Eps 1: Twitter and how this is the downfall of Elon Musk
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Host
Melanie Wagner
Podcast Content
Elon Musk is now a widely disliked figure who for many represents the failure of capitalism and humanitys slow descent into a 1984-style surveillance state, as he is now generally in charge of what is and is not allowed on Twitter, with the ability to block or delete criticism of any company under Musk-facilitated censorship, and in turn, makes us wonder if he plans to promote his capitalist ideals in order to boost his sales and investments, perhaps. In addition to Elon Musks questionable tweets and retweets, he is inconsistent about what he means by freedom of speech and what is acceptable content on the platform, and his sudden firing of around 50% of Twitters workforce almost immediately, raising further questions around content moderation.
It took a lawsuit by Twitter for Elon Musk to make good on a promise to buy the platform, which he did in October of this year, and now that he is boss, this could be the end of an era. Billionaire Elon Musk has said before it was never his intent to remain the CEO of Twitter long-term, but a tweet on Tuesday came as renewed questions swirled about his suitability to run Twitter. Billionaire Elon Musk indicated as much Tuesday, saying he will just be running a software & servers team, whereas he told Twitter employees last month the company will become a software and servers company under his ownership.
Since Elon Musk took control last month, Twitter has been wracked by swingeing staff cuts, ad boycotts, warnings about going bankrupt, and now mass resignations from his remaining employees. Musks turbulent takeover of Twitter, and subsequent firings Twitter has undergone, has raised concerns about whether hate speech will get worse with Teslas CEO at the helm. More importantly, Musk has noted he was personally pretty surprised by hate speech lists on social media platforms.
A tweet on Tuesday also pointed the finger of blame toward the competing social media site Mastodon, prompting a short-lived Twitter blackout for venture capitalist Paul Grahams Twitter account. A lot has happened since Elon Musk completed the purchase of Twitter last month: thousands of employees were laid off, engineers criticizing him were fired, and a fake account for official account of Eli Lilly caused a stock price plunge for the drug company. In the weeks since new owner Elon Musks takeover of Twitter -- immediately followed by a spike in hateful content -- there has been plenty of hand-waving by users on moving to other platforms, and a handful of high-profile accounts announced departures, including filmmaker Shonda Rimes and model Gigi Hadid.
As long as new owner Elon Musks is able to maintain Twitters functioning, even if there are fewer employees, many users are likely to stay, possibly more so after controversial accounts that have been trending back on Twitter for making headlines via inflammatory comments. In fact, new owner Elon Musks move away from ads and towards a subscription model may well work, as long as Twitter can survive having its entire revenue pre-emptively wiped out, keep its systems working, avoid breaking laws regarding copyright infringement and hate speech, and remain in good standing with Apple and Google, who control the app stores Twitter depends on. New owner Elon Musks Tesla has said before that its hated advertising, and as owner of Twitter has expressed his desire to have Twitter depend more on subscription revenues rather than ad dollars.
Elon Musks removal of Twitters most unruly users bans has inspired understandable fears among advertisers that their products will be placed alongside tweets that are homophobic, racist, sexist, or otherwise misanthropic. Musks new tick-box system - his first major product revamp - caused mayhem within hours of its release, as newly ticked users filled Twitter with false accounts, posing as figures from Nintendos Mario characters to former U.S. president George H.W.
Former Twitter users, like digital exiles, turned to new shores -- platforms such as Mastodon and Post News -- with hopes of re-creating a kind of facsimile of their former online communities, without the toxicity that drove them to exile. SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 14 - Tesla Inc. shares extended losses on Wednesday, hitting their lowest point in more than two years, as investors, including one of fanboys for chief executive Elon Musk, lashed out over Mr Musks distracting of Tesla after its purchase of Twitter. One employee said that he was never given an official notice to quit, but rather learned that he was being fired when Elon Musk tweeted that he was fired on their raging Twitter feed .