Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#316

Post by ti-amie »

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#317

Post by ponchi101 »

Excuse me, but... the Devious Licks Hoax? I really don't want to look it up in case some dumb cookie traps me and I get 1,000 spams about it.
Anyway. A fight between FB and Tik Tok. The mind reels.
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#318

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In major reversal, Elon Musk won’t join Twitter board after all
Twitter said last week he would join the board of the social media platform after amassing a 9.2 percent stake in the company.
By Faiz Siddiqui
Yesterday at 11:27 p.m. EDT|Updated today at 1:28 p.m. EDT

SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk is not joining Twitter’s board after all, a reversal following last week’s revelation that he had become Twitter’s largest shareholder — and had received a subsequent appointment to the panel.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted the news Sunday night, including a memo sent to his staff.

“Elon’s appointment to the board was to become officially effective 4/9, but Elon shared that same morning he will no longer be joining the board,” Agrawal wrote. “I believe this is for the best.”



The surprise move came less than a week after Twitter had said the outspoken Tesla CEO would become a board member, following his quietly amassing a 9.2 percent stake in the social media company. But Twitter employees and others agitated over the move, worrying Musk might wield outsize power to undo some moderation decisions that were made — including banning former president Donald Trump.

Agrawal said the company will “remain open to [Musk’s] input.” But he added, the “decisions we make and how we execute is in our hands, no one else’s,” and he urged staff to tune out “distractions.”

Twitter said it would not comment Sunday night beyond Agrawal’s statement. Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

He tweeted an emoji of a face with its hand over its mouth shortly after the news broke. That tweet appeared to have been deleted Monday, along with several others related to Twitter that followed his investment. Musk also liked a tweet reply to Twitter’s CEO that opined on how Musk’s departure unfolded — theorizing that Musk was told “to play nice and not speak freely” despite his push for what he regarded as “free speech.”

Sunday’s announcement capped off an extraordinary and rapid series of events that began weeks ago when Agrawal said he first engaged with Musk in talks to join Twitter’s board. Agrawal last week welcomed Musk, who he called a “passionate believer and intense critic” to Twitter — rather than fight off an infiltration from an outside activist. Musk had only months earlier tweeted a meme superimposing the Twitter CEO’s face over that of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Musk is a prolific and controversial Twitter user who has amassed more than 80 million followers on the social media site. He uses his account as a bully pulpit to rally supporters of electric car company Tesla and aerospace outfit SpaceX. He tweets memes, conducts polls, and even engages in trolling of political figures and those he views as adversaries.

His penchant for tweeting has also landed him in hot water, including a costly settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk had to give up his board chairmanship of Tesla — subjecting himself and the company to $20 million fines apiece — after he tweeted that he had secured funding to take the company private at $420 a share in 2018.

Musk initially filed to become a so-called “passive” investor in Twitter, documents revealed, but the next day paperwork was filed that would alter his status to become a board member.

“We were excited to collaborate and clear about the risks,” Agrawal wrote on Sunday. “We also believed that having Elon as a fiduciary of the company where he, like all board members, has to act in the best interests of the company and all our shareholders, was the best path forward.” Agrawal said Musk’s appointment was contingent on “a background check and formal acceptance.”

On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that Agrawal was scheduling a town hall with Musk where employees could ask him questions about his intentions and role.

Musk launched a poll the day his investment became public asking whether Twitter should add an edit button, something that would allow users to edit tweets after posting them. Twitter later weighed in and said such a feature had been in development for months and was not influenced by a poll.

Late last week he tweeted a meme of himself smoking a joint with the words “Twitter’s next board meeting is gonna be lit.”

Over the weekend, Musk took aim at numerous aspects of the company, including its reliance on advertising — even for its subscription service — and the prevalence of spam accounts. He posted data showing Twitter’s top accounts and asked “Is Twitter dying?”

Also on Saturday, the day his board appointment was supposed to become official, he even took an apparent dig at the company’s indefinite remote work policy. He launched a poll asking whether the San Francisco office should be made into a homeless shelter “since no one shows up anyway.” That tweet was deleted by Monday.

It had not been Musk’s first poll about Twitter. Before his investments in the company became public, Musk conducted a series of polls seemingly aimed at influencing Twitter’s future.

He asked whether Twitter’s algorithm should be made public, or open-source; and a day later he asked whether Twitter “rigorously adheres” to free speech principles.

“Is a new platform needed?” he later asked.

Musk has emerged as one of the platform’s most high-profile critics, questioning its role in restricting who and who cannot join.

After Trump was banned in the days following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, Musk wrote that “a lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech.”

Musk’s board appointment limited his stake in the company at 14.9 percent. Now that he will not have a board seat, he is free to continue to invest beyond that figure.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/technolo ... k-twitter/
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#319

Post by ponchi101 »

That is the correct move, and kudos to him. He is one of the top three richest men in the world, holds almost 10% of the company, and has been critical of it.
The conflict of interest is way too near.
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#320

Post by Suliso »

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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

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Post by ponchi101 »

It has reached the stage in which launches are not announced or even news. I remember how every single Space Shuttle launch was always big news. By now, this is getting to be routine.
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

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Post by ti-amie »

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

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Post by ti-amie »

With Elon Musk now saying he has the financial backing to buy Twitter it's going to be interesting to see what happens if he actually goes through with it. RW trolls are gleefully predicting the return of TFG which makes me ask why they feel he needs to come back to Twitter when he and his cultists set up their own platform so they could speak freely?

