Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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US government slams Musk in court filing describing “chaotic environment” at X
US says FTC probe uncovered privacy risks caused by Musk's drastic changes.
JON BRODKIN - 9/13/2023, 4:43 AM


US government lawyers criticized Elon Musk's leadership at the company formerly named Twitter yesterday, telling a judge that Musk's attempt to terminate a privacy settlement and Federal Trade Commission investigation should be rejected.

"After agreeing last year to settle charges that it once again misled consumers about the privacy and security of their information, X Corp. (formerly Twitter, Inc.) now seeks to jettison that agreement and limit further scrutiny of its data practices. X Corp.'s motion is meritless and should be denied," Department of Justice lawyers representing the US government wrote in the filing in US District Court for the Northern District of California.

In July, Musk's X Corp. asked the court to terminate or modify a privacy settlement that Twitter and the FTC agreed to in May 2022 before Musk bought the company. X claimed that the FTC's ongoing investigation into whether it is complying with the settlement "has spiraled out of control and become tainted by bias." X's motion also sought "a protective order staying the notice of deposition of Elon Musk."

The US response yesterday said the investigation is warranted by the dramatic changes that Musk brought to the social media firm. It also said that Musk should be deposed in the FTC investigation because he "has unique, first-hand knowledge about the current state and direction of the company's data practices and efforts to comply with the 2022 Administrative Order."

The US said the FTC found troubling information when it used its discovery rights under the settlement to request "records and other information to determine whether X Corp. was properly protecting user data during this transformation," and when it deposed five former executives and employees who held roles in privacy and security. The FTC depositions so far have targeted "former employees because nearly every employee who has been identified as a point person for privacy or data security either resigned or was terminated before the FTC could talk to them," the government said.

“Chaotic environment”

"The information obtained revealed a chaotic environment at the company that raised serious questions about whether and how Musk and other leaders were ensuring X Corp.'s compliance with the 2022 Administrative Order," the US wrote in the partially redacted filing.

Musk conducted "at least five rounds of terminations, layoffs, or other reductions" in the weeks after his October 2022 purchase of Twitter, eliminating over half of the workforce, the US noted.

"Within days of the initial layoffs, three key data privacy and security executives all resigned: Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran, Chief Information Security Officer Lea Kissner, and Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty," the filing said. "These three had been the sole remaining members of the company's Data Governance Committee, which was tasked with interpreting and modifying data policies and practices to ensure X Corp. complied with the 2022 Administrative Order."

The US filing said that during a deposition, "Kissner testified that decisions by Musk and others—including layoffs and other 'cost-cutting pressure and decisions'—impaired X Corp.'s ability to 'put technical restrictions and controls in place... around the company's use of contact data to make sure that it was being used... for the purpose that the particular contact data was collected.'"

Kissner further testified that after the mass employee exodus, "about half of the controls in X Corp.'s information security program did not have a designated 'owner' responsible for their operation. Similarly, at his deposition, Kieran testified that the firings and layoffs meant no one was responsible for about 37 percent of X Corp.'s privacy program controls," the US wrote.

“Musk’s conduct”

The next section of the US government filing is titled "Musk's Conduct." After buying the social network and taking over as CEO and sole director, "Musk also personally assumed supervisory authority over X Corp.'s privacy and information security program under the 2022 Administrative Order," the US said.

"Former X Corp. employees testified about several concerning incidents involving Musk," the US wrote. "For example, in early December 2022, Musk reportedly directed staff to grant an outside third-party journalist 'full access to everything at Twitter... No limits at all.' Consistent with Musk's direction, the journalist was initially assigned a company laptop and internal account, with the intent that they be given 'elevated privileges beyond just what a[n] average employee might have.'"

The journalist who received that access was reportedly Bari Weiss. According to the US court filing, longtime security employees at Twitter were "concerned such an arrangement could expose nonpublic user information in potential violation of the 2022 Administrative Order" and thus "intervened and implemented safeguards to mitigate the risks." Instead of receiving direct access to company systems, the journalist was said to be "working with some other individuals within [the company] who were potentially accessing such services on [their] behalf."

