Current Affairs Elon Musk
- Thread starter ReiRei
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Interesting to see those who are omitted Tik-Tok, Parlor and Gab. The Chinese would not have been impressed with a ban on Tik-Tok.
Also
I don't know much about this twitter guy, but do folk really think Jack didn't know what a scumbag musk was? There was plenty of good breakdowns and articles about him before his twitter meltdown
Martin Alvito
Player Valuation: £50m
What's really interesting about the thread is how much it picked up this year. Two relatively brief discussions separated by a three-year hiatus and a thread necro, then nearly 90% of the activity occurring after the Twitter announcement.
If Musk weren't in control of gatekeeping what is functionally one of the lifelines of independent media, I would be more inclined to agree with @dylan. As it stands, Musk is in a position to promote and squelch and the debate over what he chooses to do with that power is more or less inevitable unless/until Twitter becomes irrelevant.
The whole thing is a cautionary tale, in my mind. Musk became this big in part because he paid off that independent media with access and perks in return for positive coverage, only to have them all turn on him when he started threatening their values and the livelihoods of some of their cohort. There's a bit of a herd mentality to forms of social media, including this one, which IMO created the present problem in the first place.
Perhaps another case of him thinking the leopard would not eat his face…
Jack Dorsey Gives Decentralized Social Network Nostr 14 BTC in Funding
The former Twitter CEO has donated roughly 14 BTC worth $245,000 to fund Nostr's development, after recently publishing his views on a native internet protocol for social media.
Pretty long history of rich people buying all sorts of communication assets so as to influence policy and it rarely works out for the average Joe.
There is a lot of competition but one of the more baffling things is that Musk seems to have no understanding, or even desire, to consider any worldwide implications of any of his actions. He is extremely US focused for such a global company.
Martin Alvito
Player Valuation: £50m
Musk just adopted the tactics of others, largely in the political sphere, and applied them to a new space.
Let's be clear about what he is. He's a fundraiser. A salesman. A university president. A politician. As far as I can tell, he doesn't have a clear talent like Jobs' marketing eye for clean designs. The magic of Jobs 2.0 was inducing people to pay previously unheard of sums for a mass-produced, affordable yet luxury version of something previously seen as just a tool. Those tools, in turn, became part of the cultural fabric.
Musk is good at convincing people to pay over the odds relative to value, winning government contracts and raising private equity funding based on the belief he has the Midas touch. In the past, it would seem that he has been good at hiring top-notch engineers and lighting a fire under them the way Cook has at Apple. He does it differently than Cook - by biting off more than he can chew, then leaving everyone else holding the bag to deliver - but it has worked for him.
That lack of awareness of limits probably helped propel him to where he is today, but it's an enormous Achilles heel in a complex regulatory environment like communications. That lack of awareness is probably also why he is surrounded by yes-men, rather than top attorneys who can tell him where the red lines are before he pushes a button to get that hit of attention dopamine.
What we already knew, and which is being driven home with a rather fine point, is that Musk is fairly clueless when it comes to regulatory environments. He has done well in the past in regulatory spaces where he was able to influence the process of regulatory development. He did poorly in areas like securities with mature regulatory environments. He never did well doing his own PR, and doesn't seem to realize that. He got other people to do it for him, via reporting.
In a lot of ways, he is a victim of his own success. The average sports team owner is an old man who built the fortune (or franchise, which is the fortune) patiently over decades. The dot-com owners like Snyder and Cuban tended to make a hash of things. Having become wealthy almost overnight, they lacked patience. Not that different from someone whose fortune was derived from asset privatization, now that I think about it.
It took Cuban a while, but he learned better. Snyder never did, and is in a similar fix right now.
Being directly in the public eye wont be helping either.
He's had the luxury of his previous projects having a degree of privacy until he's more ready to announce (Not that it's always worked out) but here all his decisions are being scrutinised in real time and it very much feels like a lot of the changes he is making are panicked attempts to be seen making the radical overhaul he promised without any real planning or, you'd think any chance for the twitter legal team to make sure everything is above board.
The mass firing of experienced staff wont help matters, losing that much of your skill base can only be negative.
aazak
Player Valuation: £20m
Too afraid to include GOT too.
Unless I've read it wrong and without wanting to defend Twitter or Musk, it does mention being the sole purpose of promoting another platform.
Alas, putting a link to another platform as part of a genuine discussion or if it's in a users bio etc. shouldn't mean they get banned.
Emphasis on should, 'cos you never know with Emperor Ming.
I also may have read it wrong but these examples tbat Twiiter support posted as not allowed woukd seem to fall foul
“follow me @Username on Instagram”
“username@mastodon.social”
“check out my profile on Facebook - facebook.com/username”
of the EU “prevent consumers from linking up to other businesses” bit.
Either way Musk’s lawyers just got some more work over Christmas!
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