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28 Nov, 2022

Musk’s bedside table: guns and Diet Coke cans

Elon Musk0 Comments

Musk posts a picture of the items on his bedside table, including a replica of the Diamondback 357 pistol from the Deus Ex videogame, without a trigger; a replica of George Washington’s vintage flintlock pistol; a Tibetan Buddhist amulet used for meditation; four cans of caffeine-free Diet Coke; and a set of books in a box set which includes the US Constitution.

My bedside table. There is no excuse for my lack of coasters. Greetings, I’m Musket, Elon Musket

Musk to release Twitter free speech files

Elon MuskX (formerly Twitter)0 Comments

Musk says he will release internal Twitter documents that he claims will show suppression of free speech:

The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened…

Musk asks Cook: Why has Apple stopped advertising on Twitter?

AppleElon MuskTim CookX (formerly Twitter)0 Comments

Musk asks Cook to tell him why Apple has stopped advertising on Twitter.

What’s going on here @tim_cook?

26 Nov, 2022

King: Musk has been ‘a terrible fit’ for Twitter

Elon MuskStephen KingX (formerly Twitter)0 Comments

King says:

I think Elon Musk is a visionary. Almost singlehandedly, he’s changed the way Americans think about automobiles. I have a Tesla and love it. That said, he’s been a terrible fit for Twitter. He appears to be making it up as he goes along.

Musk replies:

Suggestions are welcome Mr. (crown emoji)….The goal is a trusted digital town square, where a wide range of views are tolerated, provided people don’t break the law or spam. For example, any incitement to violence will result in account suspension.

King also noted that “Twitter ain’t cars. And Twitter ain’t rockets.

Musk later praises King:

Stephen King is one of most creative people on Earth. While I may not agree with everything he says, I do actually want to hear it.

25 Nov, 2022

Musk will make phone if Apple, Google block Twitter

AppleElon MuskGoogleX (formerly Twitter)0 Comments

In response to a Twitter user who says Musk should make his own phone if Apple and Google remove Twitter from their app stores, Musk replies:

I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone

19 Nov, 2022

Roth: Twitter ‘safer’ under Musk than before

Elon MuskX (formerly Twitter)Yoel Roth0 Comments

In an op-ed in the New York Times, Roth says Twitter is safer under Musk’s ownership:

Almost immediately upon the acquisition’s close, a wave of racist and antisemitic trolling emerged on Twitter. Wary marketers, including those at General Mills, Audi and Pfizer, slowed down or paused ad spending on the platform, kicking off a crisis within the company to protect precious ad revenue. In response, Mr. Musk empowered my team to move more aggressively to remove hate speech across the platform — censoring more content, not less. Our actions worked: Before my departure, I shared data about Twitter’s enforcement of hateful conduct, showing that by some measures, Twitter was actually safer under Mr. Musk than it was before.”

His ability to make decisions unilaterally about the site’s future is constrained by a marketing industry he neither controls, nor has managed to win over.

However:

[Even as Musk] criticizes the capriciousness of platform policies, he perpetuates the same lack of legitimacy through his impulsive changes and tweet-length pronouncements about Twitter’s rules. In appointing himself ‘chief twit,’ Mr. Musk has made clear that at the end of the day, he’ll be the one calling the shots. It was for this reason that I chose to leave the company: A Twitter whose policies are defined by edict has little need for a trust and safety function dedicated to its principled development.

18 Nov, 2022

Twitter HQ projection trolls Musk

Elon MuskX (formerly Twitter)0 Comments

A projection displayed on Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters trolls Musk with taunts and insults, including calling him a “bankruptcy baby”,”supreme parasite”,”petulant pimple”,”apartheid profiteer”,”space Karen” and “mediocre manchild”. It is not clear who ran the projection.

16 Nov, 2022

Fallon asks Musk to take down #RIPJimmyFallon hashtag

Elon MuskJimmy Fallon0 Comments

Fallon asks to Musk to take down the hashtag #RIPJimmyFallon that has been trending on the platform.

Elon, can you fix this? #RIPJimmyFallon

Musk intitially replied with ‘Fix what?’, and later replied with a joke:

Wait a second, how do we know you’re not an alien body snatcher pretending to be Jimmy!? Say something that only the real Jimmy would say …

Musk to Twitter staff: Do hardcore work or get out

Elon MuskX (formerly Twitter)0 Comments

In an internal email, Musk gives Twitter employees until the evening of Nov 17 to  commit to “extremely hardcore” work or else leave the company:

A Fork in the Road

Going forward, to build a breakthrough Twitter 2.0 and succeed in an increasingly competitive world, we will need to be extremely hardcore. This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade.

Twitter will also be much more engineering-driven. Design and product management will still be very important and report to me, but those writing great code will constitute the majority of our team and have the greatest sway. At its heart, Twitter is a software and servers company, so I think this makes sense.

If you are sure that you want to be part of the new Twitter, please click yes on the link below. Anyone who has not done so by 5pm ET tomorrow (Thursday) will receive three months of severance. Whatever decision you make, thank you for your efforts to make Twitter successful. Elon

10 Nov, 2022

Peterson: It would be a catastrophe to see Musk derailed

Elon MuskJordan PetersonPiers MorganX (formerly Twitter)0 Comments

On Piers Morgan Uncensored, Peterson say he supports Elon Musk’s efforts to improve Twitter.

Well, I know people who know him very well and have worked with him very closely. These are very solid people, extremely competent and extremely creative. And they’re admirers of Musk. I talked with my brother-in-law Jim Keller, who is one of the word’s great chip engineeers, and he worked very closely with Musk for years. He believes that he is, in many ways, exactly what you think he was: He’s a genius, a visionary genius. But he’s also someone who is very, very good at implementing, very good at running companies, as you can tell because he has a multitude of impossible, succesful companies. So he goes into a company and he cleans house and puts things in order and makes things work efficiently. Maybe he can do that at Twitter. I hope he can, because Musk is doing all sorts of things that are useful and difficult and it would be a catstrophe to see him derailed.

