe EM will do the same but I guess YMMV.

For me, I guess depends on whether the self-promotion is a plug like "upcoming, new features" or an infomercial.

As for the free speech, it's easy for Musk, from the outside to say now that can't censor free speech. But will be interesting to see when people use Twitter to flame him or give inaccurate information about Twitter. You know they will.

 

[Koolau]

To me, if you are going to either censure or ban folks, the rules have to be stated and be measurable. We have fairly clear rules here and they're relatively evenly enforced (near as I can tell.) I think what Twitter has done is make up the rules as they go and not explain why someone was banned. Saying "they told a lie" isn't very useful when almost 50% or more of people believe that particular "lie." YMMV

 

[ivinsfan]

I'm chuckling at the posters who are concerned with Musk indulging in self promotion if there's anyone on the planet who doesn't need self promotion it's Elon

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

What we have seen is statements like "I'm the best candidate because I've accomplished the most" defined as untrue/moderated. I think that was the step too far that some folks have objected to on Twitter.

That doesn't sound accurate to me. Do you have an example of such an anodyne statement being moderated/deleted/whatever?

 

[RobbieB]

I don't care. Have never tweeted. Never will.

 

[USGrant1962]

For me, I guess depends on whether the self-promotion is a plug like "upcoming, new features" or an infomercial.

As for the free speech, it's easy for Musk, from the outside to say now that can't censor free speech. But will be interesting to see when people use Twitter to flame him or give inaccurate information about Twitter. You know they will.

Well, he's already urged his "worst critics" to stay on twitter. That's refreshing.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/elon-musk-tweets-cryptic-line-155429631.html

I'm not a twit, btw.

 

[Out of Steam]

OOS does that mean you'll never buy a Tesla
I'm curious how you deeply dislike someone you have never met

There is probably not a single sentient person on planet Earth who doesn't deeply dislike someone they have never met, most often a celebrity or politician.

Even if personal dislike wasn't a factor, my professional experience in human factors leads me to find the "self-driving" aspects of Tesla half-baked. While I have ridden in a Tesla as a passenger, I'm not sure I would do it again.

 

[rk911]

Never had it and never will, but glad to see a step forward for free speech and a step backward for censorship.

+1

 

[Koolau]

That doesn't sound accurate to me. Do you have an example of such an anodyne statement being moderated/deleted/whatever?

I'm 2nd hand since, as I have mentioned, I am NOT on Twitter. I've heard a number of folks mention that they have been banned from Twitter and they mentioned just such "reasons." In any case, I don't see Twitter or any other social media being the arbiter of "truth."

By the way, I'm certain you know the issues that have led to banning/censure have been political. We don't discuss such issues here as you also know. I've intentionally couched my 'examples' in the most general terms, but you would not be surprised if I mentioned several issues that are currently "hot" on all the news channels - and these have lead to banning. So, I know you know what Im talking about.

 

[Koolau]

There is probably not a single sentient person on planet Earth who doesn't deeply dislike someone they have never met, most often a celebrity or politician.

Even if personal dislike wasn't a factor, my professional experience in human factors leads me to find the "self-driving" aspects of Tesla half-baked. While I have ridden in a Tesla as a passenger, I'm not sure I would do it again.

Am I missing something? I agree that "self driving" is not ready for prime time. EM has admitted that - and the cars with such features mention that (so far) the features do NOT replace the driver and they require the driver to have control of the vehicle.

My question would be why you might not RIDE in a Tesla again. From a passenger's standpoint, it's just another ride in a passenger compartment. Only thing I didn't like as a passenger is it was harder to get in and out of than my cars - all older and bigger. I sure appreciated the ride from the airport my son gave me. I didn't have any misgivings about the ride being in a Tesla. I have misgivings about owning one, but they're more because the cars cost more than I spend on cars and I have no place to charge one. Other than that, I think they are pretty cool and I think (probably) they will continue to take market share from ICE cars. But we've discussed this all before and YMMV.

 

[donheff]

I have no idea what Musk will achieve with this. I have a Twitter account but don't actually log in often. I have occasionally used it to look at tweets from people I like or just was curious about. Interestingly that behavior has prompted Twitter to notify me of tweets from people who's views are 180 degrees opposite of mine. I have kept some of those notifications active just to keep up with the opposition.

