Chief Twitter with very questionable record on free speech: Elon Reeve Musk FRS
(*immediately update: Elon Musk officially owns Twitter around 8.11 PM ET. He fired several top executives: CEO Parag Agrawal; CFO Ned Segal; Legal, Public Policy, Trust and Safety Lead Vijaya Gadde; General Counsel Sean Edgett. In July, Legal Team of Twitter $TWTR sued Musk. In a 127-page legal filling in response to Musk’s, Twitter sued Musk to enforce the merger agreement and alleged that the billionaire is trying to get out of acquiring Twitter because his personal wealth has fallen and the purchase has thus become more expensive. Same day (July 29th) Twitter sue Elon Musk, Sean Edgett retweeted “….Transparency is key in our work to defend the voices of those who use Twitter, improve the health of the public conversation, and protect the #OpenInternet “. 3 Weeks ago, Parag retweeted “…Context on Tweets — by the people, for the people — is coming to everyone in the US. It’s open, transparent, and we’ve consistently seen notes be found helpful and informative even by people who often disagree.”)
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If Elon Musk reinstates former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account after completing a takeover of the company, several companies plan to suspend ad spending on the platform, a top ad buyer said. Competitive authoritarian regimes typically encourage affiliated elites to take control of key media organizations as a means of limiting democratic opposition and contestation.
That's why Trump, Bannon and Thiel want Musk to control Twitter. The US Midterm Election is only less than 10 days from now, early voting has already happened since 7 days ago. Since Elon Reeve Musk FRS hinted that he had bought Twitter (April 26th), all sorts of propaganda scum began tearfully begging him to unban the Russian media dumps. If Elon Musk takes over Twitter & relaxes Twitter's efforts to control blatant lies, it will be important for people to block the liars & purveyors of misinformation. Do not follow them & do not engage them because they are not here to reason with, they are here to spread lies. Either way, the reality is bleak. We now know enough about social media to know it affects “real life.” And that includes spreading violence and extremism.
Three hour ago, Elon Musk officially bought TWITTER $TWTR. TWITTER will be delisted from the NYSE on Friday after Musk completes the deal. Twitter shares to be suspended on NYSE as Musk nears takeover. Elon Musk and Twitter have until 5 p.m. Friday — the deadline ordered by a Delaware court — to complete their $44 billion deal. Elon Musk, who once tweeted 'I hate advertising,' said he wants Twitter to be 'the most respected advertising platform,' in a bid to gain the trust of ad buyers ahead of the expected close of his $44 billion deal for the social media firm.
Advertisers threaten to flee Twitter if Elon Musk reinstates Trump's account. Banks are transferring committed Twitter acquisition funds into pre-closing escrow accounts. A number of banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, have committed $13bn in debt financing to support Elon Musk's Twitter takeover deal.
Elon Musk is 3rd most followed, with 110 million (behind Obama 136 million followers, and Bieber 113,8 million). Totalitarian left media "worried" that Twitter under Elon Musk won't censor enough Americans and interfere with the elections on behalf of left politicians. Twitter employees demand Elon Musk “not discriminate against workers on the basis of… political beliefs.” Twitter's CMO and Head of People Twitter Leslie Berland is encouraging workers in the San Francisco office to go up and "say hi!" to Elon Musk, who has reportedly told people he plans to fire 75% of employees.
If Elon Musk follows through on his promise to create an open season for disinformation on Twitter he will risk destroying free speech in one of our global villages in the name of trying to save it. The reactionaries are openly advocating bringing Russian and Hungarian style "gay propaganda" laws to the United States. The same people who are celebrating Musk taking over Twitter because of "free speech" want the government to ban and censor speech and content about LGBTQ people.
As a Chief Twitter (like his Twitter bio from 23 hours ago), Elon Musk is again claiming that he’s all about free speech. So let’s look at the record. Here’s case-by-case with just a few of the countless examples showing he couldn't care about it less. There's the time he called Vernon Unsworth, the man who helped rescue 12 boys trapped in a mine in Thailand, a “pedo guy” and paid $50,000 to an investigator to dig up Unsworth’s life. Why? Because Unsworth called his failed attempt to help the boys himself a “PR stunt.”
Then there's the story of John Bernal, who was fired six days after posting a YouTube video of a Tesla accident. Then, there's Martin Tripp, a technician at a Tesla plant in Nevada who blew the whistle on the company. Musk allegedly hired people to hack and spy on Tripp after he cast doubts on Tesla’s environmental credentials. Elon Musk also is anti free-speech when it comes to labor organizing. Tesla worker Richard Ortiz was fired for trying to organize with the United Auto Workers, a move that was declared illegal by a labor board.
Then there's the time Tesla asked China to censor comments that were critical of the company. There's also the time Elon Musk tried to out an anonymous Tesla critic, and skeptical investor who goes by "Montana Skeptic" to their employer. He also has tried to use Twitter itself to suppress worker speech and organizing, a move deemed illegal by the NLRB. Public squares and media platforms should not be for-profit entities and they certainly shouldn’t be controlled by the richest people on earth.