Elon Musk Offers to Buy All of Twitter

[ric22]

NEW YOUR KTIMES


A free speech absolutist in charge of the de facto town square? Sounds incredible!

Racists and lunatics rejoice!

 

[turbineseaplane]

Racists and lunatics rejoice!

Exactly how the "de facto town square" will "cease to be the de facto town square"
lol

 

[surfzen21]

LMAO

A free speech absolutist. He is not even close to that. He cancelled a journalist's pre-purchase of a Tesla 3 because he didn't like an article the journalist wrote.

This is part of his battle with the Saudi ruling family.

 

[turbineseaplane]

LMAO

A free speech absolutist. He is not even close to that.

Spot on

There are numerous examples of how much he hates "anyone saying whatever they want"
It's completely laughable that anyone would say he's all in favor of "free speech"

Like all zillionaires, he just wants control and rules that work "for him".

 

[turbineseaplane]

Should be fun to see how well this holds up...

 

[obeygiant]

Former President Barack Obama on Thursday called on tech companies to provide greater transparency about the way they promote content and for stricter regulation of the industry to combat what he called the “disinformation problem.”

Obama, speaking in the heart of Silicon Valley in Stanford, California, has been making the fight against disinformation a key pillar of his post-presidency. The debate over the spread of misleading information online has picked up significant urgency in the wake of falsehoods about Covid-19 and the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

“Social media did not create racism or White supremacist groups. It didn’t create the kind of ethnonationalism that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is enraptured with,” Obama said. “All these things existed long before the first tweet or Facebook Poke. Solving the disinformation problem won’t cure all that ails our democracies or tears at the fabric of our world. But it can help tamp down divisions and let us rebuild the trust and solidarity needed.”

The 44th President specifically called for tech companies to be more transparent about how their algorithms work.

“These companies are still way too guarded about how exactly their standards operate, or how their engagement ranking systems influence what goes viral and what doesn’t,” he said.

“For more and more of us, search and social media platforms aren’t just our window into the internet. They serve as our primary source of news and information. No one tells us that the window is blurred, subject to unseen distortions and subtle manipulations,” he said.

Obama argued that the design of major social media platforms relied on maximizing engagement so people spend more time on their sites.

“Unfortunately, it turns out that inflammatory, polarizing content attracts and engages,” he said. “Other features of these platforms have compounded the problem. For example, the way content looks on your phone, as well as the veil of anonymity that platforms provide their users, a lot of times can make it impossible to tell the difference between, say, a peer-reviewed article by Dr. Anthony Fauci and a miracle cure being pitched by a huckster.”

Referencing the role misinformation has played in the anti-vaccination movement in the United States and how it has promoted vaccine hesitancy, Obama said, “People are dying because of misinformation.”

Obama's speech to Stanford University CNN

Free speech and free exchange of ideas are required for a robust democracy. One person's "disinformation" can be another person's truth. Free information and letting people make their own decisions is the best course of action. Are there dumb people out there? Sure. But its not anyone's job to decide whats right for them.

Elon's purchase of toxic Twitter will bring a much needed cleaning to the platform.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Reminder that less content moderation ≠ more free speech.

It just means that the speech of the vulnerable, the harassed, and the targets of hate speech will be silenced, or at least chilled

 

[ric22]

Elon Musk strikes deal to buy Twitter for $44bn

Mr Musk, who made the shock bid just over a week ago, said he would "unlock" the social media firm's potential.

www.bbc.co.uk

Done deal, apparently.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Elon Musk strikes deal to buy Twitter for $44bn

Mr Musk, who made the shock bid just over a week ago, said he would "unlock" the social media firm's potential.

www.bbc.co.uk

Done deal, apparently.

Yeah -- there's another thread on it...going about as you'd expect..

 

[ric22]

Yeah -- there's another thread on it...going about as you'd expect..

Yep Well, I guess I'll continue to not use Twitter ??

 

[obeygiant]

Reminder that less content moderation ≠ more free speech.

It just means that the speech of the vulnerable, the harassed, and the targets of hate speech will be silenced, or at least chilled

Depends on who is doing the "moderation". This protection you are referring to often makes everyone weaker.

 

[Weaselboy]

Moderator Note:

Please continue the discussion in the updated news thread:

Elon Musk Is Officially Purchasing Twitter for $44 Billion

Twitter has agreed to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's offer to buy the company for $44 billion, Twitter announced today. Bloomberg was first to report early Monday morning that a deal between the two parties was imminent. Two weeks ago, Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share. Twitter...

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