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

Post by EnterpriseSovereign »

LaCroix wrote: 2022-12-20 09:20am There is no way he didn't already have some Yes-man lined up for scapegoat duty just in case the poll went that direction.
He either gets a public confirmation to ride on, or he can get out, which to him most likely means he MIGHT get out of legal liability for things that happen after he "left".

Unless people (and courts) would consider the fact that the scapegoat CEO would undoubtably get a dozen messages per day about what Elon wants to be done, immmediately...

"Never call for a vote you do not know the exact outcome of beforehand" is pretty much CEO 101...
If only David Cameron had gotten that particular memo :mrgreen:
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I assume he's being ironic on purpose. :wanker:
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by bilateralrope »

Ralin wrote: 2022-12-19 11:49pm I'm leaning towards thinking this is theater for him already having decided to appoint a new CEO. But can't rule out him just flailing about being extremely divorced and NOT MAD.
I see no reason to assume that Musk is competent at anything to do with Twitter. So I'm thinking he was expecting the stay option to win.

Elon Musk: Only blue tick users to vote in Twitter polls on policy
Elon Musk has said Twitter will only allow accounts with a blue tick to vote on changes to policy after a majority of users voted for him to quit.

Mr Musk launched a Twitter poll asking if he should step down as chief executive - 57.5% of users voted "yes".

Since then, he has not commented directly on the result of the poll.

But he has said that Twitter will alter its rules so that only people who pay for a subscription can vote on company policy.

One user claimed that so-called bots appeared to have voted heavily in the poll about Mr Musk's role at the firm. Mr Musk said he found the claim "interesting".

The billionaire had said when he ran the poll that he would abide by the result. If he does quit as chief executive, he will remain as Twitter's owner.

Bruce Daisley, former vice president of Twitter, compared any potential change to that of a football manager. "The chairman still remains and Elon Musk is going to be that ever-present voice in the back of the room," he told the BBC's Today programme.

In response to a tweet saying Twitter Blue subscribers "should be the only ones that can vote in policy related polls. We actually have skin in the game", Mr Musk said: "Good point, Twitter will make that change".

Twitter's paid-for verification feature was rolled out for a second time last week after its launch was paused. The service costs $8 per month, or $11 for people using the Twitter app on Apple devices, and gives subscribers a "blue tick".

Previously a blue tick was used as verification tool for high-profile accounts as a badge of authenticity and was free.

On Monday, Mr Musk held a poll on his future as chief executive. More than 17.5 million users voted and the majority backed him stepping down.

While the poll was running he replied to one user suggesting there was no replacement chief executive lined up, saying: "No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor."

The technology tycoon, who also runs electric car maker Tesla and space rocket firm Space X, has faced much criticism since taking over the site.

He has obeyed the results of his Twitter polls in the past and quoted the phrase "vox populi, vox dei", a Latin phrase which roughly means "the voice of the people is the voice of God".Mr Musk bought Twitter for $44bn (£36bn) in October after attempting to back out of the deal.

Since taking control, he has been criticised for his approach to content moderation, with some civil liberties groups accusing him of taking steps that will increase hate speech and misinformation.

On Friday, he was condemned by the United Nations and European Union over Twitter's decision to suspend some journalists who cover the social media firm. He has also fired about half of Twitter's staff.

Mr Daisley said through Mr Musk's activity, you could "get a hint" over what he was thinking through his replies to users.

"He does seem to be quibbling with the vote," he added.

Mr Musk has also been accused of neglecting his electric car company Tesla, which is where most of his wealth is. Tesla shares have lost more than 60% in value this year, with some saying his obsession with Twitter is destroying the brand.

Last week, Leo KoGuan, the third largest individual shareholder in Tesla, called for Mr Musk to step down as the boss of the electric car maker.

"Elon abandoned Tesla and Tesla has no working CEO. Tesla needs and deserves to have [a] working full time CEO," he tweeted.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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bilateralrope wrote: 2022-12-20 10:25am
Ralin wrote: 2022-12-19 11:49pm I'm leaning towards thinking this is theater for him already having decided to appoint a new CEO. But can't rule out him just flailing about being extremely divorced and NOT MAD.
I see no reason to assume that Musk is competent at anything to do with Twitter. So I'm thinking he was expecting the stay option to win.

