Elon & Twitter

[ZenRockGarden]

This whole thread gets more ridiculous by the day.

A couple days ago people were whining about how Blue Checks made it way too easy to impersonate users. Now (often the same people) the comment is about how impersonating is a fundamental part of free speech.


Musk doesn’t include impersonating in free speech. That’s your nonsense invention.

You folks still don't understand.

ELON is the free speech absolutist. Those of us criticising him are NOT free speech absolutists - we're MAKING FUN OF HIM for violating his own founding principles, and doing so in a very one-sided manner.

Parody is not against the law. Elon EXPLICITLY said his standard for free speech is anything that's not illegal at the federal level. The end. Not our standard - it's HIS.

 

[InDaClub]

Common Sense Quiz:

Recently, a reporter impersonated a standing U.S. senator on Twitter. Who committed the illegal act?

A: Elon Musk
B: Senator Markey
C: The Reporter

Spoiler: Answer

Answer:

The answer is C.

Important: If you did NOT get the correct answer, please consider another career, perhaps drama school.

Judging from some of the reactions to my post, it appears that some people got the wrong answer on the quiz.

 

[STS-134]

Musk doesn’t include impersonating in free speech. That’s your nonsense invention.

Yes he did. He included every type of speech that isn't a violation of the law, and impersonating people for entertainment is legal.

Elon seems to operate with a very US-centric mindset about Twitter - grounded by his original thrust to alter all of Twitter's moderation to address what he thought was unfair fact checking of certain US political figures which most of the world doesn't much care about.

Well first he said that he doesn't believe in permanent bans. Apparently not even for inciting a riot against the government. And he said that he believes in free speech and defined free speech as any speech that doesn't violate the law. But then when people started to impersonate him, he threatened permanent bans. I don't know about you, but of these two offenses:

1. Inciting a riot and directing a mob to attack the US legislature

2. Impersonating Elon Musk for entertainment

...one of these is WAY worse than the other. And actually, the other one isn't even a crime. But people who did (2) were threatened with permanent bans while people who did (1) are supposed to get their Twitter access restored. In what twisted world does that even remotely make sense? Other than in the mind of a person with Asperger's and a thin skin for criticism?

And before team-you-just-hate-Elon gets their panties in a bunch - I LIKE Elon's work at Tesla, he's an amazing engineer, I just want him out of the social media dumptster fire so he can get back to what he's good at. OK?

TWTR is not only a distraction but this sh** show is going to start costing Tesla some sales if it doesn't stop soon.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

Judging from some of the reactions to my post, it appears that some people got the wrong answer on the quiz.

Account "RudyGiulaniESQ" was banned for posting that it was Rudy and he was going to take a dump.

Please indicate what Federal Law was violated?

 

[ZenRockGarden]

User "Jesus" was banned, and all he asked for was "give me two thumbs up".

What Federal LAW was violated?

Reminder: I think moderation is perfectly acceptable - I am pointing to ELONS standard for free speech here, and how it's not being followed

 

[Daniel in SD]

apparently this email went out worldwide and ... just saying... in most European countries there is more than 3 months of severance and you can't get terminated by just "not responding" to a link or click to commit to something

He needs all employees to be hardcore, including legal and HR.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

He needs all employees to be hardcore, including legal and HR.

Yeah, but he may also need to follow labor laws in various countries if he doesn't want to get sued for making demands that are not legal there.

I'm not judging right or wrong about wanting hard core employees. This is about common sense and saving on legal bills/distractions

 

[sleepydoc]

Musk doesn’t include impersonating in free speech

so 'absolute free speech' but some speech is more absolute than other speech?

 

[Ogre]

Yes he did. He included every type of speech that isn't a violation of the law, and impersonating people for entertainment is legal.

YOU are including user accounts as some bizarro definition of speech.

MUSK has explicitly said he does not consider it such.

Just because you choose to invent your own personal definition doesn't mean the planet bends to your bizarro world.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

so 'absolute free speech' but some speech is more absolute than other speech?

