It’s done. Musk forced to buy Twitter

[Chevaker]

He's correct theres a bot problem on twitter. I personally, never use twitter, but I see how society has become really dependent on it, news articles link to twitter posts all the time. To me, Musk is doing this because he is starting to fixate on politics.
This whole discussion, is very important. What if Musk takes over twitter and bans anyone calling Trump a seditionist? What if he bans all religious discussion? Who cares? I don't. Its not a free speech issue to me, its a business decision made by a corp. They have share holders and a board, if the decision hurts their bottom line, they will boot Musk out the door. THAT is why I do not believe, at all, that Musk is going to make the splashes many here expect, and if he does. Well its going to get more interesting.

I'd argue that freedom of speech should be protected on the internet and that the government should enforce it. But thats me. More and more our society speaks through the internet. Therefore our speech now is becoming regulated by private companies, in exchange for using their services. We are headed towards a cross roads on that. I would argue the people of USA should have rights over the companies who services they buy. Think about if Ma Bell still existed and regulated your speech on the telephone?

You bring up a lot of good thoughts. It does feel like things are at a crossroads. It will be interesting to see how it unfolds.

 

[OleFastball]

He's correct theres a bot problem on twitter. I personally, never use twitter, but I see how society has become really dependent on it, news articles link to twitter posts all the time. To me, Musk is doing this because he is starting to fixate on politics.
This whole discussion, is very important. What if Musk takes over twitter and bans anyone calling Trump a seditionist? What if he bans all religious discussion? Who cares? I don't. Its not a free speech issue to me, its a business decision made by a corp. They have share holders and a board, if the decision hurts their bottom line, they will boot Musk out the door. THAT is why I do not believe, at all, that Musk is going to make the splashes many here expect, and if he does. Well its going to get more interesting.

I'd argue that freedom of speech should be protected on the internet and that the government should enforce it. But thats me. More and more our society speaks through the internet. Therefore our speech now is becoming regulated by private companies, in exchange for using their services. We are headed towards a cross roads on that. I would argue the people of USA should have rights over the companies who services they buy. Think about if Ma Bell still existed and regulated your speech on the telephone?

I care if Musk bans all religious discussion. Freedom of Speech is freedom of speech. I hope he adheres to his promise that all speech, that is legal, will be permitted.

Twitter wasn't a private company, it was a public corporation. It will, however, be a private company after Musk buys it.

It is going to be very interesting to see how this all pans out. I am confident that Free Speech is the best path forward.

I agree with you on your analogy to Ma Bell. What if they regulated the speech on your phone calls? I don't think anyone would agree that would be ok. So why should twitter be able to regulate your speech on their platform? Lots of interesting questions to be pondered. But im glad that twitter will be in the hands of Musk, who at least pretends to want free speech.

 

[TheSweatshirt]

I care if Musk bans all religious discussion. Freedom of Speech is freedom of speech. I hope he adheres to his promise that all speech, that is legal, will be permitted.

Twitter wasn't a private company, it was a public corporation. It will, however, be a private company after Musk buys it.

It is going to be very interesting to see how this all pans out. I am confident that Free Speech is the best path forward.

I agree with you on your analogy to Ma Bell. What if they regulated the speech on your phone calls? I don't think anyone would agree that would be ok. So why should twitter be able to regulate your speech on their platform? Lots of interesting questions to be pondered. But im glad that twitter will be in the hands of Musk, who at least pretends to want free speech.

Don't confuse private/public sector with private/public companies. Public companies are still private sector.

We will see on Free Speech. I agree with the view that moderation went too far and negated the ability to challenge what was believed to be a "fact" (ie, the lab leak theory).

But I wouldn't necessary use telephones as an analogy. Perhaps cable TV is better, even public access channels. No one can air porn or vulgarity on non-cable TV. No one could buy time on public access and run a show called "The Jihad Hour" where you actively encourage suicide bombings. There are standards regulated by the government. Social Media is something that the government is still trying to decide how much regulation is needed, and I assume they will figure that out around year 2060.

 

[firegiver]

I care if Musk bans all religious discussion. Freedom of Speech is freedom of speech. I hope he adheres to his promise that all speech, that is legal, will be permitted.