Elon Musk: Only blue tick users to vote in Twitter polls on policy
Elon Musk has said Twitter will only allow accounts with a blue tick to vote on changes to policy after a majority of users voted for him to quit.

Mr Musk launched a Twitter poll asking if he should step down as chief executive - 57.5% of users voted "yes".

Since then, he has not commented directly on the result of the poll.

But he has said that Twitter will alter its rules so that only people who pay for a subscription can vote on company policy.

One user claimed that so-called bots appeared to have voted heavily in the poll about Mr Musk's role at the firm. Mr Musk said he found the claim "interesting".

The billionaire had said when he ran the poll that he would abide by the result. If he does quit as chief executive, he will remain as Twitter's owner.

Bruce Daisley, former vice president of Twitter, compared any potential change to that of a football manager. "The chairman still remains and Elon Musk is going to be that ever-present voice in the back of the room," he told the BBC's Today programme.

In response to a tweet saying Twitter Blue subscribers "should be the only ones that can vote in policy related polls. We actually have skin in the game", Mr Musk said: "Good point, Twitter will make that change".

Twitter's paid-for verification feature was rolled out for a second time last week after its launch was paused. The service costs $8 per month, or $11 for people using the Twitter app on Apple devices, and gives subscribers a "blue tick".

Previously a blue tick was used as verification tool for high-profile accounts as a badge of authenticity and was free.

On Monday, Mr Musk held a poll on his future as chief executive. More than 17.5 million users voted and the majority backed him stepping down.

While the poll was running he replied to one user suggesting there was no replacement chief executive lined up, saying: "No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor."

The technology tycoon, who also runs electric car maker Tesla and space rocket firm Space X, has faced much criticism since taking over the site.

He has obeyed the results of his Twitter polls in the past and quoted the phrase "vox populi, vox dei", a Latin phrase which roughly means "the voice of the people is the voice of God".Mr Musk bought Twitter for $44bn (£36bn) in October after attempting to back out of the deal.

Since taking control, he has been criticised for his approach to content moderation, with some civil liberties groups accusing him of taking steps that will increase hate speech and misinformation.

On Friday, he was condemned by the United Nations and European Union over Twitter's decision to suspend some journalists who cover the social media firm. He has also fired about half of Twitter's staff.

Mr Daisley said through Mr Musk's activity, you could "get a hint" over what he was thinking through his replies to users.

"He does seem to be quibbling with the vote," he added.

Mr Musk has also been accused of neglecting his electric car company Tesla, which is where most of his wealth is. Tesla shares have lost more than 60% in value this year, with some saying his obsession with Twitter is destroying the brand.

Last week, Leo KoGuan, the third largest individual shareholder in Tesla, called for Mr Musk to step down as the boss of the electric car maker.

"Elon abandoned Tesla and Tesla has no working CEO. Tesla needs and deserves to have [a] working full time CEO," he tweeted.
Ralin wrote: 2022-12-19 11:49pm
EnterpriseSovereign wrote: 2022-12-19 10:51pm He might have to the way he's running it into the ground.
Have to is a relative term.

I saw a screenshot of someone telling him he should restrict it to people with paid blue check marks. So now there's a poll tax.

I'm leaning towards thinking this is theater for him already having decided to appoint a new CEO. But can't rule out him just flailing about being extremely divorced and NOT MAD.
And what do you know, that's exactly what he's doing. :roll:
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by Ralin »

bilateralrope wrote: 2022-12-20 10:25am I see no reason to assume that Musk is competent at anything to do with Twitter. So I'm thinking he was expecting the stay option to win.
I sympathize with your skepticism and share it. But it's a really obvious move and I can't rule it out. And the guy is losing enough wealth (not money, wealth) to make even a billionaire stand up and take notice.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by bilateralrope »

Ralin wrote: 2022-12-20 10:43am
bilateralrope wrote: 2022-12-20 10:25am I see no reason to assume that Musk is competent at anything to do with Twitter. So I'm thinking he was expecting the stay option to win.
I sympathize with your skepticism and share it. But it's a really obvious move and I can't rule it out. And the guy is losing enough wealth (not money, wealth) to make even a billionaire stand up and take notice.
Remember we are talking about someone who thought that letting people play games or watch movies on the center console of a Tesla, while the Tesla was in motion, was a good idea if there was a popup reminding people that it was only for the passenger to use. Only backing down when the NHTSA made Tesla back down.