The next section of the US government filing is titled "Musk's Conduct." After buying the social network and taking over as CEO and sole director, "Musk also personally assumed supervisory authority over X Corp.'s privacy and information security program under the 2022 Administrative Order," the US said.

"Former X Corp. employees testified about several concerning incidents involving Musk," the US wrote. "For example, in early December 2022, Musk reportedly directed staff to grant an outside third-party journalist 'full access to everything at Twitter... No limits at all.' Consistent with Musk's direction, the journalist was initially assigned a company laptop and internal account, with the intent that they be given 'elevated privileges beyond just what a[n] average employee might have.'"

The journalist who received that access was reportedly Bari Weiss. According to the US court filing, longtime security employees at Twitter were "concerned such an arrangement could expose nonpublic user information in potential violation of the 2022 Administrative Order" and thus "intervened and implemented safeguards to mitigate the risks." Instead of receiving direct access to company systems, the journalist was said to be "working with some other individuals within [the company] who were potentially accessing such services on [their] behalf."

Abrupt move of servers with sensitive data

The filing then described a December 2022 incident in which Musk directed that Twitter servers be moved from one data center to another.

"X Corp. policy was that 'data cannot leave the data center unless it's been wiped.' But because employees only had 'a matter of days and weeks, not, like months or quarters' to conduct the move, they did not have 'enough time to put together a process that [] would be in compliance with [their] own policies,'" the brief said.

The hurried server move was also described in the new biography of Musk by Walter Isaacson.

The US government brief said the relocated servers were not wiped before being moved to a new data center. The type of data on the relocated servers was apparently so sensitive that it could not be described in the US court filing, which redacts the sentence that describes what the servers contained.

The "Musk's Conduct" section ends with a description of the rushed launch of the Twitter Blue revamp that gave "verification" checkmarks to paying users:
According to Kissner, Musk insisted the service "ha[d] to launch right now," even though X Corp. was "so reduced in size that [teams were] struggling to keep the service up." Kieran recalled Twitter Blue was implemented so quickly that, "to ensure the speed that the product and engineering team was trying to work at," the security and privacy review was not conducted in accordance with the company's process for software development.

Sayler described how some of the security team's recommendations went unheeded, including measures for mitigating the risk that people would purchase verification to impersonate other accounts. These concerns were well-founded: Twitter Blue was suspended the day after it was launched, after reports of fake accounts and impersonations.
X “complains the FTC asked too many questions”

The US brief also responded to X's claim that the FTC "attempted to bully" audit firm Ernst & Young (EY) "into acting as an arm of its enforcement staff digging up dirt on X Corp., rather than an objective, independent, third-party auditor."

"X Corp. fails to mention that EY chose to terminate its engagement in February 2023 due to the extensive departures within, and a lack of support from, X Corp. Nor does X Corp. acknowledge that it has since retained a new independent assessor, which renders immaterial the company's allegations regarding EY, since EY never produced a report of X Corp.'s program or submitted one to the FTC," the US told the court.

When Twitter agreed to the privacy settlement last year, there was a stipulated order issued by the court and an administrative order issued by the FTC. The obligations that X complains about "flow from the FTC's administrative order and not the court's stipulated order," the US said.

The US argued that the court lacks authority to terminate the FTC's 2022 administrative order "because X Corp. did not first seek that relief from the Commission itself." But even if the compliance obligations were part of the stipulated order, X "has not identified a change in circumstances that renders the order's safeguards unworkable or contrary to the public interest," the US said.

"In seeking 'relief' from these obligations, X Corp. does not argue that the safeguards to which it consented have become unnecessary or unworkable. Rather, it complains the FTC asked too many questions after Elon Musk acquired the company," the US said. "But the FTC asked questions because of sudden, radical changes at the company: within weeks of the acquisition, half of X Corp.'s employees were terminated or resigned, including key executives in privacy, data security, and compliance roles."