Twitter wasn't a private company, it was a public corporation. It will, however, be a private company after Musk buys it.

It is going to be very interesting to see how this all pans out. I am confident that Free Speech is the best path forward.

I agree with you on your analogy to Ma Bell. What if they regulated the speech on your phone calls? I don't think anyone would agree that would be ok. So why should twitter be able to regulate your speech on their platform? Lots of interesting questions to be pondered. But im glad that twitter will be in the hands of Musk, who at least pretends to want free speech.

They can regulate your speech because the government lets them run their business how they please and they lobby to keep that right.

 

[OleFastball]

They can regulate your speech because the government lets them run their business how they please and they lobby to keep that right.

No they can’t. Ma bell does not have a right to listen to your phone calls.

 

[dfrctigersc]

Not sure what you are exactly wanting me to respond to here. Theres like a million things and all of it conjecture in that article. I think you are probably asking me about the text messages where his ex wife suggests he buy twitter and make it a free speech platform? If so yah, ok honey, sounds good i'll do that. Personally, I'm a free speech advocate. But you see free speech is protected from the government, not from private companies. Now we can have a discussion about the internet being a commodity like electricity or the PHONE company and personally, I think it needs those levels of protection to keep AWS from owning the entire internet and its technologies within 10 years... however, you likely aren't asking about that.

You probably just want to know: Do I think Musk will buy twitter and own tha libs by reinstating all forms of speech and unbanning everyone? Well he could, but, he''d lose a shit ton of money in the process. Its a terrible business decision, because if he's allowing hate speech on the platform, a lot of folks are simply going to leave. Endorsement deals will dry up and the brand will suffer. Also, the idea that conservatism is persecuted on twitter is laughable. I would argue with anyone suggesting that. Show me on twitter an example of someone arguing for small government and getting banned. No what conservatives want is the ability to call people fag1ts and fr3aks and bully people for their lifestyles and play identity politics on twitter. Which is against their user policy.

I just think in the sober mornings of board meetings, Musk will likely get reeled in by some adults. Maybe he wont, its going to be his company and he can do what he wants. But at the end of the day I think some white people are just upset they can't say the quiet parts out loud on social media.

Its a weird response, you said Twitter policies won't change, remember? Musk clearly is texting to the contrary. You finally addressed it, I think. So you think he will decide not to then. I think its far fetched though to JUST address certain hate groups.

Sounds like a deflection, could be posts addressing men dressed as women teaching children. Or maybe the latest of teaching 8th graders about anal sex? I wouldn't use the terminology you have there, but if I don't like teaching that to children I should indeed be allowed to voice it without being tagged as a hater.

Twitter has been censuring people based on political affiliation calling it misinformation. Champions of anti-misinformation? More like destroyers of free speech.

 

[fatpiggy]

never had a good feel for the guy...

on the one hand he suckled at the govt teet for every dime he could milk in subsidies etc to keep tesla alive and has talked a big game only to completely bail ie the cali train btw la and san fran he promised, rebuilding the puerto rico power grid, and claiming he could get those thai kids outta that cave. he did actually send something that time it was just a metal hunk of sht. oh and most recently that dumbass robot he trotted out

on the other hand he seems genuinely interested in advancing human quality of life, space-x is doing cool sht and a legit company, tesla is at least making a bold attempt at something groundbreaking, and he at least seems genuine in his interest in humanity's future and having some principles. used to rub me the wrong way with things like the infamous "funding secured" tweet that you just cant do as a company ceo. idno now, not sure if his appearing to genuinely care about free speech is just a function of him reading the room on the need for a champion of pc pushback and wanting to take those reins or out of genuine concern.

regardless, this is a massive L for him. not sure if he didn't want some things exposed in the lawsuit or would literally rather spend 40 billion than deal with that headache, but he caved and now twitter will take their sweet time and make a public spectacle of it.

Ouch, this post didn’t age well.

 

[fatpiggy]

It is very interesting going back and reading the takes in this thread.

I wonder if libs think Twitter is worth $44B now?

$44B gave them the ability to censor speech. I bet almost every lib on the board would take twitter back for $44B (it’s not for sale losers)

They may never win another election (without pivoting their policies) now that they have to fight on an even playing field.