4 ms·

Agreed re: being a non-profit. My great hope was that Elon might do that with Twitter. Needless to say, I was… not right about that.

ethbr1 3y ago
Arguably, prelon Twitter was not-for-profit.
- marcusb 3y ago
  Post Elon, they are not-turning-a-profit.
  - prepend 3y ago
    Are their losses greater or less than pre purchase. I know revenue is down, but I wonder how the cost cuts affected margin.
    - simonw 3y ago
      They made a profit in 2018 and 2019 ($1.2bn and $1.45bn according to SEC filings) but not in any other year.
      - Aeolun 3y ago
        Presumably they could have done Elon’s massive firing spree at any point in time and become profitable overnight?
    - StackRanker3000 3y ago
      Don’t forget the massive amount of new debt that needs servicing.
  - miohtama 3y ago
    They will, but it would likely need restructuring the debts and the cap table, and would not be Elon's Twitter anymore.
    - marcusb 3y ago
      Yes, if the business was different, it would be different.
- slily 3y ago
  Good to know a publicly-traded company known to censor content to be more advertiser-friendly and with notoriously predatory content discovery algorithms designed to elicit emotions to keep users coming is apparently not-for-profit if it happens to be unprofitable during the ZIRP period. Or is Facebook also not-for-profit? If anything, Musk is less profit-oriented. Someone looking to profit off the platform wouldn't be actively driving off advertisers. But I suppose that because we must all believe that Elon Bad, he must also be the evilest capitalistest person in the whole world, and everything before him was sunshine and roses.
  - latexr 3y ago
    > known to censor content to be more advertiser-friendly And now it’s know to censor content to be friendly to autocratic governments. https://www.vice.com/en/article/88xqnv/elon-musk-censors-twitter-in-turkey https://www.vice.com/en/article/88xqnv/elon-musk-censors-twi...
    - slily 3y ago
      Obviously your post has nothing to do with Twitter being for-profit before the acquisition and Musk prioritizing profit less than his predecessors, but I'll bite. By complying with government regulations when displaying content in their respective regions to avoid getting the entire network banned there, right. While this hit piece from a notoriously biased outlet would like to equate this with ye olde Twitter's regular practice of of suppressing or deleting content worldwide at the whim of the US government, it's obviously more transparent and fair to comply with censorship locally and provide a reason for the missing content. Reeks of "it's okay when we do it".
      - latexr 3y ago
        > Twitter being for-profit before the acquisition and Musk prioritizing profit less than his predecessors Being unable to turn a profit is not the same as not prioritising profit. If he’s so unconcerned with making a profit, then why weasel out from paying rent, the fired employees, and all the rest? Why be so adamant about a payed subscription? Why complain of advertisers leaving? More importantly, why does a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” kowtow to an autocratic government if he’s not even concerned with profit? And why does he keep banning his own critics? > ye olde Twitter's regular practice of of suppressing or deleting content worldwide at the whim of the US government Disputed by his own lawyers. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/06/tech/twitter-files-lawyers/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/06/tech/twitter-files-lawyer... > this hit piece from a notoriously biased outlet Here are eight more sources and a study. Surely they won’t all be “notoriously biased outlets” writing hit pieces, or is the definition for that “writes something negative about Musk”? https://nypost.com/2023/04/01/twitter-censorship-increases-under-elon-musk-leadership-study/ https://nypost.com/2023/04/01/twitter-censorship-increases-u... https://www.thestreet.com/technology/twitter-promised-to-fight-censorship-under-elon-musk-its-gotten-much-worse https://www.thestreet.com/technology/twitter-promised-to-fig... https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-05-24/under-elon-musk-twitter-has-approved-83-of-censorship-requests-by-authoritarian-governments.html https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-05-24/under-el... https://restofworld.org/2023/elon-musk-twitter-government-orders/ https://restofworld.org/2023/elon-musk-twitter-government-or... https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/04/elon-musk-twitter-free-speech-matt-taibbi-substack/673698/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/04/elon-musk-... https://slate.com/technology/2023/05/elon-musk-turkey-twitter-erdogan-india-modi-free-speech.html https://slate.com/technology/2023/05/elon-musk-turkey-twitte... https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/elon-musk-twitter-free-speech-hypocrisy-rcna81961 https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/elon-musk-twitte... https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/04/27/twitter-has-complied-with-almost-every-government-request-for-censorship-since-musk-took-over-report-finds/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/04/27/tw... https://censortrack.org/study-twitter-censorship-shockingly-rise-after-elon-musk-takeover https://censortrack.org/study-twitter-censorship-shockingly-...
Luctct 3y ago
[flagged]
- hollerith 3y ago
  Wikipedia is non-profit and so is https://theguardian.com https://theguardian.com. Do you LOL at them, too? In fact till mid-1993, with a few unimportant exceptions (Clari-Net, early "retail" ISPs like Netcom) the entire Internet, which was already the largest network of computers by a comfortable margin, was non-profit.
  - Luctct 3y ago
    Wikipedia only pretends to be non-profit and Wikipedia didn't buy anything for $4 billion.
jacquesm 3y ago
Thanks for the laugh.
Luctct 3y ago
[flagged]
account42 3y ago
Your hope was that one of the richest people on earth would give something away for free (free free not free* [conditions apply])?

