The Bane That Is Social Media

[LFC]

Parler has been shut down. Bold mine.

Parler, the self-described “uncancelable free-speech social platform” that catered to right-wing users — which was nearly acquired by Kanye West last year — has been shut down by its new owner.

“No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more,” Arlington, Va.-based digital media company Starboard said in announcing Friday that it had acquired Parler. The terms of the deal are not being disclosed; Starboard said it expects the deal to be accretive by the end of the second quarter of 2023. Starboard’s deal to buy Parler closed on April 7.

Instead of continuing to offer Parler as a consumer-facing social service, Starboard said it would leverage Parler’s assets across its existing businesses as well as provide information-technology services to customers in “marginalized or even outright censored communities – even extending beyond domestic politics.” Starboard said the Parler acquisition gives it an opportunity to “begin servicing unsupported online communities – building a home for them away from the ad-hoc regulatory hand of platforms that hate them.”

“Parler’s large user base and additional strategic assets represent an enormous opportunity for Starboard to continue to build aggressively in our media and publishing business,” Starboard CEO Ryan Coyne said in a statement. “The team at Parler has built an exceptional audience and we look forward to integrating that audience across all of our existing platforms.”

Two thoughts. First, Musk seems to be hellbent on turning Twitter into Parler, or at least a chunk of it. Second, you have to wonder if the company that bought Parler knew it was a stinko idea up front but felt it could monetize the users since they are the most gullible in America. It certainly seems like they're going to cater to the fringes.

[LFC]

The Musky Man is still figuring out ways to destroy Twitter. Points for originality!

[LFC]

Oh Twitter Blue, we hardly knew you understood WTF you were trying to accomplish.

The great Twitter tire fire continues. When last we checked in on Elon Musk's newest moves to make previously popular social network Twitter into a far-right hellsite of disinformation and petty scams, he was picking a weird fight with NPR while intentionally sabotaging the site API that government entities use to automatically push out everything from tsunami warnings to mass transit updates.

But it had been at least a few weeks since Musk last humiliated himself in truly spectacular fashion. That streak is now over. This past weekend, Musk screwed up so spectacularly that it carved out a 25-foot deep failure crater, and we aren't talking about the rocket. On April 20 (4/20, because Musk is a man-child), Musk finally made good on his threat to remove blue-check "verified" status from every Twitter user who wasn't willing to pay him $8 a month to join Musk's new, no-verification-needed blue check program. It was an immediate disaster. A complete wreck.

It was such a disaster, in fact, that Musk was quickly forced to backtrack from his whole theory of what his blue-check program was supposed to be: leveling the playing field between the "elites" of the site and the (mostly alt-right) common rabble.

For a mere $8 a month, Musk suggested, you could become important. Eight dollars would elevate your voice above that of Twitter's other users. Eight dollars a month would be the cost of voting in certain polls. For $8 a month, your account would stand as the equal of accounts by The New York Times, or writer Stephen King, or athletes like LeBron James. Actually, more than equal, as blue check marks get top placement in the replies of any Twitter thread. It would be the Cool Club, and no matter how skeevy your opinions or how gross your beliefs, there was a seat reserved for you.

Alas, the first signs this plan was going to fall apart were early on when it became evident that by “you,” Musk primarily meant his far-right allies, who were the site’s most notorious far-right figures, as well as accounts previously banned for racism, white supremacism, violent threats, and hoax promotion. The $8 a month club gained them elevated access to attack the same people Musk himself didn't like, and there would be nothing those "elites" could do about it!

Except there was, and on April 20 Elon Musk discovered what it was. High-profile accounts, many of them "elites" who Musk previously sparred with, decided they didn't want to be associated with Musk's new club for Important Racists. Musk took their verified status away—and everyone either rejoiced or refused to give a damn. Everyone.

[LFC]

This is the problem with privately owned concerns being necessary for government functioning. All you need is one unstable dipshit at the top to f*** it all up.

Tracking down accurate information about Philadelphia’s elections on Twitter used to be easy. The account for the city commissioners who run elections, @phillyvotes, was the only one carrying a blue check mark, a sign of authenticity.

But ever since the social media platform overhauled its verification service last month, the check mark has disappeared. That’s made it harder to distinguish @phillyvotes from a list of random accounts not run by the elections office but with very similar names.