Someone who suddenly canceled work from home at Tesla when they didn't have enough space in the offices to bring everyone in.

The only way I can see him stepping down as CEO is if someone has enough leverage over him that they can pick the replacement. And that leverage should be very interesting to a lot of people since he requires a security clearance to run SpaceX.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by Ralin »

bilateralrope wrote: 2022-12-20 10:52am Remember we are talking about someone who thought that letting people play games or watch movies on the center console of a Tesla, while the Tesla was in motion, was a good idea if there was a popup reminding people that it was only for the passenger to use. Only backing down when the NHTSA made Tesla back down.

Someone who suddenly canceled work from home at Tesla when they didn't have enough space in the offices to bring everyone in.

The only way I can see him stepping down as CEO is if someone has enough leverage over him that they can pick the replacement. And that leverage should be very interesting to a lot of people since he requires a security clearance to run SpaceX.
All entirely valid points, I freely admit. We'll see.

Enough people use and rely on Twitter without an adequate replacement that I still have trouble seeing them going down. I'm sure Google has been having meetings about trying their hand at social media again.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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Ralin wrote: 2022-12-20 11:49am
Enough people use and rely on Twitter without an adequate replacement that I still have trouble seeing them going down. I'm sure Google has been having meetings about trying their hand at social media again.
Twitter benefits from a strong network effect. Overcoming that to have Twitter die from users being driven away will take a lot of effort from Musk. I can't see any alternative gaining enough of a foothold to be a threat until after something breaks the network effect Twitter benefits from.

Users leaving is not the only way Twitter can die. There are others that will be quicker:
- A technical problem cascades until it takes Twitter down because Musk fired the engineering teams who know enough contain it.
- Twitter goes bankrupt. Musk bought Twitter with a loan that will cost Twitter $1 billion in interest payments each year. Then he drove away large chunks of the advertising revenue. Then the lawsuits started.
- Musk stops paying the bill for something important, despite Twitter still having money, and Twitter goes dark when the vendor/landlord stops providing whatever service Twitter relies upon.

Once Twitter goes down, then the alternatives will be able to compete until one of them gets large enough that they become the replacement.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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EnterpriseSovereign wrote: 2022-12-20 10:21am
LaCroix wrote: 2022-12-20 09:20am "Never call for a vote you do not know the exact outcome of beforehand" is pretty much CEO 101...
If only David Cameron had gotten that particular memo :mrgreen:
That is terrible advice to give a head of government. Even if Cameron wasn't brave and/or stupid enough to try applying it to general elections.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by Solauren »

Elon Musk is demonstrating he's a Jr. Sales Clerk that got lucky once or twice, but now he's been 'promoted way above his ability'.
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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Zaune wrote: 2022-12-20 02:52pm
EnterpriseSovereign wrote: 2022-12-20 10:21am
LaCroix wrote: 2022-12-20 09:20am "Never call for a vote you do not know the exact outcome of beforehand" is pretty much CEO 101...
If only David Cameron had gotten that particular memo :mrgreen:
That is terrible advice to give a head of government. Even if Cameron wasn't brave and/or stupid enough to try applying it to general elections.
He was stupid for not applying it to the referendum- had he done so we would still be in the EU.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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EnterpriseSovereign wrote: 2022-12-20 05:24pm
Zaune wrote: 2022-12-20 02:52pm
EnterpriseSovereign wrote: 2022-12-20 10:21am
If only David Cameron had gotten that particular memo :mrgreen:
That is terrible advice to give a head of government. Even if Cameron wasn't brave and/or stupid enough to try applying it to general elections.
He was stupid for not applying it to the referendum- had he done so we would still be in the EU.
Yeah but he might have lost the general election. Dude, priorities.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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Crazedwraith wrote: 2022-12-20 05:34pm
EnterpriseSovereign wrote: 2022-12-20 05:24pm
Zaune wrote: 2022-12-20 02:52pm
That is terrible advice to give a head of government. Even if Cameron wasn't brave and/or stupid enough to try applying it to general elections.
He was stupid for not applying it to the referendum- had he done so we would still be in the EU.
Yeah but he might have lost the general election. Dude, priorities.
Well thanks to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 he didn't call for the 2015 election, so I'm not sure what your point is.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by Crazedwraith »

EnterpriseSovereign wrote: 2022-12-20 05:51pm
Crazedwraith wrote: 2022-12-20 05:34pm
EnterpriseSovereign wrote: 2022-12-20 05:24pm
He was stupid for not applying it to the referendum- had he done so we would still be in the EU.
Yeah but he might have lost the general election. Dude, priorities.
Well thanks to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 he didn't call for the 2015 election, so I'm not sure what your point is.
Cameron promised the EU referendum during the 2015 election campaign to defang UKIP and win the election.