If there is a mass exodus will sports like ours find other ways to get their information out? IG is Zuckerberg so what do sports, all sports, do if the majority of their fanbases disappear? There is also talk that he's going to make it a subscription service.

Of course now it's all talk. We'll see.
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#324

Post by ponchi101 »

All I've read is that he wants to make TW a source of proper news, meaning that there will be more filters and ways to verify that people posting are real. I am no fan of the guy but also not a detractor. If his goal is to make TW a clean platform, well, thanks a lot.
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#325

Post by Suliso »

I don't really get why he wants even more work on his schedule, but it's up to him. He already owns 4 companies and actively runs two of them... I can't imagine him spending all this money and then be a passive owner.
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

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Post by ti-amie »

ponchi101 wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 6:07 pm All I've read is that he wants to make TW a source of proper news, meaning that there will be more filters and ways to verify that people posting are real. I am no fan of the guy but also not a detractor. If his goal is to make TW a clean platform, well, thanks a lot.
Sadly it seems that that goal of making it a "clean platform" means to some that all of the trolls and people who threaten others with physical harm will be free to threaten people with physical harm. It would also mean the spreading of disinformation and conspiracy theories for those who engage in those things.

Again, we'll see.
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#327

Post by ti-amie »

Eli Pariser 🏞📲
@elipariser

So the world’s wealthiest space cowboy seems to be buying this global communications platform. RIP Twitter is trending. 🧵about what this means for the future of digital platforms:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/24/tech ... -musk.html

Musk’s stated reasons for buying Twitter are self-contradictory. He’s going to unlock Twitter’s profitability but also not running it to make money. He’s going to make the platform better for “absolute free speech” but create a subscription tier (impediment to unfettered speech!)

Pretty much every platform speech expert thinks his ideas are bad/unworkable. It’s a random collection of design ideas that sound good at first blush (edit button! Post the algo to Github!) but are very complicated and not necessarily helpful in practice. washingtonpost.com/technology/202…

And his free speech ideas aren’t just dumb, they’re dangerous. What happens in a space with no public safety and no moderation? The loudest voices – usually the people who can pay the most – win. That means companies, bot networks, state actors.

Beyond that though, let’s remember that if/when Elon takes ownership of Twitter, he has a LOT of latitude to do *whatever he wants* with the platform. He can boot who he wants. He can shadow-ban who he wants. There’s no law that prevents that.

Now let’s remember, this guy is so thin-skinned that when a man who saved the lives of kids trapped in a cave criticized his misguided attempts to help, Musk called him a pedophile: https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/03/media/el ... index.html

And he’s shown a willingness to use his companies to extract revenge on critics. Check this out: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... rs-model-x

So if the transaction goes through, trust in the platform is really trust in Musk not to be arbitrary and capricious. And while the dude is talented at many things, self-restraint and reliability are not even remotely on that list.
The possibilities here are pretty dark. Have billionaires seized communications platforms and used them for their own agendas? Sure.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... on-adelson

Ironically, this is what a lot of actual US 1st amendment jurisprudence is about: The absolute right of companies to “say” whatever the hell they want.

Musk says he’ll steward Twitter for the greater good. Even leaving his personal history aside, the recent history of billionaires doing this is not so hot.
For every Washington Post (praise grudgingly given) there’s a Tribune Company, Gothamist, Pacific Standard, or hey, MySpace.

Billionaires tend to be distracted by the next shiny thing. How much faith should we have that someone who also runs a rocket ship co, a car co, a tunnel-boring co, etc is going to stick with the hard decisions once his initial (again, dumb) plans fail to work as planned?

Here’s the thing: This is not just about Twitter, and not just about Musk. It’s about the fundamental way we’re choosing – and it is a choice – to structure our communications mediums.

When we – the people who actually power these platforms and make them worth visiting – choose to structure them as for-profit companies, we choose to cede decision-making to the highest bidder.

But there’s no reason we couldn’t choose to create public benefit social media we own and govern. As @EthanZ has been writing for years, in every new media epoch some countries choose to invest in public goods.

Thus we have powerful public broadcasters in many countries and Fox News and Facebook in the US.
https://knightcolumbia.org/content/the- ... astructure

It’s not even THAT expensive in the scheme of things. Twitter in its 16-year history has raised $4B in capital (including its IPO). PBS over the same period cost about $6.4B.
Maybe this is the kick we need to decide that the way we connect and communicate with each other shouldn’t be subject to the whims of a mercurial billionaire, and invest in something better.
I’m not suggesting all social platforms should be public. But in physical communities we mix private and public spaces (parks, libraries) for a reason. It’s time to build healthy public spaces for digital life too.

(click on link below for the article he is referencing)

There are a bunch of folks working on this around the globe...
Musk says “a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization.” I fully agree with him. I just think achieving that requires thinking outside the box of the for-profit venture-backed.

(Self promotion comments deleted)

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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

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“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the Great Mystery into which we were born.” Albert Einstein
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Re: Science/Techno Babble Random, Random

#330

Post by ti-amie »

He's already fired the board.





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