The election commission applied weeks ago for a gray check mark — Twitter’s new symbol to help users identify official government accounts – but has yet to hear back from the Twitter, commission spokesman Nick Custodio said. It’s unclear whether @phillyvotes is an eligible government account under Twitter’s new rules.

That’s troubling, Custodio said, because Pennsylvania has a primary election May 16 and the commission uses its account to share important information with voters in real time. If the account remains unverified, it will be easier to impersonate – and harder for voters to trust – heading into Election Day.

[pnwguy]

Elon knows a fellow autocrat when he sees one.


Ron DeSantis Set to Announce 2024 Run on Twitter With Elon Musk

The Florida governor is expected to appear on a live audio conversation with Mr. Musk, the social platform’s owner.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is planning to announce the start of his 2024 presidential campaign on Wednesday in a live audio conversation on Twitter with Elon Musk, the platform’s polarizing owner, according to people with knowledge of his plans.

Mr. DeSantis’s entry into the Republican primary race against former President Donald J. Trump has been widely expected, but the decision to do so with Mr. Musk adds a surprising element and gives Mr. DeSantis access to a large audience online. NBC News first reported the plans.

The event on Twitter Spaces, which is planned for 6 p.m. Eastern, injects a level of risk into a rollout that is expected to be carefully scripted and ensures that Mr. DeSantis’s first impression as a presidential candidate will be aligning himself with Mr. Musk, an eccentric businessman who has ranked at times as the world’s richest man.

Mr. DeSantis is expected to later appear on Fox News in an interview with Trey Gowdy, a former congressman from South Carolina, according to the network.

Mr. Musk appeared to confirm the news on Tuesday by retweeting a Fox News reporter who had shared news of the planned Twitter Space with Mr. DeSantis. The governor has also gathered donors on Wednesday at the Four Seasons in Miami.

The conversation with Mr. Musk will be moderated by David Sacks, a Republican donor who is a DeSantis supporter and close to Mr. Musk.

Mr. Musk has said he voted for President Biden in the 2020 election, but has since been critical of him and his administration, which has a frosty relationship with Tesla, his electric car company. The billionaire has said it is difficult for Mr. Biden to stay in touch with voters at the age of 80.

When asked about Mr. Biden in an interview on CNBC last week, Mr. Musk said he just wanted “a normal human being” to lead the country.

“It’s not simply a matter of, Do they share your beliefs?” he said. “But are they good at getting things done?”

While Mr. Musk has called himself a moderate who has voted for Democrats in the past, he has shifted his support in recent years toward the right. On Twitter he has engaged with and shared right-wing conspiracy theories, including one about the October attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Ahead of the 2022 midterms, Mr. Musk called the Democratic Party one of “division & hate” and said he would vote for Republican candidates. The Daily Beast later reported that Mr. Musk did not cast a ballot in the midterms.

Mr. Musk has not been shy in voicing his support for Mr. DeSantis, and did so multiple times last year. Last July, Mr. Musk tweeted that the Florida governor would “easily win” if matched up against Mr. Biden in 2024. And in November he responded in the affirmative when asked by a Twitter user if he would support Mr. DeSantis in that year’s election.

[LFC]

More self-created problems for the ever shrinking Twitter.

Twitter has been hit with a multi-million-dollar lawsuit in the state of Tennessee alleging “rampant infringement of copyrighted music” on its platform.

The 17 entities behind the litigation include prominent independent music publishers, as well as Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group and Warner Chappell Music.

Their complaint seeks over $250 million in damages for “hundreds of thousands” of alleged infringements of approximately 1,700 works.

In the complaint, obtained by MBW, the publishers argue that, “Twitter fuels its business with countless infringing copies of musical compositions, violating Publishers’ and others’ exclusive rights under copyright law”.

The suit adds: “While numerous Twitter competitors respect the need for proper licenses and agreements for the use of musical compositions on their platforms, Twitter does not, and instead breeds massive copyright infringement that harms music creators.”

The lawsuit names Elon Musk’s X Corp, the company that owns and operates the Twitter platform, as the only defendant.

The full list of companies suing Twitter, all named as plaintiffs, include Concord, Universal Music Publishing Group, peermusic, ABKCO Music, Anthem Entertainment, Big Machine Music, BMG Rights Management, Hipgnosis Songs Group, Kobalt Music Publishing America, Mayimba Music, Reservoir Media Management, Sony Music Publishing, Spirit Music Group, The Royalty Network, Ultra Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, and Wixen Music Publishing.