The US said that X's "motion rests on hyperbolic allegations of 'witness tampering' and an investigation 'tainted by bias.'" The reality, according to the government, is that Musk's hasty revamp of Twitter Blue, along with "alarming site outages, product malfunctions, and issues with data access controls," gave the FTC "every reason to seek information about whether these developments signaled a lapse in X Corp.'s compliance."
The article about the server move is worth reading if you want an example of Musk's management style. Here's one bit the FTC cares about:
The servers had user data on them, and James did not initially realize that, for privacy reasons, they were supposed to be wiped clean before being moved. “By the time we learned this, the servers had already been unplugged and rolled out, so there was no way we would roll them back, plug them in, and then wipe them,” he says. Plus, the wiping software wasn’t working. “F---, what do we do?” he asked. Elon recommended that they lock the trucks and track them.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by Solauren »

That quote about the server move is interesting for more then just Musks stupidity. (Really, lock and track the trucks? BIG FUCKING DEAL)

The fact the wiping software wasn't working is interesting. It's not that hard to digital bleach a hard drive. So, why wasn't it working?
I've been asked why I still follow a few of the people I know on Facebook with 'interesting political habits and view points'.

It's so when they comment on or approve of something, I know what pages to block/what not to vote for.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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Maybe he forgot to renew the software license?
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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It might just be that Musk had fired everyone who knew how to run it. Because software that can wipe drives on a server is something I wouldn't want running without the correct authorization.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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I was figuring some conflict with authorization and file access rights after musk turned everything into a hot mess
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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Could also be an issue of cant/wont - if the data is important, and somehow can't be backed up before the server wipe. What options remain - delete it and have it been lost foreever?

That's why you do this kind of operation over weeks and months in our business - the servers are only getting moved once everything is backed up, thrice, then some servers leave the light on - the farm is moved, set up, restored, switched on. Once it is up and running, THEN the last data gets backed up before the 'nightwatch' gets switched offf, wiped and moved to the new location.
A minute's thought suggests that the very idea of this is stupid. A more detailed examination raises the possibility that it might be an answer to the question "how could the Germans win the war after the US gets involved?" - Captain Seafort, in a thread proposing a 1942 'D-Day' in Quiberon Bay

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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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The ADL are vile, being involved in the assassinations of Alex Odeh (who was killed in a bombing in Los Angeles) and Chris Hani (who was shot in South Africa). That said, blaming the fact that advertisers want nothing to do with a site that mollycoddles avowed Nazis like Ian Miles Cheong (among multitudes of others) is David Duke territory -only Duke's facelifts and hair plugs are more convincing than Elon Musk's.

By the way, I just found out that X-twitter banned me this morning for making fun of Tim Gurner. :roll:
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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Elfdart wrote: 2023-09-18 03:06pm The ADL are vile, being involved in the assassinations of Alex Odeh (who was killed in a bombing in Los Angeles) and Chris Hani (who was shot in South Africa). That said, blaming the fact that advertisers want nothing to do with a site that mollycoddles avowed Nazis like Ian Miles Cheong (among multitudes of others) on Jews is David Duke territory -only Duke's facelifts and hair plugs are more convincing than Elon Musk's.

By the way, I just found out that X-twitter banned me this morning for making fun of Tim Gurner. :roll:
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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Musk and Netanyahu blame “armies of bots” for spreading antisemitism on X
Israeli prime minister praised Musk's "opposition to antisemitism" in X chat.
ASHLEY BELANGER - 9/19/2023, 7:39 AM


Today, Elon Musk and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu livestreamed a discussion largely focused on the future of AI on Musk's platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

According to The New York Times, the talk was arranged at Musk's suggestion, and some perceived it as an attempt by Musk to seek "political cover at a time of rising antisemitism on X." In return, for Netanyahu, the talk seemingly provided an opportunity to deflect from mass protests against Netanyahu's attempts to weaken Israel's Supreme Court. Instead he could be seen promoting his dedication to turning Israel into a tech leader—and possibly even signal that Musk may consider investing in the country's tech, the Times reported.