ethbr1 3y ago

Arguably, prelon Twitter was not-for-profit.

marcusb 3y ago
Post Elon, they are not-turning-a-profit.
- prepend 3y ago
  Are their losses greater or less than pre purchase. I know revenue is down, but I wonder how the cost cuts affected margin.
  - simonw 3y ago
    They made a profit in 2018 and 2019 ($1.2bn and $1.45bn according to SEC filings) but not in any other year.
    - Aeolun 3y ago
      Presumably they could have done Elon’s massive firing spree at any point in time and become profitable overnight?
  - StackRanker3000 3y ago
    Don’t forget the massive amount of new debt that needs servicing.
- miohtama 3y ago
  They will, but it would likely need restructuring the debts and the cap table, and would not be Elon's Twitter anymore.
  - marcusb 3y ago
    Yes, if the business was different, it would be different.
slily 3y ago
Good to know a publicly-traded company known to censor content to be more advertiser-friendly and with notoriously predatory content discovery algorithms designed to elicit emotions to keep users coming is apparently not-for-profit if it happens to be unprofitable during the ZIRP period. Or is Facebook also not-for-profit? If anything, Musk is less profit-oriented. Someone looking to profit off the platform wouldn't be actively driving off advertisers. But I suppose that because we must all believe that Elon Bad, he must also be the evilest capitalistest person in the whole world, and everything before him was sunshine and roses.
- latexr 3y ago
  > known to censor content to be more advertiser-friendly And now it’s know to censor content to be friendly to autocratic governments. https://www.vice.com/en/article/88xqnv/elon-musk-censors-twitter-in-turkey https://www.vice.com/en/article/88xqnv/elon-musk-censors-twi...
  - slily 3y ago
    Obviously your post has nothing to do with Twitter being for-profit before the acquisition and Musk prioritizing profit less than his predecessors, but I'll bite. By complying with government regulations when displaying content in their respective regions to avoid getting the entire network banned there, right. While this hit piece from a notoriously biased outlet would like to equate this with ye olde Twitter's regular practice of of suppressing or deleting content worldwide at the whim of the US government, it's obviously more transparent and fair to comply with censorship locally and provide a reason for the missing content. Reeks of "it's okay when we do it".
    - latexr 3y ago
      > Twitter being for-profit before the acquisition and Musk prioritizing profit less than his predecessors Being unable to turn a profit is not the same as not prioritising profit. If he’s so unconcerned with making a profit, then why weasel out from paying rent, the fired employees, and all the rest? Why be so adamant about a payed subscription? Why complain of advertisers leaving? More importantly, why does a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” kowtow to an autocratic government if he’s not even concerned with profit? And why does he keep banning his own critics? > ye olde Twitter's regular practice of of suppressing or deleting content worldwide at the whim of the US government Disputed by his own lawyers. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/06/tech/twitter-files-lawyers/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/06/tech/twitter-files-lawyer... > this hit piece from a notoriously biased outlet Here are eight more sources and a study. Surely they won’t all be “notoriously biased outlets” writing hit pieces, or is the definition for that “writes something negative about Musk”? https://nypost.com/2023/04/01/twitter-censorship-increases-under-elon-musk-leadership-study/ https://nypost.com/2023/04/01/twitter-censorship-increases-u... https://www.thestreet.com/technology/twitter-promised-to-fight-censorship-under-elon-musk-its-gotten-much-worse https://www.thestreet.com/technology/twitter-promised-to-fig... https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-05-24/under-elon-musk-twitter-has-approved-83-of-censorship-requests-by-authoritarian-governments.html https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-05-24/under-el... https://restofworld.org/2023/elon-musk-twitter-government-orders/ https://restofworld.org/2023/elon-musk-twitter-government-or... https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/04/elon-musk-twitter-free-speech-matt-taibbi-substack/673698/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/04/elon-musk-... https://slate.com/technology/2023/05/elon-musk-turkey-twitter-erdogan-india-modi-free-speech.html https://slate.com/technology/2023/05/elon-musk-turkey-twitte... https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/elon-musk-twitter-free-speech-hypocrisy-rcna81961 https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/elon-musk-twitte... https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/04/27/twitter-has-complied-with-almost-every-government-request-for-censorship-since-musk-took-over-report-finds/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/katherinehamilton/2023/04/27/tw... https://censortrack.org/study-twitter-censorship-shockingly-rise-after-elon-musk-takeover https://censortrack.org/study-twitter-censorship-shockingly-...

Luctct 3y ago

[flagged]

hollerith 3y ago
Wikipedia is non-profit and so is https://theguardian.com https://theguardian.com. Do you LOL at them, too? In fact till mid-1993, with a few unimportant exceptions (Clari-Net, early "retail" ISPs like Netcom) the entire Internet, which was already the largest network of computers by a comfortable margin, was non-profit.
- Luctct 3y ago
  Wikipedia only pretends to be non-profit and Wikipedia didn't buy anything for $4 billion.

jacquesm 3y ago

Thanks for the laugh.

Luctct 3y ago

[flagged]

account42 3y ago

Your hope was that one of the richest people on earth would give something away for free (free free not free* [conditions apply])?