[LFC]

Zuckerberg continues to pwn Musk as Threads signups skyrocket.

User traffic on Twitter has slowed since the launch of Meta’s text-based platform Threads, which has already surpassed 100 million sign-ups since its debut last week.

Threads launched in the U.S. on Wednesday and is being touted by Meta executives like Instagram chief Adam Mosseri as a more positive “public square” for communities “that never really embraced Twitter.” So far, users seem to be on board.

“Threads reached 100 million sign ups over the weekend. That’s mostly organic demand and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet. Can’t believe it’s only been 5 days!” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post Monday.

Twitter appears to have taken a hit. Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, shared a screenshot to Twitter Sunday showing that traffic on the platform was “tanking.”

This isn't good for the Muskyman.

[goldenvalley]

Jul 10, 2023 22:18:43 GMT LFC said:

Zuckerberg continues to pwn Musk as Threads signups skyrocket.

User traffic on Twitter has slowed since the launch of Meta’s text-based platform Threads, which has already surpassed 100 million sign-ups since its debut last week.

Threads launched in the U.S. on Wednesday and is being touted by Meta executives like Instagram chief Adam Mosseri as a more positive “public square” for communities “that never really embraced Twitter.” So far, users seem to be on board.

“Threads reached 100 million sign ups over the weekend. That’s mostly organic demand and we haven’t even turned on many promotions yet. Can’t believe it’s only been 5 days!” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post Monday.

Twitter appears to have taken a hit. Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, shared a screenshot to Twitter Sunday showing that traffic on the platform was “tanking.”

This isn't good for the Muskyman.

Instagram is owned by Meta (Zuckerberg) so I'm not terribly surprised. Pretty easy to migrate to Threads from there. Only the phone app for Threads is available.  Convenient...location data is easier to get with that.  For that reason I haven't checked it out yet.  

[LFC]

If this is what he's admitting, it's worse. Soooo much worse.

Elon Musk reports that Twitter's ad revenue is down 50% and the company has a negative cash flow. Senior Media Reporter for Axios Sara Fischer explains.

He's already been refusing to pay a variety of bills.

[LFC]

FFS, this idiot just doesn't know when to keep his yap shut.

This is about Elon's fake "pay users for advertising impressions," but in the process he just admitted to all advertisers that all the stats are bullshit and the system is overwhelmed by bots. Extra funny because "getting rid of the bots" was something he claimed the he, uniquely, knew how to do.

[goldenvalley]

The blue bird is leaving Twitter?  ETA:  It's official.  I just looked at Twitter and the blue bird is replaced by an X.

Twitter Inc owner Elon Musk on Sunday signaled he would do more to take the social media company in a new direction with a rebranding that will replace its well-known blue bird logo with an X after acknowledging advertisers have been slow to return.

The change, which was not evident on the website on Sunday evening, followed Musk's recent admission that advertising revenue remains nearly half of what it once was. And Twitter's cash flow has been negative as a result of that and its heavy debt load.

Under Musk's tumultuous tenure since he bought Twitter in October, the company has changed its business name to X Corp, reflecting the billionaire's vision to create a "super app" like China's WeChat.

In April, Twitter's legacy blue bird logo was temporarily replaced by Dogecoin's Shiba Inu dog, helping drive a surge in the cryptocurrency's market value.

NYT explains that the genius named Musk likes the letter X.  SpaceX and this:

Mr. Musk has had a long affinity for the letter X. In 1999, he co-founded X.com, an online bank, and later merged it with another start-up to create PayPal. In 2017, he said that he repurchased the X.com domain from PayPal.

[indy]

Well, in addition to squandering away whatever value there is in one of the most recognizable images on the internet and managing to adopt a logo that looks like the thing you click to close a window (and that's a pretty good suggestion for twitter windows in any case), 'X' has been trademarked so many times, by Microsoft and Meta among many other, that lawsuits are going to come.

www.reuters.com/technology/problem-with-x-meta-microsoft-hundreds-more-own-trademarks-new-twitter-name-2023-07-25/

[goldenvalley]

Jul 25, 2023 12:36:44 GMT indy said:

Well, in addition to squandering away whatever value there is in one of the most recognizable images on the internet and managing to adopt a logo that looks like the thing you click to close a window (and that's a pretty good suggestion for twitter windows in any case), 'X' has been trademarked so many times, by Microsoft and Meta among many other, that lawsuits are going to come.

www.reuters.com/technology/problem-with-x-meta-microsoft-hundreds-more-own-trademarks-new-twitter-name-2023-07-25/

Oh yeah...the X Box.   Genius Musk has outsmarted himself again.

