5 ms·

Tangentially related, Musk now wants NPR to tweet again, under the threat of giving away NPR's handle for disuse, contrary to Twitter's inactive account guideli

Tangentially related, Musk now wants NPR to tweet again, under the threat of giving away NPR's handle for disuse, contrary to Twitter's inactive account guidelines. To preempt "musk hate" arguments, I'm attributing this to Musk and not Twitter because the emails were sent directly from Musk to NPR. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/05/musk-threatens-to-reassign-npr-twitter-account-if-it-wont-start-tweeting-again/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/05/musk-threatens-t...

jszymborski 3y ago
This does not sound like a reasonable way to build trust between brands and Twitter. It truly boggles the mind why Twitter/Musk/wtv is so aggressively attacking the goodwill of advertisers and brands with this whole blue check and state/public/government media debacle.
- SamoyedFurFluff 3y ago
  I’m pretty sure Musk is not a good manager, but he can select good operators for his vision. Tesla and SpaceX’s successes I believe at this point should be attributed to their other executives and leadership, with Musk just being the marketer for a bold idea and not the actual executor of that vision. Musk is hands on with Twitter and it is a disaster.
  - rjzzleep 3y ago
    Twitter was managed well before? They were burning money on useless people like no tomorrow, hardly rolled out any new useful features and spent all their time policing the platform. Whatever Musk is it's certainly not worse off then before. NPR threw a tantrum because of a label that wasn't the same as what Chinese and Russian media had, which they disingenuously claimed was the same. Then they threw a tantrum when Musk in response removed all labels from ALL media organizations. Musk is certainly not building trust with the advertisers, but neither are the advertisers acting in good faith. It was also quite the spectacle to see all those blue checkmarks flip out at losing something they got for free to the extent that they went around saying that peoples lives would end because of it.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - Fauntleroy 3y ago
      The only thing Musk has achieved at twitter is accelerating the exodus of users from the platform, and the fracturing of the "microblogging" space. If things continue as they are now, there won't be much of value left at Twitter.
    - badwolf 3y ago
      Fun fact: You can think the current owner and manager of Twitter is insane and running Twitter in an insane way, without also simultaneously thinking the previous managers were running things in a perfect way without any errors or issues.
      - nmz 3y ago
        Without a comparison, then the only conclusion is that Twitter simply cannot be run "correctly" by anybody, given that everyone has a vision of how it should be.
        Arainach 3y ago
        That's a false dichotomy. Saying that neither of two examples is perfect does not mean that one was not clearly better, and does not mean that the task is impossible.
- nashashmi 3y ago
  Billionaires are unreasonable. The brand is built. He is not interested in brand building like a startup. He is interested in removing "tyrannical" cruft.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
nashashmi 3y ago
When dealing with tyrants and those who feel they are above the rules, try to use a gentle voice and carry a big stick. NPR reporter should have replied back that NPR is held to the terms of service agreement and giving away a handle can only happen when both parties agree to a monetary exchange. Musk would probably change the TOS but without NPR using the website again, New TOS would not apply.
molticrystal 3y ago
I hate that policy of giving away idle accounts, there are many people who are deceased whose last tweets should be preserved.
jzb 3y ago
The obvious response to this is malicious compliance. OK, every week or every day NPR tweets something to the effect of "to get the latest NPR news, go to [URL]" where URL is a page on NPR's site with its preferred social media outlets. No news. No updates. Nothing that would help engagement on Twitter, but the account is active. It tweets. Of course, Musk will try to force them to engage with Twitter as if it's business as usual and try to invent some other reason to either reap the account if they don't comply.

jszymborski 3y ago

This does not sound like a reasonable way to build trust between brands and Twitter. It truly boggles the mind why Twitter/Musk/wtv is so aggressively attacking the goodwill of advertisers and brands with this whole blue check and state/public/government media debacle.

SamoyedFurFluff 3y ago
I’m pretty sure Musk is not a good manager, but he can select good operators for his vision. Tesla and SpaceX’s successes I believe at this point should be attributed to their other executives and leadership, with Musk just being the marketer for a bold idea and not the actual executor of that vision. Musk is hands on with Twitter and it is a disaster.
- rjzzleep 3y ago
  Twitter was managed well before? They were burning money on useless people like no tomorrow, hardly rolled out any new useful features and spent all their time policing the platform. Whatever Musk is it's certainly not worse off then before. NPR threw a tantrum because of a label that wasn't the same as what Chinese and Russian media had, which they disingenuously claimed was the same. Then they threw a tantrum when Musk in response removed all labels from ALL media organizations. Musk is certainly not building trust with the advertisers, but neither are the advertisers acting in good faith. It was also quite the spectacle to see all those blue checkmarks flip out at losing something they got for free to the extent that they went around saying that peoples lives would end because of it.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - Fauntleroy 3y ago
    The only thing Musk has achieved at twitter is accelerating the exodus of users from the platform, and the fracturing of the "microblogging" space. If things continue as they are now, there won't be much of value left at Twitter.
  - badwolf 3y ago
    Fun fact: You can think the current owner and manager of Twitter is insane and running Twitter in an insane way, without also simultaneously thinking the previous managers were running things in a perfect way without any errors or issues.
    - nmz 3y ago
      Without a comparison, then the only conclusion is that Twitter simply cannot be run "correctly" by anybody, given that everyone has a vision of how it should be.
      - Arainach 3y ago
        That's a false dichotomy. Saying that neither of two examples is perfect does not mean that one was not clearly better, and does not mean that the task is impossible.
nashashmi 3y ago
Billionaires are unreasonable. The brand is built. He is not interested in brand building like a startup. He is interested in removing "tyrannical" cruft.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

nashashmi 3y ago

When dealing with tyrants and those who feel they are above the rules, try to use a gentle voice and carry a big stick. NPR reporter should have replied back that NPR is held to the terms of service agreement and giving away a handle can only happen when both parties agree to a monetary exchange. Musk would probably change the TOS but without NPR using the website again, New TOS would not apply.

molticrystal 3y ago

I hate that policy of giving away idle accounts, there are many people who are deceased whose last tweets should be preserved.

jzb 3y ago

The obvious response to this is malicious compliance. OK, every week or every day NPR tweets something to the effect of "to get the latest NPR news, go to [URL]" where URL is a page on NPR's site with its preferred social media outlets. No news. No updates. Nothing that would help engagement on Twitter, but the account is active. It tweets. Of course, Musk will try to force them to engage with Twitter as if it's business as usual and try to invent some other reason to either reap the account if they don't comply.