Everything You Need to Know about Elon Musk's $44bn Twitter acquisition

[vtqhtr413]

What’s The Deal With Mastodon, The Twitter Alternative?​

Hundreds of thousands of people have flocked to Twitter alternatives after Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media giant became real last week, opening up a can of worms surrounding verification, online venom and privacy. One of the major players so far is a 6-year-old site called Mastodon that’s been booming among journalists, academics and communities that have left Twitter en masse.

So what’s Mastodon all about, why is it different than Twitter, and who is it for?

Mastodon was created in 2016 by Eugen Rochko, a 29-year-old German coder, as a decentralized replacement for Twitter. The social network has timelines where you can see messages posted by other users you follow. But notably, its servers aren’t based in one place or owned by one company. Rather, Mastodon has a huge number of servers, or “instances,” that anyone can set up. The software is open-source, and Rochko is adamant it will never be for sale.

The moderators of each server — which can be based around professions, hobbies, geography, anything really — are able to control the group’s guidelines, filtering out spam, trolls or certain types of content. If a user isn’t happy with the server, they’re easily able to switch to another one that better suits what they want. It’s ad-free, and there are no algorithms that place certain messages higher or lower in the timelines based on popularity or some tech magic. All posts are chronological, from earliest to latest.

MSN

Elon Musk recommends voting Republican, suspends Twitter accounts for ‘impersonation’

 

[Stopspying]

MSN

I can't see Musk referring to these elections as being solely for the USA. He does realise that this er world wide web thingy actually means what it says, unlike his Muskness who seems to flip-flop all over the place with his pronouncements, the web is world wide, doesn't he? So, many of the twiterati who remain on the platform are ruled out from voting, is this another point where he needs his learner plates up?

@BryanB Mastodon appears to me to be well worth a shout out for.

 

[oldschool]

One important thing that $$$ can't buy is trust in your brand, which for Twitter is evaporating before our very eyes and picking up steam like an avalanche or flash flood.

 

[rain2reign]

Most of those people who left twitter, over the past months, to go to alternatives will be back eventually. Social media, after all, is only worth as much as the sum of its users. Given that realistically the majority, if not all, users within a given social circle will not move over to the alternative, the users that 'moved' will return. Same thing happened with WhatsApp and other services. This will be no different, imo.

The worth of social media amounts to the sum of its users. Without a large enough user base, it may as well not exist, no matter how great the solution.

 

[oldschool]

Elon Musk, Savant Idiot?

The Wapo’s Catherine Rampell wrote:“World’s richest man decides to set $44 billion on fire.”

There’s so much going on here that reminds us how thoroughly we deserve all of this.

Confusing entertainment with substance, we turned celebrities into senators, and reality tv stars into presidents; millions of Americans think that an over-leveraged performative asshole has somehow cracked the code of... well, pretty much everything.

Our starf**king culture simply can’t get enough of starf**king someone who is not just famous, but rich beyond the dreams of avarice. And has 114 million followers on Twitter.

In a long-vanished century, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that the rich “are different from you and me,” but the new class of FU rich are something else altogether. They live in self-created bubbles of reinforcement that let them live lives of self-fondling solipsism.

This is their precious. But marinating in the power, celebrity, and lulz long enough turns the oligarchs into Gollums, like the one who exposed himself so fabulously and relentlessly this week.

 

[plat]

Article has more info than just "evolving rules." Like:

...several major advertisers have temporarily suspended advertising on Twitter since Musk took over the company. Among companies that have reportedly paused advertising on Twitter are General Motors, General Mills, Pfizer, Audi, and Volkswagen.

and:

The New York Times reported on Sunday that Twitter will delay its paid-for Twitter Blue subscription until after the US mid-term election. Some Twitter users and employees raised concerns that users could create verified accounts for politicians or news sites and could abuse it to sow discord.

Also, some confusion--dunno if it's the article or really Twitter. Re: "permanently banning" impersonators and then offering to restore one banned impersonator's acct. provided she pays the $8 subscription fee. Right. This is getting stupid, right?