[andydp]

Jul 25, 2023 12:36:44 GMT indy said:

Well, in addition to squandering away whatever value there is in one of the most recognizable images on the internet and managing to adopt a logo that looks like the thing you click to close a window (and that's a pretty good suggestion for twitter windows in any case), 'X' has been trademarked so many times, by Microsoft and Meta among many other, that lawsuits are going to come.

www.reuters.com/technology/problem-with-x-meta-microsoft-hundreds-more-own-trademarks-new-twitter-name-2023-07-25/

A joke I read was he was getting rid of the bird logo and substituting a flaming dumpster.

[LFC]

This is the so-called future of Twitter. It was a lofty proclamation that has about 0% chance of becoming reality. Here is the literal A-Z of why.

The idea that he’s going to suddenly stop destroying twitter and turn it into a near monopoly of everything you do on the internet is a joke. Let’s just take one claim: X will run half the global finance system.

Let’s assume we’re just talking about consumer finance. If we’re talking about banking, you’re saying that you two are going to develop a system that a) has all the important features banks already offer, b) somehow has regulatory approval for all of this…

C) can build that infrastructure even though twitter doesn’t have the money for that right now D) elon fired some of his best engineers for pointing out obvious problems which means E) no good fintech person in their right mind would sign up for this..

Normally this kind of list, you’d get to, like D, but this is so stupid it’ll probably be the whole alphabet. F) you’re going to do what every major bank that wants a web centric banking platform is doing now or has failed at (see Goldman Sachs, Marcus etc) …

And spent more money than twitter even has trying to build out, G) overcome consumer resistance to online only banks, which is high, H) figure out how to get consumers past switching costs, which in the US are high bc unlike in Europe nothing just ports over

I) somehow do things that PayPal failed to do, which is Elon’s only analogous experience and he was not the brains behind their payment system J) at space X and Tesla, engineers have an entire system for working around Elon and that doesn’t exist at twitter…

To understand how much of a f***-up he is now, it's good to revisit how much of a f***-up he was before.

In 2000, Musk had become CEO after the merger of his X.com and Confinity, the venture-backed company co-founded by Peter Thiel that owned the PayPal program that was a more popular money-transfer service than the one offered by Musk. After Thiel resigned following a rift over Musk pushing for the PayPal system to go on a Microsoft platform instead of Unix-based software, Musk wanted to broaden the company’s ambitions as more than just a money-transfer service by making the letter X more prominent in its branding and phasing out the PayPal name altogether, according to Max Chafkin, author of the 2021 book, “The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley’s Pursuit of Power.”

But there was a problem that was too glaring for some customers: X.com sounded like it was an adult website.

“X had conducted a series of focus groups showing customers disliked the brand name, because it reminded them of porn,” Chafkin wrote.

Musk’s vision would not last long. Thiel and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin orchestrated a coup against Musk when he was on his first vacation in years. The board ousted Musk as CEO and replaced him with Thiel in September 2000, according to author Ashlee Vance’s 2015 book, “Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.” Thiel formally renamed the combined company PayPal in 2001.

“That’s the problem with vacations,” Musk told Fortune in 2007.

The more I read the more it's become clear that Tesla and SpaceX have succeeded in spite of Musk, not because of him. Lots of people who were there explained how they dealt with the man-baby to make the companies actually function.

[goldenvalley]

+1000 LFC.

[goldenvalley]

Snickering at Elon Musk again:

Construction crews dismantled a giant “X” sign atop the downtown building where the company formerly known as the Twitter has its headquarters Monday, after residents here complained of a bright flashing light that disturbed them throughout the night.

“SHUT IT OFF!!” read one of two dozen complaints to the city’s Department to Building Inspection about the sign. “It is currently flashing rapidly and extremely brightly. It is creating a massive nighttime nuisance and making it hard to sleep.”

