The Empire Strikes Back
By Mitch Berg
Tens of thousands of blue-checks who were supposed to have moved to Canada in 2017, and who threatened to leave Twitter if Elon Musk managed to buy the platform, are apperently still there.
As of last night, Mr. Blow has not, er, blown this pop stand.
Weird.
As noted in countless other venues, the cognitive dissonance among the blue-checks nearly violates the laws of physics:
Infinitely more dangerous than peeish blue checks? A bureaucracy run amok.
The EU wants Big Tech to do its censoring for it.
Out: Russian Bots
In: EUBots.
April 27th, 2022 at 8:00 pm
They’re pissing in their pants blue checks?
Or are we missing a victory v?
April 27th, 2022 at 10:30 pm
[…] Johnny The Walrus? Shark Tank: Nikki Fried Asks – Where Is Charlie Crist? Shot In The Dark: The Empire Strikes Back, also, The Catholic Vote The Political Hat: Pre-School Gender Indoctrination This Ain’t Hell: […]
April 28th, 2022 at 6:14 am
Word of the day: Schadenfreude. Apparently Obama is publicly wetting himself. Mwahaha!
April 28th, 2022 at 6:24 am
It’s so fun watching the DemoCommies melting down over this, whining and gnashing their teeth over the realization that Twitter will do to them, what they’ve been doing for the last four years. The funniest part is that it hasn’t even started yet. Well, except for the purging of their bots, which is akin to burning all of the secret documents before the opponent gets there.
April 28th, 2022 at 8:43 am
The irony is that none of this has anything to do with “free speech”. People gravitate to a platform. They can always gravitate somewhere else if they don’t like it.
Musk doesn’t like Twitter’s content moderation policy. Guess what? Twitter will always have a content moderation policy, just as any platform would. Platforms with absolute free speech devolve into sites like 4chan.
April 28th, 2022 at 8:47 am
I’ve heard the term “blue check mark” referred to as a marker of high status on Twitter, so I looked into what takes to get yourself a “blue check mark” on your twitter profile.
It is very Orwellian and not at all straight forward. Twitter says that it is awarded to people who go through a simple set of steps to verify their identity. In fact after you supply the requested information you may or may not receive a “blue check mark.” No reason need be given if you are denied, and you are not allowed to reapply for 30 days.
The odd thing is that once awarded, your “blue check mark” can be taken away for a host of reasons that have nothing to do with doubts about your identity.
Twitter reserves the right to remove verification at any time without notice, for reasons including:
Intentionally misleading people on Twitter by changing one’s display name or bio.
Promoting hate and/or violence against, or directly attacking or threatening other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.
Supporting organizations or individuals that promote the above.
Inciting or engaging in harassment of others.
Violence and dangerous behavior, such as:
Directly or indirectly threatening or encouraging any form of physical violence against an individual or any group of people, including threatening or promoting terrorism.
Violent, gruesome, shocking, or disturbing imagery
Self-harm or suicide
Engaging in activity on Twitter that violates the Twitter Rules.
Previously verified accounts may not be eligible to have badges restored.
Almost all of the speech forbidden by Twitter is legally protected speech.
Twitter’s rules, even for non- “blue check mark”s, seem designed to encourage organized action to suppress speech that unpopular with Twitter.
Seems like a shitty platform. I can imagine no circumstances where I would sign up for a Twitter account. It would be like joining a club where you have literally no right to anything, not even the membership you signed up for.
April 28th, 2022 at 9:44 am
Twitter will take away your “Blue check mark” if you post “Violent, gruesome, shocking, or disturbing imagery.”
It is an entirely passive construction. Who decides if your tweet contained “violent, gruesome, shocking, or disturbing imagery”? These are words with no clear definition. Some people — more than you might think — would put a picture of the steak dinner they were served at their local restaurant into the category of “violent, gruesome, shocking, or disturbing imagery.”
This isn’t to say that Twitter’s rules are illegal — maybe they are, maybe they aren’t — but they certainly are not meant to promote freedom of expression, and the people who use the service must know this.
April 28th, 2022 at 10:18 am
I’ll stay open minded. This may not go the way Twitter fans — or Musk — think it will. The future will be endless uneasy compromises and disappointments about the platform’s decisions, same as ever.
April 28th, 2022 at 10:47 am
“It is an entirely passive construction. Who decides if your tweet contained “violent, gruesome, shocking, or disturbing imagery”?”
Twitter closed on its first day of trading at $44.90 per share, which means the return for holding TWTR for the past nine years — assuming $54.20 is the going private price — was less than 3% compounded. That is a terrible rate of return, and there is nothing to suggest Musk will figure out how to deliver returns that are any better.
He is buying at more than 10X sales, a crazy price for a company that has consistently shown it cannot make real money. Twitter is inherently toxic to advertisers because it draws extreme political speech. If the speech becomes more extreme, advertisers will flee (reducing what little revenue Twitter has) and few normal people will pay for a subscription model. As for not restrained by anyone or anything, that is a fantasy world too.
If Musk flouts Europe’s rules Twitter will be banned in Europe; and if he turns Twitter into an extremist shout-fest the company will not bring in any advertising dollars. There is a reason Elon’s bid had no competitors. It’s a ridiculous price for a dog of a company. He is going to lose a lot of money on the deal (if he actually goes through with it) and have a lot of headaches besides.
April 28th, 2022 at 11:50 am
Moderation is lit 🔥 let’s try this edited bit.
Woolly wrote: “It is an entirely passive construction. Who decides if your tweet contained “violent, gruesome, shocking, or disturbing imagery”?”
Twitter is inherently toxic to advertisers because it draws extreme political speech. If the speech becomes more extreme, advertisers will flee (reducing what little revenue Twitter has) and few normal people will pay for a subscription model. As for not restrained by anyone or anything, that is a fantasy world too.
If Musk flouts Europe’s rules Twitter will be banned in Europe; and if he turns Twitter into an extremist shout-fest the company will not bring in any advertising dollars. There is a reason Elon’s bid had no competitors. It’s a ridiculous price for a dog of a company. He is going to lose a lot of money on the deal (if he actually goes through with it) and have a lot of headaches besides.