UKH

The plan so far  ...

1.) Buy, dont buy, buy, dont buy, buy, dont buy, buy the company.

2.) Sack the board of directors and take sole control, what could possibly go wrong ?

3.) Sack half the staff including those who monitor the content for discriminatory and hateful speech.

4.) Charge users for the 'right' to be verified as genuine.

5.) In an attempt to demonstrate how politically impartial he is, Musk tells everyone to vote republican in the mid terms !

6.) Consign the democratic process to the historical dustbin ...

The USA seems to be spiralling down into a pseudo democratic autocracy, not disimilar to Russia with Putin, democratic only in name but a dictatorship in reality and proped up by rich technocrats like Musk. Looking forward to Trump's reinstatement (free speech and all that nonsence) and the chaos that ensues.

The beginning of the end of a once great counrty.

You missed...

3a) Realise you hastily sacked a load of people you actually still need and beg them to come back

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/11/musk-led-twitter-laid-off-some-...

7) Crack down on harmless free speech - https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63539617.amp

F——-g hypocrite.

Edit: Arstechnica outdid themselves with the article image in Luke90’s link.  They rarely disappoint but that’s a classic.

I can't get excited about Twitter. Should I be?

The UK isn't doing very well just now either.

I would suggest avoiding if possible; I set up a twitter account when i started a small online trading company. Closed the account after a couple of months; its poison. IMHO.

We're a bit behind america though, despite Johnson and the ERG's best efforts. I know i've recommended this on here before, but Fiona Hill's book "There is nothing for you here" is very instructive on our direction of travel.........

8) Sack people then realise employment laws prevented you from doing so and have to give them their jobs back.

With you there. I was on it about three months up to October this year and whilst there is a lot to learn on there it is also a poisonous, bitter time hog which ruins your life and I've deleted it.

I've read that about 14% of the UK population is on twitter but 100% of journalists, which is a problem. 

I feel you. I have been on it about 4 years on and off but got sucked in about a year ago. It drained a lot of time and despite me trying to be sensible I found myself getting very agitated.

I deleted my account 3 months ago and started afresh, liked fewer and more selective people, blocked loads but it still grabbed me again, and I consider myself pretty sensible. 

The final dtraw was Musk. I have deleted and wont join again 

The Grauniad is obsessed with the twitter story and I think it is as stated above because “100% of journos are on twitter”.

Oh for the days of proper investigative journalism instead of news about news for its own sake.

BBC seem to use Twitter a lot, both input & output.

I have no problem with the BBC monitoring Twitter and reporting from it so that I don't have to go anywhere near it.

I like twitter so I'm annoyed Musk is rapidly ruining it. It's great for getting news related to my interests fast, and at times other gems too - piggate was on twitter way before I say it anywhere else. 

Well, it's not so bad when they're reporting primary sources on twitter. It's when they start reporting joe numpty's responses to said sources...

That will be JoeNumpty87283710, that well known political commentator and definitely not a bot or ERG shill account. No, really, it's a real person, I swear.

If there's one piece of advice I'd give anybody about using Twitter, it would be to read and respect primary sources from accounts you follow and to be HUGELY wary of any replies, as there's a very high chance they won't be from truthful, knowledgeable or even real people.

Are you following the $8 verification debacle. This is going to hit the stockmarket if not politics and beyond. There could be huge legal consequences:

https://twitter.com/JoshuaPHilll/status/1590899514638229506

Are undeclared parody accounts only ever used for "harmless free speech"?

For $8 you can impersonate any brand or political opponent and damage their reputation.  The Ted Cruz account is astonishing - with no indication it's a parody.

The imposter Nintendo account that parodied an apology for a tweet ftom an imposter Nintendo account parodying Nintendo was equally brilliant.

This could lead to financial ruin...

I didn’t say that, did I?  

Plenty are harmless, and blanket banning all parody accounts bans the harmless ones; this is very hypocritical given musk’s near absolute position on free speech…

Anyone would think he’s using his acquisition to stop his many parodies that have annoyed him over the years.  Got his priorities straight then…

3. And your engineers who keep the site functioning

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/08/1062886/he...

The article that you provided a link too suggests that the ban is not on parody accounts, just those thar don't  make it clear that they are parody accounts.

How does that impinge on free speech?

There are some good parody accounts on Twitter but it's a real pain when  you have check that they aren't genuine because they seek to deceive.

Ita great isn't it? That Lockhead one is quality.

It would be quite the turn up for the books if the man that popularised EVs and privatised space goes bust over a culture war vanity project..

Grabs popcorn 

You'd think that a large corporation would protect their trademarks and should be able to force twitter to remove any content that they did not create bearing said trademarks.

Politicians are on slightly dodgier ground in that they don't have personal trademarks although their parties do.

Or of course that companies ignore everything on social media on the basis it was written by d#ckheads and read by d#ckheads.