4 ms·

Twitter Is Under a Strict Consent Decree with the FTC

51 points by elicash 4y ago

hobbitstan 4y ago
The FTC has, historically, been one of the more spineless agencies in the US. Elon has nothing to fear that a few lawyers can’t fix. And calling Twitter a ‘town hall that we love’ shows the bias of the article and the source. Twitter has been a one-sided political propaganda and censorship machine for many many years.
- deleted_account 4y ago
  I have to imagine Facebook and Uber had a few lawyers and one paid $4.9B in fines and the other's former-CSO is now awaiting sentencing on an obstruction of justice conviction. The interesting proposition here is that Twitter could have lost the organizational capacity to comply with these consent decrees, or at least abdicated the responsibility to the engineers...which sounds bananas. The Prequel-meme writes itself... ELON-AKIN: I'm not worried about the FTC. I build rockets. PADME-GNINEER: Then I shouldn't be either. ELON-AKIN: ... PADME-GNINEER: I shouldn't be either, right?
  - joecot 4y ago
    Trying to pass the compliance risk on to the engineers is insane. And I don't think the FTC buys it. It's a long shot because the ultra wealthy rarely have to face real consequences in America, but there's a real possibility that Elon Musk goes to prison over his flippant disregard of the FTC.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    > The interesting proposition here is that Twitter could have lost the organizational capacity to comply with these consent decrees Since Musk has taken over (2 weeks) they have, unless I misunderstand something, lost the head of trust and safety twice: the first fired for being part of the team that held Musk to his cobtract, the second resigning today.
- thrillgore 4y ago
  I love the smell of peak HN in the morning. Smells like denial.
yucky 4y ago
It's fascinating to watch all of the powers that be fighting this ownership change so hard. I wonder why they found control of Twitter so important..?
- Imnimo 4y ago
  How is this "fighting this ownership change" if Twitter has been under this consent decree for over a decade?
  - yucky 4y ago
    I was referring to this being made into some huge news story, when literally nothing changed. Why were we not blasted with scary missives about this consent decree 2 months ago or 2 years ago? There are people trying to flood the internet with non-stop negative Twitter stories, which is the part I find fascinating. I don't find the consent decree to be fascinating at all. It will be interesting to see how selective enforcement is though.
    - deleted_account 4y ago
      The Elon-Twitter saga is fascinating in quasi r/ABoringDystopia meets, well, Twitter sort of way. The stage is set with a billionaire doubling down on a meme and then stumbling into an absurd $45B baby trap. The Internet loves watching a fool and their money parted; Twitter definitely loves watching a fool and their money parted. And then, for some, it’s dawning that Musk has been on this MAGA-infused, grade-school-interpretation-of-free-speech trajectory and the stakes of this Twitter acquisition are suddenly much higher. Doubly so when you review the behind the scenes discussions [1] and believe Musk is completely disingenuous (any guess who “the boss himself” is?) in his desire for a neutral platform[2]. I’ve been doom-scrolling the Elon-Twitter news mostly for the rapid unravelling of Musk’s ur-engineer persona. His engineering management has been a cavalcade of bully choices: shitcan half the company, stack rank your engineers by LOC, enforce work-the-weekend death marches, and throw all your coders on to a manager schedule...in an office...in 2022. Maybe my opinion will change when I start hearing stories about the first of his Twitter pull requests, but right now he’s looking like a dilettante who meme'd into a shit show and has forgotten his ambitions to make us a multi-planet species. [1] https://danluu.com/elon-twitter-texts/#22 https://danluu.com/elon-twitter-texts/#22 [2] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1589639376186724354 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1589639376186724354
NoPicklez 4y ago
I can't help but be reminded of Harry Potter whenever I hear Decree. "The Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery is a law that limits the magic that underage wizards are allowed to use". - Dolores Umbridge

51 points by elicash 4y ago

The FTC has, historically, been one of the more spineless agencies in the US. Elon has nothing to fear that a few lawyers can’t fix. And calling Twitter a ‘town hall that we love’ shows the bias of the article and the source. Twitter has been a one-sided political propaganda and censorship machine for many many years.

deleted_account 4y ago
I have to imagine Facebook and Uber had a few lawyers and one paid $4.9B in fines and the other's former-CSO is now awaiting sentencing on an obstruction of justice conviction. The interesting proposition here is that Twitter could have lost the organizational capacity to comply with these consent decrees, or at least abdicated the responsibility to the engineers...which sounds bananas. The Prequel-meme writes itself... ELON-AKIN: I'm not worried about the FTC. I build rockets. PADME-GNINEER: Then I shouldn't be either. ELON-AKIN: ... PADME-GNINEER: I shouldn't be either, right?
- joecot 4y ago
  Trying to pass the compliance risk on to the engineers is insane. And I don't think the FTC buys it. It's a long shot because the ultra wealthy rarely have to face real consequences in America, but there's a real possibility that Elon Musk goes to prison over his flippant disregard of the FTC.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > The interesting proposition here is that Twitter could have lost the organizational capacity to comply with these consent decrees Since Musk has taken over (2 weeks) they have, unless I misunderstand something, lost the head of trust and safety twice: the first fired for being part of the team that held Musk to his cobtract, the second resigning today.
thrillgore 4y ago
I love the smell of peak HN in the morning. Smells like denial.

yucky 4y ago

It's fascinating to watch all of the powers that be fighting this ownership change so hard. I wonder why they found control of Twitter so important..?

Imnimo 4y ago
How is this "fighting this ownership change" if Twitter has been under this consent decree for over a decade?
- yucky 4y ago
  I was referring to this being made into some huge news story, when literally nothing changed. Why were we not blasted with scary missives about this consent decree 2 months ago or 2 years ago? There are people trying to flood the internet with non-stop negative Twitter stories, which is the part I find fascinating. I don't find the consent decree to be fascinating at all. It will be interesting to see how selective enforcement is though.
  - deleted_account 4y ago
    The Elon-Twitter saga is fascinating in quasi r/ABoringDystopia meets, well, Twitter sort of way. The stage is set with a billionaire doubling down on a meme and then stumbling into an absurd $45B baby trap. The Internet loves watching a fool and their money parted; Twitter definitely loves watching a fool and their money parted. And then, for some, it’s dawning that Musk has been on this MAGA-infused, grade-school-interpretation-of-free-speech trajectory and the stakes of this Twitter acquisition are suddenly much higher. Doubly so when you review the behind the scenes discussions [1] and believe Musk is completely disingenuous (any guess who “the boss himself” is?) in his desire for a neutral platform[2]. I’ve been doom-scrolling the Elon-Twitter news mostly for the rapid unravelling of Musk’s ur-engineer persona. His engineering management has been a cavalcade of bully choices: shitcan half the company, stack rank your engineers by LOC, enforce work-the-weekend death marches, and throw all your coders on to a manager schedule...in an office...in 2022. Maybe my opinion will change when I start hearing stories about the first of his Twitter pull requests, but right now he’s looking like a dilettante who meme'd into a shit show and has forgotten his ambitions to make us a multi-planet species. [1] https://danluu.com/elon-twitter-texts/#22 https://danluu.com/elon-twitter-texts/#22 [2] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1589639376186724354 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1589639376186724354

NoPicklez 4y ago

I can't help but be reminded of Harry Potter whenever I hear Decree. "The Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery is a law that limits the magic that underage wizards are allowed to use". - Dolores Umbridge