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From article: "Greenspan, founder of PlainSite, found his online presence abruptly disrupted on June 13. The suspension of his account, which had more than 24,0
by antiviral 3y ago
From article: "Greenspan, founder of PlainSite, found his online presence abruptly disrupted on June 13. The suspension of his account, which had more than 24,000 followers, raises questions about freedom of speech and online censorship. Ironically, Twitter claims defending and respecting the user's voice is one of its core values.
Greenspan gained a reputation for meticulously monitoring Twitter for any criticism directed toward Tesla and Musk. His vigilance in tracking and documenting litigation involving various companies, including Tesla, Twitter, General Motors Corp. and Meta Platforms Inc., made him a prominent figure in the world of online scrutiny. Over the years, Greenspan and Musk have found themselves entangled in legal disputes, further fueling the intensity of their interactions.
PlainSite served as a valuable resource for Twitter users, providing free access to state and federal court filings, public records and insightful analytics features for paying subscribers.
Back in 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk actively monitored Twitter for tweets containing the hashtag $TSLA, often used by Tesla short-sellers. Musk would reach out to executives at companies to investigate employees who were potentially publishing negative tweets about his electric vehicle company.
During that time, Musk reportedly emailed former Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess in July 2018, questioning whether one of Diess's employees was using Twitter to criticize Tesla anonymously. Business Insider later reported that Volkswagen determined the tweets were posted by the employee's brother.
Musk also allegedly texted Lawrence Fossi's employer. According to the WSJ, on July 23, 2018, Musk sent a text to the top executive at Fossi's company, asking the boss whether he knew his employee, known on Twitter as Montana Skeptic, "was obsessively trashing Tesla via a pseudonym," as disclosed in the report.
Following the incident, Fossi voluntarily deactivated his Twitter account and ceased writing for Seeking Alpha. Expressing his surprise at the extent to which Musk would go to quash criticism, Fossi commented, "I'm a nobody and he calls my employer?"
Following Musk's contact, Fossi ceased writing under the Montana Skeptic alias. He posted a farewell message on Seeking Alpha explaining that Musk threatened to sue him if he continued to write. He also stated, 'Neither Mr. Musk nor Tesla has ever attempted, at any time, to contact me. Instead, Mr. Musk determined to go directly to my employer.'"
- anonymouskimmer 3y agoWho is Fossi's employer? It seems legitimate that Twitter would deactivate Twitter accounts dedicated to criticizing Twitter. There's absolutely no requirement that a company actively support its detractors. Likewise it seems legitimate that the owner of Twitter would deactivate accounts which target the share price of his other companies. A share price that is used (via collateral) to keep control of Twitter. It also seems legitimate to ask whether the employees of a competing company are surreptitiously attacking the company (possibly on behalf of the company). This sort of thing is potentially illegitimate competition. The only thing that seems illegitimate is suing a person writing elsewhere against your company (and, of course, contacting their employer if they are not a competing company).
- Timon3 3y agoThe thing that makes this illegitimate is this tweet: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1518623997054918657 https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1518623997054918657 Musk and his sycophants have been gaslighting the public for months regarding free speech. We should all be calling them out on it.
- gregjor 3y agoTotally legitimate and consistent with absolute free speech. Musk shouldn’t have to put up with criticism. He never trashes or insults competitors or critics, or calls people pedophiles or anything like that.
- anonymouskimmer 3y agoSure, he's hypocritical as hell. But so are the vast majority of newspapers who go to court over freedom of the press yet don't publish commentary critical of themselves. I'm just saying that some of this is a "legitimate" form of hypocrisy.
- croes 3y agoWhataboutism.