9 ms·

Wait till folks realize how much contact government agencies have with nearly every company (leaking stories, spin, etc.). It's weird that it's turned into som

by diob 4y ago

Wait till folks realize how much contact government agencies have with nearly every company (leaking stories, spin, etc.). It's weird that it's turned into some sort of naive left vs right issue. I'd be asking what the goal is, but apparently it's that. Point fingers, suggest no solutions beyond vote for us.

jacquesm 4y ago
The goal seems to be to distract from Musk selling off Tesla at breakneck speed. Every time there is a big hoopla around Musk the first thing I do is check the stock price and sure enough it seems to be dropping like a stone in tandem with the news releases.
- ekianjo 4y ago
  Some people see causality in coincidences
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    Once is random chance, twice is a coincidence, three is enemy action.
    - beachy 4y ago
      Shaken. Not stirred.
- threeseed 4y ago
  Also I think the idea is to try and attract conservatives from other apps e.g. TruthSocial. Good idea in theory except that many of those users aren't as well-behaved so to speak. And so the overall quality of the discourse has noticeably dropped since Musk took over.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    Good point, Musk is now in direct competition with Truth Social, Parler and so on. I had not given that any thought but it explains some of the more bizarre moves of the last weeks.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - daxfohl 4y ago
    I think he's just trying to eliminate the cultural barrier for marketing a Tesla pick up truck.
    - chihuahua 4y ago
      Pwn the libs by buying a Tesla pickup!
    - xnx 4y ago
      Could he possibly sell enough pickups to make up for the money hes losing on twitter?
  - davidbarker 4y ago
    I replied to a tweet that referenced Musk and Tesla, and simply mentioned that I sold my Tesla shares at the beginning of this week (and made a loss) because I didn't want any association with Musk any more. The replies I got from Musk fans were shockingly (maybe not so shockingly) vile. Turns out Musk sold his Tesla shares at the same time as I did — I wonder how those people replying to me would square that with their insults.
    - fallingknife 4y ago
      I'm certainly not going to defend the people insulting you, but suggesting that you sold for moral, and not financial, reasons comes off as very sanctimonious and invites that type of reply in a cesspit like Twitter.
- cactusplant7374 4y ago
  I think the goal is to drive engagement. Unfortunately for Musk the engagement will cost him more compute resources even though he's lost a lot of advertising revenue. If Twitter had a proper functioning board doesn't everyone think they would have prevented him from driving away advertisers and then threatening them with lawsuits for not advertising? If I was an investor in Twitter I would be livid. It appears most investors take it in stride because they worship Musk.
roenxi 4y ago
It would be foolish to see this as a left v. right issue. This is an authoritarian vs. libertarian battle. This sort of activity is what the government 100% shouldn't be involved in. Having a department of What is Allowed To Be Said is one of those ideas that gets tried regularly and has a terrible track record that - inevitably - ranges between a source of mild shame in hindsight to a nightmare influence on society. There are nearly no scenarios where it is acceptable for the FBI to be in regular contact with Twitter asking for Tweets to be taken down, and if there are it should be transparent and documented - in public, in real time. It shouldn't take Elon Musk spending too much money to get details on the FBI's censorship programs (similarly it should have taken Assange-Manning-Snowden to get details on the pervasive spying).
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- andirk 4y ago
  The stupid H Biden lap top story shows that factually the government can twist a private company's arm outside of legal channels and said company will do as it is told. That is very bad. I'm not sure people realize this. Every incriminating leak showcases it more and more and yet people are generally not worried about it because they themselves have not been affected. Yet.
  - concordDance 4y ago
    Could have sworn these twitter files revealed that the government did zero arm twisting and it was Twitter on its own initiative.
    - andirk 4y ago
      "arm twisting" doesn't mean flat out forcing but strongly recommending with the idea that it may go further if their recommendation isn't followed. The laptop story being suppressed is now fact and admitted by both Twitter and Facebook and months before these Taibbi stories.
  - 4y ago
nathanvanfleet 4y ago
I kind of wonder whether Tesla, a company making cars with GPS, microphones and video cameras embedded in it is also regularly contacted by crime agencies.