Elon Musk says Twitter rules will 'evolve' as he talks up new features

Elon Musk continues his fast-paced and controversial transformation of Twitter since taking it over.

www.zdnet.com

 

[piquiteco]

I completely agree with @rain2reign's comments what he said. I don't know if many MT members remember, a few years ago whatsapp (Meta) changed their privacy policies, that we would have to agree with their new policies of collecting certain information with facebook today(Meta), a notification appeared for us to agree, I always closed this notification, that appeared from time to time, until one day I lost patience, deleted my account and uninstalled whatsapp and migrated to signal. Many people migrated to signal, due to these changes made by Meta. Now I ask you, do you know how many people in my family use signal? absolutely nobody, just me, so I was forced to install and use whatsapp again, because I simply couldn't communicate with them, I tried every way to convince them, but I couldn't, so I had to go back to using whatsapp. I have the signal app installed to this day on my android phone, but I don't use it, because there are few people I know who have it installed, unfortunately this is the reality....

 

[Aleeyen]

I completely agree with @rain2reign's comments what he said. I don't know if many MT members remember, a few years ago whatsapp (Meta) changed their privacy policies, that we would have to agree with their new policies of collecting certain information with facebook today(Meta), a notification appeared for us to agree, I always closed this notification, that appeared from time to time, until one day I lost patience, deleted my account and uninstalled whatsapp and migrated to signal. Many people migrated to signal, due to these changes made by Meta. Now I ask you, do you know how many people in my family use signal? absolutely nobody, just me, so I was forced to install and use whatsapp again, because I simply couldn't communicate with them, I tried every way to convince them, but I couldn't, so I had to go back to using whatsapp. I have the signal app installed to this day on my android phone, but I don't use it, because there are few people I know who have it installed, unfortunately this is the reality....

Same thing happened with me.
The fact is that most people are not much bothered by privacy, security etc, what they want is something easy to use.
Moreover most people find it difficult to change over to a new thing or service. This is what bosses of these companies know and that's why they are not much bothered.
They know that eventually they will get back most of their users.

 

[piquiteco]

@jogs yes, exactly, we can give a classic example of discussion on the web, Linux that has been debated for many years.

 

[Stopspying]

I completely agree with @rain2reign's comments what he said. I don't know if many MT members remember, a few years ago whatsapp (Meta) changed their privacy policies, that we would have to agree with their new policies of collecting certain information with facebook today(Meta), a notification appeared for us to agree, I always closed this notification, that appeared from time to time, until one day I lost patience, deleted my account and uninstalled whatsapp and migrated to signal. Many people migrated to signal, due to these changes made by Meta. Now I ask you, do you know how many people in my family use signal? absolutely nobody, just me, so I was forced to install and use whatsapp again, because I simply couldn't communicate with them, I tried every way to convince them, but I couldn't, so I had to go back to using whatsapp. I have the signal app installed to this day on my android phone, but I don't use it, because there are few people I know who have it installed, unfortunately this is the reality....

Same thing happened with me.
The fact is that most people are not much bothered by privacy, security etc, what they want is something easy to use.
Moreover most people find it difficult to change over to a new thing or service. This is what bosses of these companies know and that's why they are not much bothered.
They know that eventually they will get back most of their users.

I've never had a Whatsapp account, for those who refuse to be concerned about privacy I communicate with by email, phone or SMS, not very private methods, but I'm not going to be forced to use anything run by *uckerberg and his like and avoid including much information in communications using those formats. It is so hard to convince people who have only ever used the 'popular' and often pre-loaded apps that there are better alternatives. Some that I can think of are appalled at what was revealed by people like Snowden but have a blockage when taking any steps to avoid their data being stolen (paying for the use of these apps) is concerned.

Its the same with search, I still remind people that I regard the G**gle word as being an obscenity and that there are many other search engines out there. I don't want to tar most non-tech-minded people as 'sheeple' but getting many of them to break out from the herd and assert their rights to choose is very difficult.

 

[Stopspying]

Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover is a reminder that Slack is never private​

Nothing can stop Elon Musk from prowling Twitter’s Slack

The chaos at Twitter, with Musk posting employee messages and Tweeps finding public channels, is a reminder that anyone can snoop on Slack.

www.protocol.com

This serves as a good illustration on why using 'popular' big tech owned social media/communications might come back to bite you.

