Elon Musk makes $43 Billion offer for private buyout of Twitter (15 Viewers)

[Sun Wukong]

“Because half of America rejects verifiable science and history, we’re just gonna stop fact checking.”

He only cares about engagement and ad dollars. These tech bros are truly terrifying figures. They opened Pandora's box and are profiting off the malady.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

These tech bros are truly terrifying figures.

man this. at least with robber barons we got trains and cars and buildings
what are these bros actually contributing?

 

[Dragon]

The tech bros are bound to clash with the EU, but unfortunately, that’s unlikely to benefit the rest of the world.

I suppose we might have to adapt to life without those platforms. I doubt they’ll be willing to stick around once faced with the massive fines the EU is likely to impose.

 

[Sailorsaint]

The tech bros are bound to clash with the EU, but unfortunately, that’s unlikely to benefit the rest of the world.

I suppose we might have to adapt to life without those platforms. I doubt they’ll be willing to stick around once faced with the massive fines the EU is likely to impose.

Don’t worry, social media will always be here to exploit the masses.

 

[Madmarsha]

Face book is getting Community Notes, y'all!

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

So, my general thought when I see stuff like this is, is there a market for a platform that doesn't mine user info, have AI bots, and has some basic moderation?

Could it survive on regular advertising dollars with an option to pay a subscription to avoid ads?

I know it wouldn't work as a publicly traded company, the demand to increase sharehold value would be too strong... but could someone do this privately and make it survive (@Andrus)?

 

[Arathrael]

“Because half of America rejects verifiable science and history, we’re just gonna stop fact checking.”

I keep lowering my expectations for these guys, but no matter how much I lower them, they still somehow limbo under the bar.

I mean, who the heck looks at Twitter since Musk took over - users and advertisers leaving, general chaos, etc. - and thinks, "Oh yeah, we need to be more like that!"

 

[superchuck500]

I keep lowering my expectations for these guys, but no matter how much I lower them, they still somehow limbo under the bar.

I mean, who the heck looks at Twitter since Musk took over - users and advertisers leaving, general chaos, etc. - and thinks, "Oh yeah, we need to be more like that!"

Yeah, what's interesting to me is that Meta tries to present this as a neutral position. Their moderation practices evidenced "political bias", they found, so they're not going to moderate anymore. But that's not neutral, that's precisely the opposite political bias. The US is now gripped by a dynamic where one side of American politics rejects institutionalism, rejects science, and rejects history - it is fundamental to the current state of American right-wing populism that these things are inherently liberal and must, therefore, be denied. Truth, to them, is malleable in most instances - this is fundamental to Trumpism.

When you choose to stop fact-checking content, you are very specifically enabling the populists by removing a key feature of the institutionalists: objective truth. This is not a neutral position - there is no neutral position on this issue. They have chosen populism.