My post was sarcastically saying him winning in 2015 was more important us than being in the EU. As a joke.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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Crazedwraith wrote: 2022-12-20 05:59pm
EnterpriseSovereign wrote: 2022-12-20 05:51pm
Crazedwraith wrote: 2022-12-20 05:34pm

Yeah but he might have lost the general election. Dude, priorities.
Well thanks to the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 he didn't call for the 2015 election, so I'm not sure what your point is.
Cameron promised the EU referendum during the 2015 election campaign to defang UKIP and win the election.

My post was sarcastically saying him winning in 2015 was more important us than being in the EU. As a joke.
Then use smileys, that's what they're for :mrgreen:

As it happens, Brexit is doing far more damage to the UK than a few more years of Conservative government ever could.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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The BBC wrote: Elon Musk has said he will resign as Twitter's chief executive officer when he finds someone "foolish enough to take the job".

The billionaire had promised to abide by the result of a Twitter poll which saw 57.5% of users vote "yes" to him quitting the role.

He says he will still run the software and servers teams after his replacement is found.

Changes on the platform since his takeover have been much criticised.

Since Mr Musk bought the social media site in October, he has fired about half of its staff and attempted a rollout of Twitter's paid-for verification feature before putting it on pause. The feature was relaunched last week.

Civil liberties groups have also criticised his approach to content moderation, accusing him of taking steps that will increase hate speech and misinformation.

On Friday, Mr Musk was condemned by the United Nations and European Union over Twitter's decision to suspend some journalists who cover the social media firm.

The UN tweeted that media freedom was "not a toy", while the EU threatened Twitter with sanctions.

This is the first time the multibillionaire has responded to the poll launched on Sunday asking if he should resign. More than 17.5 million users voted, with 42.5% voting no to Mr Musk stepping down.

Finding someone to take over the social media platform may be a challenge, according to Mr Musk. Some people speculate Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey could also come back to run the company. He resigned as chief executive in November 2021.

"No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive," he tweeted following the poll.

Other names mentioned as possible replacements include Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's former chief operating officer, Sriram Krishnan, engineer and close confidante to Mr Musk, and Jared Kushner, US former presidential adviser and son-in-law of Donald Trump.

In the past Mr Musk has obeyed Twitter polls. He is fond of quoting the Latin phrase vox populi, vox dei which roughly means "the voice of the people is the voice of God".

But on Tuesday, he confirmed Twitter would only allow paid subscribers with a blue tick to vote on changes to policy in future.

It came after one user claimed that so-called bots appeared to have voted heavily in the poll about Mr Musk's role at the firm. Mr Musk said he found the claim "interesting".

Twitter's paid-for verification feature was rolled out for a second time last week after its launch was paused. The service costs $8 per month, or $11 for people using the Twitter app on Apple devices, and gives subscribers a "blue tick".

Previously a blue tick was used as a badge of authenticity and was free.

For weeks, investors have called on Mr Musk to step down from running the social media platform, saying he has been distracted from properly running Tesla.

Shares in the the electric car company have plummeted more than 65% over the past year.

Mr Musk sold billions of dollars worth of Tesla shares to help fund his purchase, which helped to push the shares down.

"Finally a good step in the right direction to end this painful nightmare situation for Tesla investors," said Dan Ives from investment firm Wedbush Securities after Mr Musk's tweet on Tuesday.
Additional analysis I've separated out from insertion mid-article on original site:
Elon Musk's tenure as Twitter chief executive may turn out to be short, but it certainly wasn't sweet.

At times it felt like we were watching a train come off its tracks.

He seemed to enjoy the circus he created. Did he get bored, did his investors pull him back, or did he finally listen to those telling him that Tesla, the electric car firm to which much of his wealth is linked, needs urgent attention from its CEO - also him - as its value continues to nosedive?

