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Post by Admin on Apr 28, 2022 18:39:52 GMT
What Elon wants: Twitter buyout a victory for free speech or disinformation? 213 views Apr 29, 2022 A victory for free speech or for disinformation? That is the 44-billion dollar question after Elon Musk's swoop for Twitter. Does it matter any more than Amazon's Jeff Bezos owning The Washington Post or all the French captains of industry whose often money-losing media purchases buy them a platform to voice their views?
Twitter's certainly a bullhorn and the boss of Tesla and SpaceX certainly has opinions: a free speech absolutism, Musk lets loose in his tweets, for instance once calling Canada's prime minister a Nazi over Covid restrictions. Who decides on what grounds whether say, a Donald Trump stays banned or gets restored to the platform?
More broadly, is it up to Twitter, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube to regulate themselves? The European Union thinks not but how far will leaders jere go with plans to police content that incites hate and undermines democracy in the face of stiff opposition from across the Atlantic?
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Post by Admin on Apr 28, 2022 23:38:14 GMT
New Twitter owner Elon Musk has some free advice for former President Donald Trump’s fledgling “Truth Social” app – quipping Wednesday that rival social media service should consider a name change. Musk weighed in on the Trump-backed app’s brand just two days after he reached an agreement with Twitter’s board to buy the company for $44 billion. “Truth Social (terrible name) exists because Twitter censored free speech,” Musk tweeted. “Should be called Trumpet instead!” Hours earlier tweeting his recommended name change, Musk noted that Truth Social was ahead of both Twitter and TikTok on the Apple App Store’s most-downloaded list for free apps. The Twitter buyout deal ostensibly puts Musk in direct competition with Trump’s platform, which has positioned itself as a social media alternative and haven for conservatives who have faced censorship on platforms controlled by Big Tech firms. The deal also sparked speculation that he could decide to reinstate Trump’s account once he formally takes control of the company. Trump had nearly 90 million followers before he was permanently banned from Twitter and other social media platforms after his supporters participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
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Post by Admin on Apr 29, 2022 18:09:51 GMT
Billionaire Elon Musk insists he is a liberal — but is viewed as a far-right “bigot” because “woke progressives” are pushing the left to extremes. The world’s richest man used his new $44 billion purchase, Twitter, to share a simple stick-figure illustration Thursday highlighting his position in the dramatically shifting political landscape over the last 14 years. A smiling figure named “me” starts standing left of center close to a “fellow liberal” in 2008, when Barack Obama was first elected president. But by 2012, when Obama was reelected, Musk’s fellow liberal is drawn racing off to the extreme left — so fast that the figure leaves a gust of air. Musk’s “me” remains in the same spot — but appears even closer to the center because of the gradual shift left. By 2021, when President Biden entered the White House, Musk’s fellow liberal is now a “woke ‘progressive'” who is so far left it has completely rewritten the boundaries. It has also shifted the center sharply to the left, leaving Musk’s “me” far to the right of center, even though he has never moved position. The liberal he was once close to is shown now calling him “Bigot!” — with the conservative figure, who has also remained unmoved, chuckling “ !” in response to Musk’s open-mouthed “me.”
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Post by Admin on Apr 29, 2022 18:12:55 GMT
Eccentric billionaire Elon Musk plans to strip Twitter’s board of directors of their pay, cut executive stipends, and make money off ordinary tweets, according to Reuters. Musk made the promises to banks before they helped back his $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform on April 21. Reuters sources say the promises are more visionary than solid, but it was enough to secure $13 billion and $12.5 billion in loans. The rest of the hefty price tag for Twitter will come out of his own pocket. Musk previously tweeted that cutting board pay would save the company around $3 million a year. Musk will assume ownership of Twitter in late 2022 if the deal is completed.
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Post by Admin on Apr 30, 2022 3:54:12 GMT
In a cringe-worthy social media exchange Friday, billionaire Elon Musk told Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to "stop flirting" with him after the lawmaker slammed an unnamed "billionaire with an ego problem." "Tired of having to collectively stress about what explosion of hate crimes is happening bc some billionaire with an ego problem unilaterally controls a massive communication platform and skews it because Tucker Carlson or Peter Thiel took him to dinner and made him feel special," the New York progressive wrote in a tweet on Friday. Musk, whose buyout offer was accepted by Twitter earlier this week, then responded: "Stop hitting on me, I'm really shy." Ocasio-Cortez quipped back in a now-deleted tweet that she was referring to a different billionaire, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "I was talking about Zuckerberg but ok," the New York lawmaker replied. Musk, nor Zukerberg, replied to the now-deleted tweet. Ocasio-Cortez's initial tweet namedropping Fox News host Carlson and venture capitalist Thiel may have been referring to a 2019 Politico report, which claimed that Zuckerberg hosted a confidential dinner with Carlson. Thiel, Zuckerberg's longtime mentor, was one of Facebook's early investors. Meanwhile, Theil and Musk's trajectories have run parallel since the founding of Paypal in 2000, though they appear to have a love-hate relationship. And this week, Carlson said he would be returning to Twitter after Musk's takeover. Both social media companies have been wrapped up in an ongoing culture war over free speech. Twitter, for example, has faced criticism for allowing accounts that amplify misinformation. Many believe Musk, a self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist," may reinstate accounts previously banned for violating the platform's hate speech or misinformation policy. Facebook has faced criticism in the past for allowing the spread of far-right misinformation.
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