by diob 4y ago

jacquesm 4y ago

The goal seems to be to distract from Musk selling off Tesla at breakneck speed. Every time there is a big hoopla around Musk the first thing I do is check the stock price and sure enough it seems to be dropping like a stone in tandem with the news releases.

ekianjo 4y ago
Some people see causality in coincidences
- jacquesm 4y ago
  Once is random chance, twice is a coincidence, three is enemy action.
  - beachy 4y ago
    Shaken. Not stirred.
threeseed 4y ago
Also I think the idea is to try and attract conservatives from other apps e.g. TruthSocial. Good idea in theory except that many of those users aren't as well-behaved so to speak. And so the overall quality of the discourse has noticeably dropped since Musk took over.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  Good point, Musk is now in direct competition with Truth Social, Parler and so on. I had not given that any thought but it explains some of the more bizarre moves of the last weeks.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- daxfohl 4y ago
  I think he's just trying to eliminate the cultural barrier for marketing a Tesla pick up truck.
  - chihuahua 4y ago
    Pwn the libs by buying a Tesla pickup!
  - xnx 4y ago
    Could he possibly sell enough pickups to make up for the money hes losing on twitter?
- davidbarker 4y ago
  I replied to a tweet that referenced Musk and Tesla, and simply mentioned that I sold my Tesla shares at the beginning of this week (and made a loss) because I didn't want any association with Musk any more. The replies I got from Musk fans were shockingly (maybe not so shockingly) vile. Turns out Musk sold his Tesla shares at the same time as I did — I wonder how those people replying to me would square that with their insults.
  - fallingknife 4y ago
    I'm certainly not going to defend the people insulting you, but suggesting that you sold for moral, and not financial, reasons comes off as very sanctimonious and invites that type of reply in a cesspit like Twitter.
cactusplant7374 4y ago
I think the goal is to drive engagement. Unfortunately for Musk the engagement will cost him more compute resources even though he's lost a lot of advertising revenue. If Twitter had a proper functioning board doesn't everyone think they would have prevented him from driving away advertisers and then threatening them with lawsuits for not advertising? If I was an investor in Twitter I would be livid. It appears most investors take it in stride because they worship Musk.

roenxi 4y ago

It would be foolish to see this as a left v. right issue. This is an authoritarian vs. libertarian battle. This sort of activity is what the government 100% shouldn't be involved in. Having a department of What is Allowed To Be Said is one of those ideas that gets tried regularly and has a terrible track record that - inevitably - ranges between a source of mild shame in hindsight to a nightmare influence on society. There are nearly no scenarios where it is acceptable for the FBI to be in regular contact with Twitter asking for Tweets to be taken down, and if there are it should be transparent and documented - in public, in real time. It shouldn't take Elon Musk spending too much money to get details on the FBI's censorship programs (similarly it should have taken Assange-Manning-Snowden to get details on the pervasive spying).

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
andirk 4y ago
The stupid H Biden lap top story shows that factually the government can twist a private company's arm outside of legal channels and said company will do as it is told. That is very bad. I'm not sure people realize this. Every incriminating leak showcases it more and more and yet people are generally not worried about it because they themselves have not been affected. Yet.
- concordDance 4y ago
  Could have sworn these twitter files revealed that the government did zero arm twisting and it was Twitter on its own initiative.
  - andirk 4y ago
    "arm twisting" doesn't mean flat out forcing but strongly recommending with the idea that it may go further if their recommendation isn't followed. The laptop story being suppressed is now fact and admitted by both Twitter and Facebook and months before these Taibbi stories.
- 4y ago

nathanvanfleet 4y ago

I kind of wonder whether Tesla, a company making cars with GPS, microphones and video cameras embedded in it is also regularly contacted by crime agencies.