The livestreamed event started with a one-on-one between Musk and Netanyahu that attracted more than 735,000 views. While much of the one-on-one focused on AI—which Musk claimed was "potentially the biggest civilizational threat" and Netanyahu called "a blessing and a curse"—the men also discussed their views on antisemitism and how Musk deals with hate speech on X.

"I know your commitment to free speech," Netanyahu said about 20 minutes into the talk. "But I also know your opposition to antisemitism. You've spoken about it. You've tweeted about it. And all I could say is, I hope you find within the confines of the First Amendment the ability to stop not only antisemitism, or roll it back as best you can, but any collective hatred of people."

Musk said that he was "sort of against attacking any group" but that defending free speech "does at times mean that there's someone you don't like who's saying something you don't like." However, "that doesn't mean, some sort of negativity should be pushed upon people," Musk said, noting that X couldn't afford to let the platform become "unpleasant," because it would lose users. He said that's why his platform works to de-amplify hate speech when it's detected—"because we think probably that's not what people want to hear."

"Obviously, I'm against antisemitism," Musk said. "I'm against anti-really anything that promotes hate and conflict."

Netanyahu noted that X's policy didn't stop Musk from condemning antisemitism every chance he got. The entire conversation remained strictly agreeable, with Netanyahu's only pushback coming about 25 minutes in. The prime minister asked Musk if it was "technically possible" to limit "armies of bots" from amplifying hate speech on X.

"So at least if you get a crazy guy and a hateful guy, let him be speaking for one voice rather than arming an army of fake millions," Netanyahu suggested.

Musk continued promoting his strategy of charging X users a monthly subscription as "the only way" he can think of "to combat vast armies of bots." He also took this opportunity to announce that X would soon be rolling out a lower-priced subscription tier for X users. According to Musk, the more users pay for subscriptions, the higher the cost of bots would be, and the better chance X will have of preventing bot-driven hate speech, misinformation, and other harm.

Israeli protesters have said that the meeting between Musk and Netanyahu "offers little help to Israel’s economy," The New York Times reported. Michael J. Koplow, an analyst for a New York-based research group called the Israeli Policy Forum, told The New York Times that, instead, it was more about appearances. “Netanyahu is looking for any victories he can get," Koplow said, and Musk "will point to a warm meeting with Netanyahu as a shield against accusations of antisemitism."

The talk remained polite and friendly, with Musk cracking jokes and Netanyahu seemingly carefully steering away when topics got too hot. But there was one point where the prime minister seemed comfortable enough to join Musk in poking fun at the events that led both men to appear side by side on X today.

"It's not an easy thing to be maligned," Netanyahu said. "I know you've never seen that, right?"

Just this weekend, The Guardian reported that Musk stirred up outrage by seeming to stoke antisemitic conspiracy theories about philanthropist George Soros by posting on X that "the Soros organization appears to want nothing less than the destruction of western civilization."

"Me, maligned?" Musk responded during the talk. "Never."

Fighting antisemitism on X

While Netanyahu directly addressed the protesters who for nine months have loudly opposed his efforts to push Israeli judicial reform—describing many of them as misinformed—Musk did not discuss his views on civil rights groups that he has recently attacked as misleading X advertisers by allegedly fear-mongering about rising antisemitism on X. That includes the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which Musk sued in August, and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which Musk threatened to sue earlier this month.

According to The New York Times, an ADL spokesperson said the organization hoped that Musk and Netanyahu's meeting would be "productive" and include a robust discussion of how to combat hate on X. Instead, Netanyahu did not challenge Musk much, perhaps prioritizing allying with Musk to further Israel's tech ambitions.

In a New York Times op-ed published today, former Twitter Trust and Safety Chief Yoel Roth wrote that Musk's "recent targeting of the Anti-Defamation League has shown that he views personal retaliation as an appropriate consequence for any criticism of him or his business interests."