Yeah their "aboslute free speech" is getting increasingly limited.

Parody is forbidden, even when being done legally. Criticizing Elon's views on software also not ok. Posting as "Jesus" and asking for thumbs up, not allowed. Coming soon - a moderation panel with utterly unknown rules of conduct.

It sure looks like there's no free speech absolutism at all going on, and we're just running a social media platform with relatively arbitrary limits on speech that have no relationship to Federal Law.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

YOU are including user accounts as some bizarro definition of speech.

MUSK has explicitly said he does not consider it such.

Just because you choose to invent your own personal definition doesn't mean the planet bends to your bizarro world.

Musk said his own definition was anything that does not violate Federal Law.

Posting as "Jesus" and asking for two thumbs up DOES NOT VIOLATE federal law. Period the end.

 

[STS-134]

MUSK has explicitly said he does not consider it such.

Which contradicts his statement about free speech being anything that doesn't violate the law. What do you call people who say one thing and then do another? Isn't there a word for that?

Just because you choose to invent your own personal definition doesn't mean the planet bends to your bizarro world.

It's not my definition. It's Elon's definition.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

Which contradicts his statement about free speech being anything that doesn't violate the law. What do you call people who say one thing and then do another? Isn't there a word for that?

It's not my definition. It's Elon's definition.

It's really weird to have the Elon defenders get irate at us when we quote Elon himself for the definition of free speech absolutism.

 

[Daniel in SD]

Twitter does not and will not allow free speech by Elon’s definition in April of this year. He changed his mind. Like everyone said he would.

 

[Rammstein]

It's really weird to have the Elon defenders get irate at us when we quote Elon himself for the definition of free speech absolutism.

God maybe Elon should probably put caveats to everything he says.

I think it is obvious Elon wants to make a platform where you can speak freely within the law. It goes without saying that doesn’t mean people can impersonate other people on the platform without saying it’s a parody.

This argument is the only one you got and is just plain stupid.

But yes keep fixating on it to make yourself feel you are in the right technically.

According to my morals though if you think it’s okay to impersonate other people online without making it clear it’s a parody then you are scum.

 

[jabloomf1230]

Former Twitter head of international strategy / Global media chief —>

https://twitter.com/x/status/1592892379606167552

I saw this on Twitter previously. This kind of response might unfortunately follow her around during her career. In the context of what Elon wrote, she seems to be equating working hard with a toxic workplace. I can see how some people might feel that way, but I don't.

 

[Ogre]

I saw this on Twitter previously. This kind of response might unfortunately follow her around during her career. In the context of what Elon wrote, she seems to be equating working hard with a toxic workplace. I can see how some people might feel that way, but I don't.

Working for Musk generally means working very hard for 4-5 years, getting burned out and rich. Then taking that nest egg and enjoying the world. They aren't the only tech company run this way.

Lots of people have gained a ton of financial freedom working this way, but it's not the lifestyle for everyone.

Toxic? Depends on your personal situation.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I saw this on Twitter previously. This kind of response might unfortunately follow her around during her career. In the context of what Elon wrote, she seems to be equating working hard with a toxic workplace. I can see how some people might feel that way, but I don't.

They wrote toxic takeover, not toxic workplace.

Toxic workplaces aren't about workload. It's atmosphere. I think this is more about the demand for long hours being on top of everything else that's happening.

 

[Ogre]

Twitter does not and will not allow free speech by Elon’s definition in April of this year. He changed his mind. Like everyone said he would.

Changes his mind about what? Impersonators? Or something else?

I guarantee you he was not considering impersonation "Speech" as people seem to suggest here. Just because he didn't say as much expressly doesn't mean he "Changed his mind". It just never occurred to him that people would suggest that's part of free speech. Nobody would. I guarantee if you'd asked him at the time about impersonation he'd have said that's not what he meant.

 

[JRP3]

Suggesting enforcing unique usernames is enough is stupid.

We have unique user names on this forum. Why is it so hard for Twitter to do the same?