 

[plat]

An opinion by a journalist with some facts (I hope) to support his contention.

Anyone agree with this doomsday kind of prediction? I mean, I'm not feeling the way Twitter is being handled and molded here but...failing? Hmmm. Morale is prob. way down, though, which can spiral things further, that's true.

Why Twitter will fail shortly

Sometime soon, Twitter will crash badly. Here's why.

www.zdnet.com

....Musk appears to have realized that maybe firing every other person was a mistake. On Monday, November 7th, he tried to get workers, especially software engineers, to return. Good luck with that.

According to my Twitter sources and tweets on the site, they're not coming back. As Gergely Orosz, editor and author of the popular software engineering and management, The Pragmatic Engineer, said, "Several people who were let go on Friday, then asked to come back were given less than an hour as a deadline. Software engineers who got this call ... all said 'no' and the only ones who could eventually say 'yes' are on visas."

 

[oldschool]

An opinion by a journalist with some facts (I hope) to support his contention.

Anyone agree with this doomsday kind of prediction?

Indeed, all the reporting has been pretty clear and in agreement that he's hurt T in many ways. Those with H visas, an employment visa, are the exception, so many if not all of them will return.

Good luck with those $13 billion in loans Elon! Or as MAGA folks like to say "Let's go Elon!"

 

[Stopspying]

An opinion by a journalist with some facts (I hope) to support his contention.

Anyone agree with this doomsday kind of prediction? I mean, I'm not feeling the way Twitter is being handled and molded here but...failing? Hmmm. Morale is prob. way down, though, which can spiral things further, that's true.

Why Twitter will fail shortly

Sometime soon, Twitter will crash badly. Here's why.

www.zdnet.com

I think that this article is probably on the right track. Sacking so many who have inside knowledge of how the guts of twitter work, with whole sections removed, has to have a negative affect, surely? Quite a bit of the overall structure of Twitter seems to have been developed/adapted in-house, taking away those who knew how these sections worked must leave them rudderless, doesn't it? Unless he has something like some secret AI to replace these workers, using knowledge gleaned during the buy-out stage, that actually does what it says on the tin, I can't see Twitter being like it used to be any time soon.

There are bound to be twitter users who stay there, even if the ship is clearly sinking. However, why would those who have now left want to return? Even if the heavily pushed Mastoden isn't what they want or like. He may attract some who were previously banned, plus others of their ilk who might be attracted by it becoming less-moderated, but it seems to me that if that happens it will become more of a bubble for those people, than a resource for a wider range of views to mix.

 

[plat]

I can't see Twitter being like it used to be any time soon.

Yeah, me neither. Too much water under the bridge by now. Plus, another one of Elon's "innovations" has resulted in this:

Spoiler

I sincerely hope this acct. doesn't end up leaving Twitter---a very informative poster in just a short snapshot for us attention-span-challenged people. I also read somewhere that Twitter is not allowing the subscription "verification" for any new accts--prob because of nasty stuff like this.

 

[oldschool]

Twitter's Top Security Officer Quits As Changes Rock Platform

After carrying out mass layoffs last week, Twitter is also losing the company’s chief information security officer, who has decided to quit. On Thursday, Twitter’s CISO Lea Kisner announced(Opens in a new window) her departure from the social media platform, which has been undergoing major changes under its new owner, Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Kisner, who first joined Twitter last year as head of privacy engineering, didn’t offer a reason for her resignation. But the decision is sparking questions about the cybersecurity around Twitter, months after a former security officer at the company, Peiter Zatko, claimed the social media platform has been trying to cover up and ignore numerous security problems.

In addition to Kisner, Twitter’s chief privacy officer, chief compliance officer, and several members of the company’s privacy and security division have also resigned, according(Opens in a new window) to The Washington Post, citing internal Slack messages from company employees.

A key reason for the departures is due to Twitter’s new push to release products and features without effective security reviews. A Slack message from a Twitter legal staffer noted this practice was “extremely dangerous” for users and could put employees under personal legal risk of violating Twitter’s 2011 data security agreement(Opens in a new window) with the US Federal Trade Commission, according to The Post.