Given how open Mr Musk appears to be on Twitter, perhaps one day he will tell us.

But this is not the end of the Musk/Twitter show. He will still own the firm (nobody is likely to buy it off him any time soon, especially not at the price he paid), and he will undoubtedly still be a prolific and influential tweeter in his own right.

Plus, he's got to find someone willing to take his place (and work with him) - and that position might prove a difficult one to fill.
It seems unlikely anyone is going to be able to thread the gap of 'needs to make money' and 'needs enough employees to function' that Musk has set up from a completely layman's perspective.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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Twitter will NEVER make money, EVER again... Settling it with a billion of annual interest on top of the already wonky expenses has put a stop to that.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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My understanding is that Twitter was barely profitable on a good year. The extra billion in interest each year that Twitter now has to pay on the loan Musk used to purchase it was enough to doom the company to bankruptcy.

But then Musk drove away the customers and attracted lawsuits. Plus the expense of rebuilding all the teams he slashed and getting them familiar with Twitter's systems.

I can't see anyone competent wanting to take over Twitter, unless they have a plan that doesn't involve Twitter surviving in the long term.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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The only feasible plan for Twitter at this point (from a Musk point of view), would be -

Make sure Musk is the primary creditor (which may or not be possible)
Declare bankruptcy, folding the company and wiping out the debt (which may or may not be possible, multinational bankruptcy are incredibly complicated). This includes taking the platform completely offline.

During the 'offline period', have developers go over the software, and change it as required for the last step.

Musk as primary creditor gets the assets of the company. (which may or may not be possible).
Relaunch the company using the old assets.
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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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I see no way Musk could be made the primary creditor. Not when I'm not aware of Twitter owing him any money right now.

Declaring bankruptcy would likely lead to the real creditors demanding that Twitter auction off assets to pay part of the debt and/or give them shares in post-bankruptcy Twitter. They are owed money and they won't accept anything less than Twitter doing all it can to pay them back.

Twitter's biggest problem for staying operational right now isn't the code. It's the lack of moderation that's driving away customers because so many advertisers don't want their ads alongside nazi posts. Major changes to the software will not fix that.

Twitter going offline is the worst move for anyone wanting to keep Twitter going. Its most valuable asset is its userbase, the longer it goes offline the more of that userbase will be lost to alternative platforms. The network effect that currently keeps users on Twitter shifts to keeping them on whatever platform they moved to. Basically, the longer Twitter is down for, the less reason there is to bring it back online. Assuming they retain the institutional knowledge of how to restart it.

Better for whoever owns Twitter after the bankruptcy to try and keep Twitter running, fixing problems as they come up, while rebuilding the moderation and maintenance teams. Or auction off what they can from the remains of the company and let someone launch something with the Twitter name in a few years.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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So not only was Musk's kid not in the car, but it looks like Musk's security guy hit the 'stalker' with his car.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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loomer wrote: 2022-12-21 08:53pm So not only was Musk's kid not in the car, but it looks like Musk's security guy hit the 'stalker' with his car.
Is anyone surprised that Musk hires such dodgy people for his personal security ?

Also, what's the punishment for fleeing the scene of an accident where this happened ?
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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loomer wrote: 2022-12-21 08:53pm So not only was Musk's kid not in the car, but it looks like Musk's security guy hit the 'stalker' with his car.
Musk shamelessly lying again?

Sadly, I'm sure that won't phase his legion of weird nerds who worship everything he does.
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

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Exclusive: Twitter removes suicide prevention feature, says it's under revamp
December 24, 20221:46 PM GMT+13Last Updated 8 hours ago

By Paresh Dave, Fanny Potkin and Sheila Dang


Dec 23 (Reuters) - Twitter Inc removed a feature in the past few days that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content, according to two people familiar with the matter who said it was ordered by new owner Elon Musk.

After publication of this story, Twitter head of trust and safety Ella Irwin told Reuters in an email that "we have been fixing and revamping our prompts. They were just temporarily removed while we do that."

"We expect to have them back up next week," she said.

The removal of the feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, had not been previously reported. It had shown at the top of specific searches contacts for support organizations in many countries related to mental health, HIV, vaccines, child sexual exploitation, COVID-19, gender-based violence, natural disasters and freedom of expression.