9 Nov, 2022

Biden: Musk’s foreign ties ‘worthy of being looked at’

Elon MuskJoe Biden0 Comments

At a news conference at the White House, when Biden is asked if Musk is a ‘threat to national security’ and whether his acquisition of Twitter with the help of foreign governments, notably Saudi Arabia, should be investigated, the President says:

I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at. Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate — I’m not suggesting that — I’m suggesting it’s worth being looked at. And that’s all I’ll say.

Recently, Musk has given opinions on the Russia-Ukraine war and China-Taiwan relations, while Senator Chris Murphy has called for an investigation into the national security implications of Saudi Arabia’s stake in Twitter.

Biden: Musk's Ties to Other Nations Are 'Worth Looking At'

7 Nov, 2022

Goldberg leaves Twitter

Elon MuskWhoopi GoldbergX (formerly Twitter)0 Comments

Goldberg announces she is leaving Twitter.

To everyone, thanks for everything! Until we meet again! Love, Whoop.

She elaborates on The View, listing Musk’s introduction of the $8 blue check fee, the mass layoffs, and the recent banning of Kathy Griffin for breaking the site’s impersonation rules.

I’m getting off today because I just feel like it’s so messy, and I’m tired of now having certain kinds of attitudes blocked now getting back on. So I’m gonna get out, and if it settles down enough and I feel more comfortable maybe I’ll come back. But as of tonight, I’m done with Twitter…People keep saying it’s free speech, but all speech is not free speech. Some speech is not okay free speech. So everybody has to agree on that, but if people keep saying ‘You hurt my free speech’ it’s going to be a problem. You know what? This is our problem. But it ain’t my problem today because I’m out.

She says she may return later:

I’m going to get out, and if it settles down and I feel more comfortable, maybe I’ll come back.

Musk lets jet tracker stay on Twitter, despite ‘risk’

@ElonJetElon Musk0 Comments

Musk says he will not ban a Twitter account that tracks his private jet, even though its information affects his personal safety

My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk

The owner of the @ElonJet account, Jack Sweeney, replies:

Thank you backing your commitment to free speech. Overwhelmingly the followers of my account are supporters and admirers of your endeavors. Which was my motivation for creating @ElonJet

https://twitter.com/ElonJet/status/1589419007954022400

4 Nov, 2022

Musk: Anti-Twitter activists ‘destroying free speech in America’

Elon MuskX (formerly Twitter)1 Comments

Musk says Twitter revenues have dropped massively, as activist groups pressure advertisers. He says this is despite there being no change to Twitter’s moderation rules

Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.

He claims that despite ‘appeasing’ activists, they are trying to ‘destroy free speech’:

Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.

3 Nov, 2022

Musk: Twitter is a ‘collective, cybernetic super-intelligence’

Elon MuskX (formerly Twitter)0 Comments

Musk compares Twitter to a super-intelligent organism:

Because it consists of billions of bidirectional interactions per day, Twitter can be thought of as a collective, cybernetic super-intelligence…… with a lot of room for improvement

Followed up with:

A neuron doesn’t realize it’s a neuron

2 Nov, 2022

Musk jokes it will cost $8 to complain about Twitter

Elon MuskMonty PythonX (formerly Twitter)0 Comments

Musk says that it will cost $8 to complain about Twitter. He says he stole the idea from Monty Python sketch, called The Argument,

To all complainers, please continue complaining, but it will cost $8

1 Nov, 2022

Musk debates Twitter verification fee with King

Elon MuskStephen KingX (formerly Twitter)0 Comments

After Stephen King complains that he will leave Twitter if he is made to pay $20 a month to keep his ‘blue tick’:

$20 to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron

Musk debates the fee amount with him:

We need to pay the bills somehow! Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8.

31 Oct, 2022

Musk: Twitter lawyers hid evidence

Elon MuskWachtell Lipton Rosen & KatzX (formerly Twitter)Yoel Roth1 Comments

Musk shares internal Twitter communications that he says were hidden by Twitter’s lawyers, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. The messages were written by Yoel Roth, Head of Safety & Integrity at Twitter, apparently about Amir Shevat, Head of Product, alleging Shevat was using ‘fraudulent metrics’ and may be actively trying to hide the ball’, which was what Musk was accusing the company of. Roth’s messages:

But also lol if Amir continues to BS me my escalation route is “Amir’s OKRs are entirely based on fraudulent metrics ad he doesn’t care an may be actively trying to hide the ball”

Literally doing what Elon is accusing us of doing

Musk says:

Wachtell & Twitter board deliberately hid this evidence from the court. Stay tuned, more to come …

Musk later clarifies that he supports Roth:

I want to be clear that I support Yoel. My sense is that he has high integrity, and we are all entitled to our political beliefs.

28 Oct, 2022

Musk comments on people pretending to be laid-off Twitter workers

Elon MuskX (formerly Twitter)1 Comments

Musk makes a comment about two men who claimed they were software developers laid off by Twitter, one of whom identified himself as “Rahul Ligma”, a name that does not appear in  Twitter’s Slack or email system. There is no evidence that the employee exists on LinkedIn, while the name ‘Ligma’ an internet hoax designed to elicit the response “lick my balls” from people who are in on the joke.

Musk responds:

Ligma Johnson had it coming

Musk to form Twitter ‘moderation council’

Elon MuskX (formerly Twitter)0 Comments

Musk says Twitter will be forming a ‘content moderation council’ to deal with account bans and reinstatements.