“Given that the FTC can (and will!) fine Twitter BILLIONS of dollars pursuant to the FTC Consent Order, extremely detrimental to Twitter’s longevity as a platform. Our users deserve so much better than this,” the Slack message wrote, according(Opens in a new window) to the journalist Casey Newton. The Slack message then ended with a link to Whistleblower Aid, a law firm that’s currently representing Zatko.

 

[oldschool]

This is positively rich!
Elon Musk is putting Twitter at risk of billions in fines, warns company lawyer

The Verge reached out to Musk for comment. Twitter no longer has a communications department.

It is a communications platform, after all.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Musk wants Twitter employees to prepare for "difficult times ahead", bans remote work

Elon Musk has written his first company wide email to make Twitter employees prepare for "difficult times ahead". He added that there was no way to sugarcoat the message about the current economic outlook and how it will affect the ad-dependent company like Twitter. Musk also banned remote work and would only grant exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

“The road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed,” Musk wrote. Employees are now expected to be in the office for at least 40 hours per week. The Twitter boss has also eliminated "days of rest" from staff calendars, which was a company wide monthly day off introduced during the pandemic period, according to Bloomberg.

Within just two weeks of acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk has laid half the workforce off including several top executives. Today, Twitter's CISO Lea Kissner announced her resignation from Twitter, while it has also been reported that the company's chief privacy officer, and chief compliance officer have also resigned.

Musk also announced a series of actions in the days following the acquisition, including charging $8 (instead of $20) for the Twitter Blue subscription, while also making changes several times about how people get the verified blue check, later tweeting that Twitter will do "lots of dumb things in coming months" to try and offset the confusion from users.

Bloomberg also reports that in a separate email, Musk also added that the absolute top priority "over the next few days" is to find and suspend any verified bots/trolls/spam.

Musk wants Twitter employees to prepare for "difficult times ahead", bans remote work

Elon Musk has asked Twitter employees to brace for a difficult time ahead due to economic turmoil, while also permanently banning remote work much like his other companies SpaceX and Tesla.

www.neowin.net

 

[plat]

Oh wow, another reversal. What next?

Twitter quietly drops $8 paid verification; “tricking people not OK,” Musk says

Twitter usage is up, Musk says, as fake accounts wreak havoc.

arstechnica.com

Reuters reported that Twitter announced today that it had reinstated the "Official" badges on some accounts, but because Twitter has no communications department (according to The Verge), it’s difficult to verify if paid verification is actually gone for good or just temporarily disabled. According to the tech site Platformer's managing editor Zoe Schiffer, this message was posted in the Twitter Slack to clarify: "An update on what we did tonight: hid the entry point to Twitter Blue, added the 'official' label for ONLY advertisers. Note: here is at least one way for users to sign up for Blue. Legacy Blue users can go to subscriptions and upgrade. Note 2: Existing Blue subscribers will still have access to their Blue features."

 

[Stopspying]

This is positively rich!
Elon Musk is putting Twitter at risk of billions in fines, warns company lawyer

It is a communications platform, after all.

The EU and UK have also both warned Musk of similar likelihood of fines and have been doing so for some months.

EU Commissioner Warns Musk Twitter Must ‘Fly by Our Rules’

European Commissioner Thierry Breton took to Twitter to send a warning to the social-media platform’s new owner, hours after billionaire Elon Musk closed his $44 billion deal for the company.

www.bloomberg.com

Twitter takeover: EU and UK warn Elon Musk must comply or face sanctions

EU commissioner raises hate speech concerns as UK draws attention to penalties in online safety bill

www.theguardian.com

Twitter takeover: EU And UK Warn Elon Musk To Adhere Or Face Fines - EconIntersect

As concerns raise that hate speech will increase on Twitter under Elon Musk, the EU and UK cautioned that it must adhere to new digital rules.

econintersect.com

Oh wow, another reversal. What next?

Twitter quietly drops $8 paid verification; “tricking people not OK,” Musk says

Twitter usage is up, Musk says, as fake accounts wreak havoc.

arstechnica.com

A bit more background on the imposter posts that may have contributed to this u-turn.

A drunk pope? Ted Cruz the cannibal? Twitter parodies exploit new blue tick

The service now allows users to pay $8 to appear ‘verified’. Celebrity impersonators are having a field day

www.theguardian.com