Social Media & Big Tech news and discussions

weatheriscool
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Elon Musk acquires Twitter for roughly $44 billion
Source: Washington Post
Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion on Monday, the company announced, giving the world’s richest person command of one of its most influential social media sites — which serves as a platform for political leaders, a sounding board for experts across industries, and an information hub for millions of everyday users.

Under the terms of the deal, Twitter will become a private company and shareholders will receive $54.20 per share, the company said in a press release. Ownership of Twitter gives Musk power over hugely consequential societal and political issues, perhaps most significantly the ban on former president Donald Trump that the website enacted in response to the Jan. 6 riots.

“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 the release. “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.”

The company’s board of directors met with Musk on Sunday, and negotiations extended into the early hours of Monday, according to a person familiar with the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions. The two sides were focused on determining whether Musk had the financing to complete the acquisition, and did not spend much time discussing Musks’s strategy for the future of the social network, the person said.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technolo ... musk-deal/
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Yuli Ban
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As Starspawn0 mentioned, there are certainly worse people who could have bought Twitter.
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
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When billionaires talk about freedom, watch your wallets

Robert Reich
Apr 25

Elon Musk struck a deal today to buy Twitter for roughly $44 billion, in a victory by the world’s richest man. Twitter agreed to sell itself to Musk for $54.20 a share, a 38 percent premium over the company’s share price this month before he revealed he was the firm’s single largest shareholder. Twitter’s founder and top managers had offered Musk a seat on the board but he didn't take it because he'd have to be responsible to all other shareholders. Now, he doesn’t have to be accountable to anyone.

[...]

When billionaires like Elon Musk justify their motives by using “freedom,” beware. They actually seek freedom from accountability. They want to use their vast fortunes to do whatever they please — unconstrained by laws or regulations, shareholders, even consumers.

[...]

"Free speech" is another freedom that turns on wealth. As a practical matter, your ability to be heard turns on the size of the megaphone you can buy. If you’re extremely rich you can purchase the Washington Post or own Fox News. If you’re the wealthiest person in the world you can buy one of the biggest megaphones in the world called Twitter — and then decide who can use it, what its algorithms are going to be, and how it either invites or filters out big lies.

Musk said last week that he doesn’t care about the economics of the deal and is pursuing it because it is "extremely important to the future of civilization." Fine, but who anointed Musk to decide the future of civilization?

Read more: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/when ... ut-freedom
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caltrek
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What Elon Musk Says He Wants to Change About Twitter
by Julian Shapiro
April 25, 2022

https://www.axios.com/elon-musk-twitter ... 8530f.html

Introduction:
(Axios) Here's a look at everything Musk said he wants to change about Twitter:

An edit button

Long-form tweets

• He commented on a long Twitter thread in April 2022: "My most immediate takeaway from this novella of a thread is that Twitter is *way* overdue for long form tweets!"

Spam bots and authentication

• He wrote...that Twitter would "authenticate all real humans" under his ownership.

Open-source algorithm

Be smart: An open-source algorithm would make publicly available the calculus which determines what appears on a person's Twitter feed.

Content moderation

Musk has …said at the TED2022 conference he thinks Twitter should not regulate content beyond what is required by the laws of the countries it operates in.
The Verge has a nice point by point discussion of these proposed changes: https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/26/2304 ... pen-source

Specifically, in regards to "open source" algoriths:
(The Verge) Musk has described making the algorithm “open source,” but he hasn’t outlined specific plans to follow the requirements of an open source license, so he could mean it in a more informal sense. He could also be describing something that works within Twitter’s central product or through the separate but Twitter-funded open source Bluesky project — which would have different implications for Twitter’s core app.

Transparency is generally welcome, and Twitter’s former CEO Jack Dorsey has also suggested letting users pick between different recommendation systems. That said, many web platforms (including Google and Reddit) don’t disclose precisely how their systems work because that would give spammers and other bad actors a guidebook for gaming the system. Twitter’s algorithm also won’t explain how any given tweet was prioritized unless Twitter releases a huge amount of supplementary data, nor would it necessarily illuminate the rationale behind any human moderation that intersects with it. And it would be incredibly vulnerable to people who want to make bad-faith claims by taking pieces of it out of context, willfully misinterpreting them or sowing conspiracy theories about them.