Such is the latest chapter in Elon Musk’s chaotic rebrand of Twitter into “X,” which first caused headaches for its hometown last week when the company illegally tried to remove its original logo from the outside of the building. Then, over the weekend, the company affixed a giant X above the building, prompting 24 complaints about its structural safety and bright lights, according to the city’s Department of Building Inspection.

I was in SF yesterday to see a rare Red Sox at Giants game and didn't have time to drive by to see the X...game went to extra innings then we had to get to a dinner date.  Guess I'll never see it now.

[pnwguy]

While some people (Gates, Jobs, and Buffet for example) seemed to keep a grasp on their thinking, it appears like obscene wealth creates a form of brain cancer.  Maybe that's why Bezos's ex wife was keen to give much of hers away after the divorce.

This is worthy of its own thread elsewhere.

[indy]

They all seem to share at least some sense of humility and perspective. Buffett describes one of the keys to his success as winning the "ovarian lottery."

[AnBr]

Aug 1, 2023 18:14:13 GMT pnwguy said:

While some people (Gates, Jobs, and Buffet for example) seemed to keep a grasp on their thinking, it appears like obscene wealth creates a form of brain cancer.  Maybe that's why Bezos's ex wife was keen to give much of hers away after the divorce.

This is worthy of its own thread elsewhere.

Buffet once said that he would not leave enough money for his children to be rich, but enough to become rich with work. He thinks that more social benefits come from those earning wealth. Inherited wealth is detrimental to society at large. Musk did inherit much of his wealth.

[LFC]

The Musky man really knows how to protect advertisers' brands!

At least two brands have said they will suspend advertising on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, after their ads and those of other companies were run on an account promoting fascism. The issue came less than a week after X CEO Linda Yaccarino publicly affirmed the company’s commitment to brand safety for advertisers.

The nonprofit news watchdog Media Matters for America documented in a report published Wednesday that ads for a host of mainstream brands have been run on the account, which has shared content celebrating Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Ads for brands including Adobe, Gilead Sciences, the University of Maryland’s football team, New York University Langone Hospital and NCTA-The Internet and Television Association were run alongside tweets from the account that had garnered hundreds of thousands of views, CNN observed.

Spokespeople for NCTA and pharmaceutical company Gilead said that they immediately paused their ad spending on X after CNN flagged their ads on the pro-Nazi account.

[LFC]

I never realized that Rupert Murdoch destroyed MySpace.

In 2003, UCLA dropout and former punk singer Tom Anderson and marketing executive Chris DeWolfe co-founded MySpace, the best social media website ever. By 2005, MySpace had overcome Google to become the most popular website in the world, and was purchased by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for $580 million.

Murdoch immediately struck an advertising partnership with Google for $900 million over three years. But the site began to buckle under the weight of the deal, as well as underlying infrastructure that badly needed an update. As the website became slow to load and filled with spam, users began to flee and Murdoch’s predictions that the site would generate $1 billion in revenue proved to be incorrect. Facebook overtook MySpace in 2008, and DeWolfe and Anderson left the following year.

Murdoch brought in new leadership to right the ship. They had their work cut out for them.

This is an excerpt from Top Eight: How MySpace Changed Music, out this week via Chicago Review Press.

[LFC]

[goldenvalley]

The adventures of Super Genius Elon Musk and the media site formerly known as Twitter continues with the next genius idea. 

Elon Musk said Monday he's moving to require all users to pay a monthly fee to use his social media site X, previously called Twitter.

Why it matters: The comments, which he made during a livestreamed event on X with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, come as the company struggles to regain trust with advertisers.

Musk said earlier this month that Twitter's U.S. ad revenue was down 60%. He has blamed the company's ad challenges on civil rights and consumer groups putting pressure on big brands.
Driving the news: During the live conversation, Netanyahu brought up the challenge of preventing large armies of bots that amplify hate speech.

Musk replied: "The single-most important reason we're moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the X system is it's the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots."
Musk said adding a subscription would make it much more difficult for bots to create accounts, because each bot would need to register a new credit card.

He added that the company plans to come out with "a lower tier pricing," than what it currently charges for its X Premium subscribers, which is around $8 monthly.

A 60% loss in American ad revenue...he really has set fire to money.

[AnBr]