Its elimination had led to increased concerns about the well-being of vulnerable users on Twitter. Musk has said that impressions, or views, of harmful content are declining since he took over in October and has tweeted graphs showing a downward trend, even as researchers and civil rights groups have tracked an increase in tweets with racial slurs and other hateful content.

In part due to pressure from consumer safety groups, internet services including Twitter, Google and Facebook have for years tried to direct users to well-known resource providers such as government hotlines when they suspect someone may be in danger.

In her email, Twitter's Irwin said, "Google does really well with these in their search results and (we) are actually mirroring some of their approach with the changes we are making."

She added, "We know these prompts are useful in many cases and just want to make sure they are functioning properly and continue to be relevant."

Eirliani Abdul Rahman, who had been on a recently dissolved Twitter content advisory group, said the disappearance of #ThereIsHelp was "extremely disconcerting and profoundly disturbing."

Even if it was only temporarily removed to make way for improvements, "normally you would be working on it in parallel, not removing it," she said.

Washington-based AIDS United, which was promoted in #ThereIsHelp, and iLaw, a Thai group mentioned for freedom of expression support, both told Reuters on Friday that the disappearance of the feature was a surprise to them.

AIDS United said a webpage that the Twitter feature linked to attracted about 70 views a day until Dec. 18. Since then, it has drawn 14 views in total.

Damar Juniarto, executive director at Twitter partner Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network, tweeted on Friday about the missing feature and said "stupid actions" by the social media service could lead his organization to abandon it.

The sources with knowledge of Musk's decision to order the removal of the feature declined to be named because they feared retaliation. One of them said millions of people had encountered #ThereIsHelp messages.

Twitter had launched some prompts about five years ago and some had been available in over 30 countries, according to company tweets. In one of its blog posts about the feature, Twitter had said it had responsibility to ensure users could "access and receive support on our service when they need it most."

Alex Goldenberg, lead intelligence analyst at the non-profit Network Contagion Research Institute, said prompts that had shown in search results just days ago were no longer visible by Thursday.

He and colleagues in August published a study showing that monthly mentions on Twitter of some terms associated with self-harm increased by over 500% from about the year before, with younger users particularly at risk when seeing such content.

"If this decision is emblematic of a policy change that they no longer take these issues seriously, that's extraordinarily dangerous," Goldenberg said. "It runs counter Musk's previous commitments to prioritize child safety."

Musk has said he wants to combat child sexual abuse content on Twitter and has criticized the previous ownership's handling of the issue. But he has cut large portions of the teams involved in dealing with potentially objectionable material.
Sounds like Musk's Twitter wants the suicide rate to go up.
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Solauren
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by Solauren »

Horrible timing on it too.
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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Straha
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Re: Twitter board agrees to $44 billion sale to billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk

Post by Straha »

Solauren wrote: 2022-12-21 08:05am The only feasible plan for Twitter at this point (from a Musk point of view), would be -

Make sure Musk is the primary creditor (which may or not be possible)
Declare bankruptcy, folding the company and wiping out the debt (which may or may not be possible, multinational bankruptcy are incredibly complicated). This includes taking the platform completely offline.

During the 'offline period', have developers go over the software, and change it as required for the last step.

Musk as primary creditor gets the assets of the company. (which may or may not be possible).
Relaunch the company using the old assets.

Musk isn't the primary creditor. Musk is the debtor.

He bought twitter through a series of loans from a whole slew of banks, with some added capital from the Saudis and some other parties.

He is on the hook for that debt and cannot easily discharge it.

That said, presumably (unless he was an absolutely colossal buffoon) the collateral for the debt is... twitter.

No bank is going to foreclose on him because no bank is going to want to piss off one of the world's richest and most active men just to take hold of twitter. It would be like slapping Joe Biden in the face with a trout in return for receiving a sack of literal pick excrement.

In a very weird way, as long as Twitter remains mostly useless and a failing enterprise Musk remains fairly insulated from the demands of creditors and will continue to have a pretty free rein in what he's doing.
'After 9/11, it was "You're with us or your with the terrorists." Now its "You're with Straha or you support racism."' ' - The Romulan Republic

'You're a bully putting on an air of civility while saying that everything western and/or capitalistic must be bad, and a lot of other posters (loomer, Stas Bush, Gandalf) are also going along with it for their own personal reasons (Stas in particular is looking through rose colored glasses)' - Darth Yan
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