Beyond that, Musk hasn’t described how he’d integrate any suggestions made by other developers or readers — which, again, would probably involve a lot of spammers — into Twitter’s algorithm. Maybe he could follow the path suggested by Dorsey and let people fork their own versions of Twitter’s recommendation system, turning it into an actual open source system? Maybe he could set up a Facebook Oversight Board-style committee that would approve suggested changes? We won’t know for a while.
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caltrek
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Elon Musk Has Reportedly Lined Up New Twitter CEO and Has Shared Ideas for Monetizing Tweets
by Aisha Malik
April 29, 2022

https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/29/elon- ... ng-tweets/

Introduction:
(TechCrunch) Elon Musk has lined up a new CEO for Twitter and told banks that agreed to help fund his $44 billion acquisition offer about his plans to monetize tweets, according to a new report from Reuters. A source told Reuters that Musk has decided on who he plans to appoint as the new chief executive of Twitter, but the source didn’t name the person. Twitter’s current CEO Parag Agrawal, who took the role after Jack Dorsey stepped down in November, is expected to remain as CEO until the deal is completed.

Reuters reports that Musk told Twitter chairman Bret Taylor that he does not have confidence in the company’s management, which is a sentiment that he also stated in SEC filings. Agrawal would be set for a significant compensation package if the deal closes and Musk brings in new management, as he would receive $38.7 million due to a clause in his contract, according to the company’s latest proxy filing.

Reuters reports that Musk told banks that he plans to develop more ways to make money from tweets. For example, he said that he plans to create a way to monetize tweets that go viral or include important information. He also suggested the idea of charging a fee when third-party websites quote or embed tweets from verified accounts.

The Washington Post reports that Musk also brought up the idea of paying influencers to create content for the platform, which is a business model that has proven to be successful for TikTok. Musk is also said to be interested in the idea of subscription services that the company could offer.

In deleted tweets from earlier this month, Musk suggested significant changes to Twitter Blue, which is the social media giant’s subscription service that is currently priced at $2.99 per month. Musk suggested cutting the price, adding a way to pay in dogecoin, and banning advertising. In another now-deleted tweet, Musk said he wants to move Twitter away from its dependence on advertising for much of its revenue.
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wjfox
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Twitter CEO faces employee anger over Musk attacks at company-wide meeting

Last Updated 43 min ago

Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal sought to quell employee anger on Friday during a company-wide meeting where employees demanded answers to how managers planned to handle an anticipated mass exodus prompted by Elon Musk.

[...]

"I'm tired of hearing about shareholder value and fiduciary duty. What are your honest thoughts about the very high likelihood that many employees will not have jobs after the deal closes?" one Twitter employee asked Agrawal, in a question read aloud during the meeting.

[...]

Employees also told executives they feared Musk's erratic behavior could destabilize Twitter's business, and hurt it financially as the company prepares to address the advertising world in a presentation next week in New York City.

"Do we have a strategy in the near-term on how to handle advertisers pulling investment," one employee asked.

[...]

After the meeting, a Twitter employee told Reuters there was little trust in what executives had to say.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/twit ... 022-04-29/
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Elon Musk Will Be Temporary Twitter CEO Once Deal Closes, Report Says
May 5, 2022

Elon Musk is expected to step into the position of temporary CEO for Twitter once his $44 billion deal to buy the social network is completed, reported CNBC's David Faber on Thursday, citing unnamed sources. He'll reportedly lead the company for a "few months."

While raising funds for his takeover bid, Musk told banks he has a new CEO lined up for Twitter, according to Reuters, which didn't report who would take on the role. Parag Agrawal, who took over from co-founder Jack Dorsey in November, is expected to stay as CEO until the sale is completed.