 

[jollystomper]

I have always felt that the way to improve the discussion on Twitter was to require "tweets" of at least 500 characters... that would scare off a lot of the "go do something anatomically impossible" type of responses . There are so many violations of the "At times it is best to remain silent and be thought of as a fool, than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt" axiom.

My Megacorp organization required those of us at at certain job level to have Twitter accounts, and to "tweet" things that would help "improve our brand". TO me it was just repetitive, but hey if it made me look more "professional" in their eyes than fine. At least they would supply us with stuff to "tweet". The only thing I would "tweet" about on my own was any new white paper/technical guide that I had published. I saw too many co-workers tweeting stuff like "Attending XYZ conference, day 1 was awesome!", "Attending XYZ conference, day 2 was awesome!" and I just thought "why?"

I do hope he does get rid of the bots. Perhaps require that only registered voters can have accounts on Twitter .

 

[Midpack]

I used Twitter as a news feed aggregator years ago and found it useful - but "news" has changed so much towards opinion that I don't care for many of the sources I used to read. I have not used Twitter in years.

I have mixed feelings about the free speech aspect. Sounds good in practice, but it can lead to issues with a large segment of willfully ignorants citizens who (unwittingly) want to be told what to think. OTOH, there has to be some moderation (e.g. outright violence) but who could be an impartial moderator? I'm not comfortable with a few tech titans deciding what we can/not read either - they have biases and they aren't moderating with an even hand now.

I wonder if we'll ever make good use of ubiquitous, instant worldwide speech - but it's here to stay now? Throughout history humans have gravitated to bad news over good news about 6:1...that is the root of the issue.

 

[Car-Guy]

I'm not a twit, btw.

But OTOH you are an "'er"... (as in er.org)

 

[marko]

I get most of my new via Twitter, being careful on who I follow. Mostly local news stations and newspapers, along with one absolutely hysterical guy who gives me a great chuckle two or three times a day.

Those who are overly horrified by Musk's takeover tells me more about them than about Musk though.

 

[Ronstar]

I'm not on twitter. Never have. Don't know how/ where to access it. And don't care.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I used Twitter as a news feed aggregator years ago and found it useful - but "news" has changed so much towards opinion that I don't care for many of the sources I used to read. I have not used Twitter in years.

I have mixed feelings about the free speech aspect. Sounds good in practice, but it can lead to issues with a large segment of willfully ignorants citizens who (unwittingly) want to be told what to think. OTOH, there has to be some moderation (e.g. outright violence) but who could be an impartial moderator? I'm not comfortable with a few tech titans deciding what we can/not read either - they have biases and they aren't moderating with an even hand now.

I wonder if we'll ever make good use of ubiquitous, instant worldwide speech - but it's here to stay now? Throughout history humans have gravitated to bad news over good news about 6:1...that is the root of the issue.

Excellent post. Courts have ruled time and again that free speech is not absolute, particularly when the arena is a private business. Incitement to violence (fire in a crowded theater, fighting words) exceeds the limit in any venue. So far, social media forums have argued successfully that they aren't required to do ANY moderation. I suspect that the extremes of human behavior ultimately will change that, because some people are F'in nuts. Will the government require that Twitter, Facebook and others provide moderators, or will the government install their own moderators? Ultimately, I think government will have a hand in it.

In fact, government is already there in social media forums devoted to hook-ups and child pornography. The distributors of such content may be beyond the reach of prosecution for one reason or another, but consumers are not. People setting up dates with 14-year-olds learn too late that they were chatting with police, not a teen. And individual monitoring organizations are watching for people downloading child porn. Men in my area are getting busted regularly for downloading what is basically illegal information.

Getting back to the surfeit of "bad news," I think it has turned some folks into outrage junkies. Personally, it makes me tired. My career revolved around current events, but these days I limit my diet. I don't want to "know" too much.

 

[Koolau]

As far as "changes" EM has suggested he wants to see 1) MUCH less moderation/censoring/banning except for illegal tweets ("FIRE!" in a crowded theater and 2) Open Source algorithms so everyone knows the rules and how they are applied. Just my humble opinion, that sounds like when I have a get-together and everyone is free to speak his own stupid opinion. What could be wrong with that? YMMV