17 Comments

"The new Musk-run Twitter will likely develop much more robust internal technical controls, along with Elon’s refined eye on the numbers and cash."

I'll take the other side of this bet, assuming that any policies remain post-Elon to enforce. From what I've seen thus far, Elon was eager to purge anyone from the company that had expertise in these matters and despite happy talk about controls, just ends up being the arbiter himself. His own proposal for a content moderation council didn't make it out of the planning stages before being exposed as phony[1].

I wish Elon good fortune in rescuing Twitter from the mess he inflicted on it, but won't be holding my breath.

[1] https://www.techdirt.com/2022/11/23/elon-admits-his-content-moderation-council-was-always-a-charade-to-hopefully-bring-advertisers-back/

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"@ElonJet, the account tracking the movements of Elon Musk’s personal jet, has been suspended from Twitter. Musk said in November that the account was a 'direct personal safety risk' but that he would not ban it as part of his “commitment to free speech.'"

"It’s not clear what changed in the month since that tweet. Posts from @ElonJet are published to Instagram and Facebook, too, and neither show the account doing anything out of the ordinary in the past few days. The account’s last posts were yesterday, showing Musk’s jet landing in Los Angeles after a 48-minute flight."

https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/14/23508898/elonjet-twitter-ban-elon-musk-jet-tracker

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To borrow from your military example, there's no way that see Musk NOT being the major that fires the private who refuses to let him into the vault that controls would otherwise keep him out of.

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I had that happen at a Top-Secret com center I ran in Seattle. A new Major in my chain of command tried to walk past a PFC (who played linebacker at Colorado) and was body blocked to wall across the hall. The Major asked the PFC to tell me he would be waiting to see me in my office. When I got there, he complimented the PFC and told me I had plenty of time to add his name to the authorized entry list which was true. I was later an honor guard in his military wedding at a Catholic church in Seattle. In the 1960's, most military personnel knew and followed the rules. By the time the Vietnam War had gone on for a few years, that changed.

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One of my Bucket List items is to find a way to sit you down at a bar, and keep a steady stream of liquid refreshments headed your way so I can hear some of your best stories in person. If you're ever in the Chicago area, let me know so I can mark that off my List.

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I don't get to Chicago much anymore. My sister lived there for many years but she's become a snowbird now. On the other hand, if you ever get down to Atlanta, let me know!

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Don't know if you're replying to me or Steve but we will not be meeting in Chicago. A very popular newspaper columnist in Atlanta, the late Lewis Grizzard, Moreland GA native, UGA grad, who once worked in Chicago wrote that summer occurred there on July 4th. A more likely meeting place for me would be at an oyster bar somewhere between Alligator Point FL and Gulf Shores AL. If you get this, my days of commenting on The Racket News might be over. It appears they might be trying to monetize the site. I'm not inclined to pay for the abuse of being a minority commenter.

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We are not monetizing the site. If you’re having problems commenting please email theracketnews@gmail.com and we will look into it.

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Thanks. I suppose it was just a glitch.

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We are not monetizing the site. If you’re having problems commenting please email theracketnews@gmail.com and we will look into it.

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I was replying to you.

What are you seeing about monetization?

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Only that my attempt to reply on the website was rejected with a notice that comments were restricted to paid subscribers. I used the gmail feed to reply and was somewhat surprised to see it go through. Don't know if the website rejection was a glitch or a test.

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"Twitter has suspended the accounts of several prominent reporters who cover Elon Musk, including Ryan Mac of The New York Times, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell, The Intercept’s Micha Lee, Mashable’s Matt Binder, Aaron Rupar, and Tony Webster. This evening, Musk logged into a Twitter Space to try to explain why, and ran a poll asking when the journalists should be unbanned — in both instances, things didn’t exactly go his way."

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"The Washington Post’s Harwell asked Musk how Musk’s decision to ban accounts sharing the other ElonJet sites — as well as journalists reporting on the incident — was different from Twitter’s earlier treatment of a New York Post story about a laptop containing Hunter Biden’s personal information. In 2020, Twitter made a moderation decision to block links to The New York Post story."

"Details on that moderation decision were released on Twitter earlier this month — with Musk’s support. (In April, he tweeted that suspending The New York Post’s account because of the story 'was obviously incredibly inappropriate'.) Musk even teased the release of the information by saying, 'This will be awesome' and tweeting popcorn emoji. In the course of the release, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s email address was revealed."

https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/15/23512004/elon-musk-starts-banning-critical-journalists-from-twitter

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Thanks for the education. The article is very informative.

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I guess I'm just paranoid and pessimistic. I spent too many years earning a living by thinking about what could go wrong. I still do that but I'm beyond the point of doing much about it.

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