The president of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, joined critics who doubted that Musk meeting with Netanyahu would result in less antisemitism on X. Jacobs told Tte Times that he was "skeptical of such a meeting being able to resolve these issues.”

“It’s important for all of us, including the prime minister of the state of Israel, to loudly and clearly express to Elon Musk that what is happening on his platform is outrageous, and it endangers the lives of the Jewish people,” Jacobs said.
I'm not sure which would be worse, that Netanyahu hasn't been paying attention to Musk boosting antisemitism, or that he has and still thought this talk was a good idea.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by madd0c0t0r2 »

bilateralrope wrote: 2023-09-19 04:36am
I'm not sure which would be worse, that Netanyahu hasn't been paying attention to Musk boosting antisemitism, or that he has and still thought this talk was a good idea.
Netanyahu's far right faction benefit from ordinary Israelis feeling scared, defensive and hoping for a strong man figure. They benefit from rising tensions and increased psychologicsl pressure on left wing opponents. They benefit by muddying the water by cosying up to plausible anti-leftist strong men who aren't overtly anti-Semitic themselves. "Stand with us and our allies or face the uncertain neo naxi threat alone".
It reminds me of nixon sabotaging Vietnamesese peace talks
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by bobalot »

Elon wants to pay wall Twitter.

I wonder if he even gives a shit anymore.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by Lord Revan »

bobalot wrote: 2023-09-25 08:43am Elon wants to pay wall Twitter.

I wonder if he even gives a shit anymore.
I think the issue isn't that he doesn't care, but more that he's so divorced from reality that he can't no longer understand how people act in the real world instead he's basing his goals on his personal fantasies.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by Solauren »

Or, he's planning on letting people pay, and then banning 'abusers', but not refunding anything they paid.

In the short term, he makes it attractive for 'problematic' users, they pay up, then they rip them off X/$$$ly.
I've been asked why I still follow a few of the people I know on Facebook with 'interesting political habits and view points'.

It's so when they comment on or approve of something, I know what pages to block/what not to vote for.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by EnterpriseSovereign »

Well I've already decided "fuck that" when Photobucket pulled the same shit. I guess Twitter really is broke after all. :wanker:
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by Adam Reynolds »

I wonder if archive.org would be affected by a paywall? I've had a few cases of wanting to read old tweets and found that archive.org is the best way to do it. As much as Twitter sucks there has been a bit of interesting information posted there over the years.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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All the major websites are now facing enshittification.

Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Google search, Amazon, etc.

Twitter is unique in that it is becoming completely shit because it's owner is a fuckwit rather than squeezing monopoly profits.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by bobalot »

Twitter / X is losing daily active users. CEO Linda Yaccarino confirmed it.

By now, you may have heard about Elon Musk's handpicked CEO for X, Linda Yaccarino, and her disastrous interview with CNBC's Julia Boorstin at Vox Media's Code 2023 event. However, somewhat overlooked amid some of the more viral moments of the discussion, Yaccarino dropped some previously unknown stats that don't exactly paint such a rosy picture for the company:

X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is losing daily active users under the leadership of Elon Musk.

Speaking at Vox Media's Code 2023 tech conference earlier this week, X CEO Linda Yaccarino shared that the company currently has 225 million daily active users – a decline in tens of millions or 11.6 percent of users from just before Musk acquired the company.

According to a series of tweets that Musk himself posted in November of last year, Twitter had 254.5 million daily active users the week before his takeover in late November of last year.

Following the conference, X revised its daily active user count to 245 million daily active users, according to The Information. Before specifically saying X had 225 million active users, Yaccarinno previously cited "200 to 250 million" daily active users earlier in the interview.

However, even X's revised number of 245 million daily active users would still see X lose millions or around 3.7 percent of daily active users from before Musk's acquisition.

In fact, daily active users are even down from the numbers that Musk shared last year when he was in charge. According to the aforementioned Musk tweet, Twitter had 259.4 million daily active users in mid-November 2022. Compared to the daily active users Twitter was pulling late last year under Musk's leadership, X has shed nearly 15 million users – a drop of roughly 5.6 percent.