Twitter shareholders still need to approve the deal, which isn't expected to close for about six months.
https://www.cnet.com/news/social-media/ ... port-says/
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caltrek
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Elon Musk Thinks He Can Double Twitter’s Revenue Through Subscriptions Alone

by Emma Roth
May 7, 2022

https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/7/23061 ... tions-blue

Introduction:
(The Verge) Elon Musk — the world’s richest man and Twitter’s new owner — expects Twitter to earn almost $10 billion in revenue from subscriptions by 2028, a projection that doubles the $5 billion in total revenue the platform made last year, according to a report from The New York Times.

In a pitch deck viewed by the Times, Musk gave investors a taste of what to expect under his ownership. This reportedly includes driving up Twitter Blue subscribers to 69 million by 2025 and more than doubling that number to 159 million by 2028. Launched last year, Twitter Blue is the service’s $2.99 / month subscription that gives users access to an “undo tweet” button, app customization, ad-free articles, and other exclusive features. Musk expects a huge growth in total Twitter users as well, growing from the 217 million users reported last year to 600 million Twitter users in 2025 and, eventually, 931 million in 2028.

The pitch deck also outlines plans for an unnamed subscription service outside of Blue, called “X,” which Musk expects to bring in nine million subscribers in 2023 and 104 million by 2028. Earlier this week, Musk hinted at charging governments and corporations a “slight cost” to use Twitter. Whatever subscription “X” may be, revenue from it and Blue combined is supposed to hit the $10 billion mark by 2028, making up a large fraction of the $26.4 billion in total revenue Musk thinks the service will reach that same year.

According to the Times, Twitter is supposed to make up the rest of its total projected revenue with ads, something that Musk predicts Twitter will earn about $12 billion through by 2028. Twitter has been reliant on advertising as its primary stream of revenue in the past, but Musk, who said in a now-deleted tweet that Twitter should remove ads for paid subscribers, wants ads to make up just 45 percent of Twitter’s total revenue.
Musk’s pitch deck reportedly includes plans to rake in $15 million from some sort of payments business as well, which he expects to grow to $1.3 billion by 2028.
caltrek’s comment: As I have already indicated, I hate Twitter. I think after Musk gets through with it, I will hate it even more. I mean content providers will also have to pay a subscription? That is like paying somebody to be allowed to work. (Yes, I post a lot out of fun – but I am retired and living comfortably on a pension, social security, etc.).

No wonder Musk in now the richest man in America, if not the world.
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caltrek
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Judge Tosses Trump's Lawsuit Over His Lifetime Twitter Ban
by Taylor Hatmaker
May 6, 2022

https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/06/trump ... n-lawsuit/

Introduction:
(TechCrunch) A federal judge in California dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against Twitter Friday, dimming at least one avenue the former president and prolific tweeter might have used to get back to his platform of choice.

Trump’s argument that the social media company and its then-chief executive Jack Dorsey violated his right to free speech failed to convince Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California, to put it lightly.

“Plaintiffs’ main claim is that defendants have ‘censor[ed]” plaintiffs’ Twitter accounts in violation of their right to free speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,'” Donato wrote. “Plaintiffs are not starting from a position of strength.”

In tossing the suit as it stands, Donato pointed out the obvious: Twitter is a private company and is not bound by the First Amendment, which protects Americans from government efforts to limit speech. Essentially, Twitter can do whatever it wants when it comes to content moderation, just like any other online platform.

Donato shot down the connection Trump’s legal team tried to make between the U.S. government and Twitter, rejecting the assertion that the company was somehow acting on behalf of the federal government because Democratic lawmakers wanted Trump kicked off the platform.
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weatheriscool
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Elon Musk says he would reverse Twitter ban on Donald Trump
Source: Washington Post
SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk said he would reverse Twitter’s ban on former president Donald Trump.

Musk, the Tesla CEO who is soon to own Twitter, said it was a mistake for the website to ban the former president.

“I think it was a morally bad decision to be clear and foolish in the extreme,” he said at a Future of the Car event hosted by the Financial Times.

He added: "I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump. I think that was a mistake … It alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technolo ... k-twitter/

Good, it is anti-democratic to silence the opposition leader of the minority party of any democracy. That is what russia is doing.
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