Twitter first started sharing this metric, which the company refers to as monetizable daily active users or mDAU, years before Musk even planned to buy the company. The reason? Twitter's daily active user numbers were reliably more favorable for the company than its other metrics when it shared its quarterly reports for investors and shareholders.

When Yaccarino was first asked about user metrics during the interview, she seemingly wanted to move away from that particular conversation, saying that X had between 200 and 250 daily active users. She then moved the discussion to the platform's Communities feature, the company's answer to Facebook Groups, saying X had 50,000 communities and that engagement numbers and time spent in those communities were up since June.

Along with the daily active user metrics, Yaccarino also shared that X now has a record 550 million monthly active users. This would be up from the 541 million "monthly users" metric that Musk shared in a post in July.

It's unclear, however, just how much of the monthly active user growth has happened under Musk when compared to how the company was doing prior to his takeover. That's because in 2019, Twitter stopped reporting this number in favor of the daily active user metric. The company entered that year with 321 million monthly active users, the last publicly reported monthly active user metric directly from Twitter.

It should be noted that Musk has shifted away from both the daily and monthly active user numbers in favor of "unregretted user minutes," a metric seemingly made-up by Musk.

UPDATE: Sep. 29, 2023, 9:39 p.m. EDT Updated to more clearly clarify daily active user metrics.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by bilateralrope »

Twitter/X strips headlines out of news links: “It’s something Elon wants”
Links on Musk-led platform now display article images without headlines.
JON BRODKIN - 10/6/2023, 5:32 AM


Elon Musk doesn't want any news headlines on the social network formerly named Twitter. A change that started rolling out yesterday strips headlines out of news links, which Musk claims will make links look better on the social network that he renamed X.

"This is coming from me directly. Will greatly improve the esthetics," Musk wrote in a twitter.com post on August 22 after the change was reported to be in the works. The change is now live on the mobile app and web version but hasn't made its way to all of the company's apps. News link headlines continue to be displayed today on the Mac app, which is still called Twitter and hasn't been updated in nearly a year.

Previously, posting a news link on X/Twitter would create a box with the article's lead image, headline, and the domain of the news site. Now, a news link on X is just the article image with the site domain (e.g., arstechnica.com) superimposed on the bottom left. Clicking the image will take you to the news site's article.

A tweeter (or Xer, as Musk prefers) can still post the headline and/or a description of the article in the main text field. If the user doesn't do that, the post won't have any text describing what the article is about.

Here's what links look like before and after the change (drag the slider to compare):

Fortune reported in August that the change was in the works. "It's something Elon wants. They were running it by advertisers, who didn't like it, but it's happening," Fortune quoted a source as saying. The article said Musk's intent "is that individuals sharing this type of content will be forced to write a more engaging post."

Referrals to news sites were already plunging

While the change is potentially confusing for users, it might not make a big difference for news organizations that already weren't getting much traffic from the site. Referrals to news sites from Twitter/X and Facebook have been plunging since August 2020, according to Similarweb data cited in an Axios report this week.

Musk indicated that he wants news organizations to "post content in long form" directly on the social platform. Responding to a twitter.com post yesterday about the declining referrals from social networks to news sites, Musk wrote, "Our algorithm tries to optimize time spent on X, so links don't get as much attention, because there is less time spent if people click away. Best thing is to post content in long form on this platform."

Musk has fought with news organizations numerous times, for example, by calling The New York Times "propaganda" and labeling NPR as "state-affiliated media." Yesterday, he wrote, "I almost never read legacy news anymore." Some news organizations, such as NPR and PBS, have stopped tweeting from their main accounts.

Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter in October 2022, a purchase that saddled the firm with large debt payments. In May, Fidelity estimated the company value at $15 billion.

X's daily active users have reportedly fallen 3.7 percent, to 245 million, since Musk bought the company then called Twitter. The Musk-led social network's US ad revenue "has declined at least 55 percent year-over-year each month" since the Musk takeover, according to third-party data described in a Reuters article yesterday.
If you want some idea of how bad this will be, just look to the second post in the comments on that article.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by Dominus Atheos »

People are having a field day with it, too:

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And then he banned that last person... then reinstated them... then banned them again.

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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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X rolls out new ad format that can't be reported, blocked
The new ads also don't disclose who the advertiser is or that they are even ads.
By Matt Binder on October 6, 2023


X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly known as Twitter, has begun serving its users with a weird new ad format and it's one of the company's least transparent products yet.

The rollout of these ads also provides the public with a hint regarding just how much the company is struggling to attract advertisers.

Multiple X users have reached out to Mashable over the past few days to report seeing a new type of ad in their For You feed that they had not previously come across on the platform. These new X ads don't allow users to like or retweet the ad posts. In fact, the new ad format also doesn't disclose who is behind the ad or that it is even an advertisement at all.

Mashable has confirmed this ad format with numerous users from across X and have seen a variety of different ads running this bizarre new format that just consists of written copy text, a photo, and a fake avatar that's sole purpose is to make the ad look like an organically posted tweet.

The type of content being promoted in the ads that Mashable has viewed appear to be consistent with ads found in spammy, low quality "chumbox" advertising – typically defined as those clickbait ads found at the bottom of posts on content farm sites – made popular by native ad networks like Taboola.

"This Seems Unbelievable, But Happens in Dubai Everyday" reads one ad that takes users to a third-party content mill website, overloaded with ads of its own. "These Incredibly Cool Gadgets That Are Going To Sell Out This Year. Action Now!" and "If you suffer from ringing ears (Tinnitus) you're going to love this recent breakthrough" are other examples of some of the content found in these X ads.

Users who have seen these X ads report being taken to a third-party website in a new window upon clicking anywhere within the ad, including when they try to click on the fake avatar. There is no X post to open nor is there a user profile attached to the ad to visit. So far, Mashable has seen these ads served to users within X's mobile apps. Its unclear if the ads are also running on the web version of the platform.

Mashable was able to find advertisements similar to the aforementioned X ads using the same exact text copy running through ad networks on Yahoo and Taboola competitors like RevContent. Mashable could not locate this X ad format in the platform's ad campaign manager so it appears these ads are actually being served by a third-party ad provider.

The presence of these ads is actually quite telling about the state of advertising on Musk's social media platform.

X turns to the chumbox amid direct ad sale decline

Since Musk's acquisition of the company, X has struggled to attract advertisers to the platform. Half of the platform's biggest advertisers stopped running ads shortly after Musk's takeover. Furthermore, according to a new report from Media Matters For America, the advertisers who have returned are spending up to 90 percent less on advertising on X than they did prior to Musk acquiring the company. Another recent report from Reuters found that Musk's X has faced declining revenue each and every month since he became the owner of the company.

In order to help with declining ad revenue, X has turned to partnering with third-parties within the adtech industry to sell available advertising inventory. Just last month, Google announced it would be partnering with X to sell programmatic advertising. Earlier this year, X also partnered with InMobi, a mobile-focused programmatic ad sales company.

So, what does that mean? Users are likely seeing these ads because X no longer has any direct ad inventory to serve them. This could mean that these particular users seeing these ads are not being targeted by any brands that are running ads at the moment. Or brands that are advertising on X and targeting these users have exhausted their ad spend for the moment. It's also possible that these users have blocked brand accounts that would've targeted them with ads otherwise.

Whatever the reason these users aren't being served ads directly from the platform, the point is that they aren't seeing them. And that means that X hasn't been able to sell enough ad space directly to brands and need to instead serve advertisements from ad networks. In turn, X makes less money as direct ad sales typically generate much more revenue for a company.

These new clickbait X ads

Typically, how it worked on Twitter and then on X until now, ads on the platform were just normal posts that an advertiser paid to show users in their feeds, replies, or profiles.

However, this new ad format completely breaks that as these ads are technically not posts, even if they somewhat look the part. All the engagement buttons on these new X ads are completely grayed out. For example, users are unable to click like, retweet, or reply. These ads cannot be clicked to open in full tweet view like every other X ad format.

This new X ad format completely lacks the three dotted icon button usually present in the upper right hand side of X posts and ads. On a normal post, that button provides users with a slew of options to report a post and mute or block an account. Without it, there are no ways for a user to report or block these types of ads that are being served to them.

In addition, users cannot add Community Notes to these ads either. Over the past few months, users have been utilizing Community Notes, the popular feature on the platform that allows users to add context to disinformation and other factually incorrect posts, to warn others of scam ads on X.

Perhaps the biggest deviation from the regular ads on X is that these new ads have no X account attached to them at all. At least, not one that's visible to the user. There is no username or handle present on these ads. While an avatar is displayed in order to make the ad blend in with other posts on a user's feed, the image isn't a profile picture. The avatar appears to just be a cropped version of the photo included within the ad itself.

Without a display name or handle, it's also unclear to the user exactly who is behind the ad. The new ad format also doesn't disclose that it is an advertisement at all. There is no "promoted" or "ad" label on any of these types of ads that Mashable has seen. And, unlike most other websites that run chumbox clickbait advertising, X doesn't even disclose the ad network associated with these ads.

Mashable previously reported earlier this month how these important advertisement disclosure labels were also missing from the traditional X ad formats for some users. However, even in those cases, a user could click the options button to report the post and the platform would inform the user it was an advertisement by providing the option to tell X it was "not interested" in the ad. There is no such option on this new ad format as the three dotted button is missing from these ads. One other way to tell an X ad from a regular post is that ads don't include a timestamp on the posts. The new ad format also excludes a timestamp.

As previously mentioned, Mashable confirmed this ad format with numerous users from across X and have seen a variety of different ads running this new format. Mashable has also found other users who have shared via their own social media accounts that they have also seen these ads in their feed. It's unclear if X is just testing this format at this time.

The new ad format arrives to X around the same time the company made another decision that makes the platform less transparent. Earlier this week, under a directive from Musk himself, X removed headlines and other context from links shared to the platform. Instead of seeing the title of an article or other link posted to X, users now simply see an embed of the header image with the corresponding domain name displayed like a watermark-like overlay in the corner of the photo. Musk said he made the change to how links were displayed because he didn't like the way it previously looked.
I wonder how far X can go at disguising ads as regular posts before various government agencies get upset.

You can see pictures of the new ads at the link
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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bilateralrope wrote: 2023-10-07 06:57am X rolls out new ad format that can't be reported, blocked
*snip*
I wonder how far X can go at disguising ads as regular posts before various government agencies get upset.

You can see pictures of the new ads at the link
IIRC they're already in hot water with EU so I doubt it won't take long and loosing EU (and possibly Britain) as region would seriously hurt X.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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Lord Revan wrote: 2023-10-07 11:40am IIRC they're already in hot water with EU so I doubt it won't take long and loosing EU (and possibly Britain) as region would seriously hurt X.
Losing the EU would give the various Twitter alternatives a place to really grow. The winner there might even have a solid enough userbase to threaten Twitter in the rest of the world.

Or that one can just sit and wait for something else to take out Twitter.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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bilateralrope wrote: 2023-10-07 06:57am
I wonder how far X can go at disguising ads as regular posts before various government agencies get upset.
Elon puts rockets in space. He's not afraid of government advertising regulators.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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He should be. The US federal government is one of a quite small number of organisations who can afford significantly more expensive lawyers than he can, and has access to more direct methods of expressing its displeasure if he really tries their patience.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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Zaune wrote: 2023-10-08 04:55am He should be. The US federal government is one of a quite small number of organisations who can afford significantly more expensive lawyers than he can, and has access to more direct methods of expressing its displeasure if he really tries their patience.
Governments don't need more expensive lawyers than him. Not when the facts and the law are on their side. They just need to be willing to pay legal expenses for long enough to grind through anything he does to draw out the process.
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