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By "social media" we mean any large computer network that allows people to interact in shared communities. The big ones of course are Facebook, Twitter (X), and Instagram, but we can't forget newer platforms like Discord and Slack.

Dedicated video sites are off-topic here and YouTube has its own separate thread.

What we should discuss in this OTC topic are news items, business operations, and activities by the networks themselves, not specific things posted by users. Those should go into threads appropriate to the subjects of those posts. For example, if an actor tweets about a film, we'd discuss that in the Media forum topic for the film, not here. If Facebook changes its policies, that could be discussed here.

The politics, motives, competency and wider business activities of the owners and leaders of social media companies (e.g. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg) are also off-topic — except in situations where they are directly making specific policy for the platform.

Talking about a particular Instagram policy change (or a high-profile ban on a specific user) directly announced by Mark Zuckerberg would be acceptable in this thread, speculating about Zuckerberg's wider motivations wouldn't be.

One exception is Truth Social, due to its connection to Donald Trump. As there is a forum ban on US Politics, all discussion of Truth Social is off-topic and posts about the platform may be thumped.

The thread's also not about "dumb thing [public figure] said on [social media platform]". If there isn't a specific thread related to the subject of the statement, then it's probably gossip and not worth talking about.


     Thread OP 
So, I was looking for a dedicated social media thread and apparently there was this one created back in 2020 that we never opened. Unfortunately, it's a little stale, so bumping it isn't going to work very well, but I would like to restart it. The reason I'm doing so is that the Computer Thread seems to have become the de facto place for this sort of talk, and it's a big tonal clash with talking about computer tech.

The hot topic of the day is Elon Musk's bid to acquire Twitter. We first discussed it in the Computer Thread, starting roughly here, and I am not going to rehash the entire discussion. Instead, I am going to resume from the last post:

CNBC: Twitter is reportedly taking another look at Musk takeover bid

Twitter's board is reportedly meeting with Elon Musk and may seek to negotiate on his buyout offer. Musk claims to have secured $46 billion in funding to buy the company at a valuation of $43 billion and is preparing to make a tender offer to its shareholders.

While the board has passed a poison pill, it could be facing resistance to that from groups of shareholders and will want to talk things out rather than face a hostile takeover. It's also possible that Twitter's stock could crash if the offer fails to go through.


Another possible topic was originally posted here.

Ars Technica: EU to unveil landmark law to force Big Tech to police illegal content

Following on from the recently passed Digital Markets Act, which requires large tech companies to unbundle first-party software from hardware platforms, the proposed Digital Services Act will require medium and large social media platforms and search engines to police hate speech and disinformation while adding additional protections for children against targeted marketing.

It also bans "dark patterns", which manipulate or trick people into clicking on ads or other content. The article doesn't explicitly say what that means, but I assume it includes things like disguising ads to look like parts of a site's user interface, hiding "close" buttons, and such.

For large companies, the requirements would go into effect immediately. For medium companies, they would have a grace period to implement the changes.

Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, has warned that Big Tech has become “too big to care.”

This phrase, "too big to care", intrigues me. It's an indictment of the idea that these companies have decided that growth and engagement metrics overwhelm any sense of social responsibility.

In my opinion, a law like this would be impossible in the United States, since it would be challenged (likely successfully) on First Amendment grounds.

Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 8th 2024 at 5:16:31 PM

Zendervai Since: Oct, 2009
#4826: Nov 18th 2022 at 6:31:08 PM

He coded at least part of one of the websites that was merged into paypal, we know for sure, and if he coded any of paypal, that coding was stripped out very quickly.

His own website was kind of a disaster and the only reason it didn't take him out at the time was because Peter Thiel bought him out and then kinda pushed him out of Paypal.

Edited by Zendervai on Nov 18th 2022 at 9:31:57 AM

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#4827: Nov 18th 2022 at 6:50:14 PM

linked lists are useful if you need to modify the order of your list a lot (for some reason) and are forever doing insertions or deletions

Rynnec Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Healthy, deeply-felt respect for this here Shotgun
#4829: Nov 18th 2022 at 7:23:30 PM

I'm sure Trump will appreciate the gesture, but would he really leave his echo chamber?

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#4830: Nov 18th 2022 at 7:28:05 PM

[up] I recall seeing a story posted here or the US Pol thread saying he didn't want to leave Truth Social because his brand is what's keeping it going.

Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#4831: Nov 18th 2022 at 7:34:19 PM

Yeah, last I checked Trump responded that he'd rather not go back to Twitter even if he was unbanned. That might change now that he's actually unbanned, but we'll see.

Edited by Protagonist506 on Nov 18th 2022 at 7:34:39 AM

Leviticus 19:34
Ghilz Perpetually Confused from Yeeted at Relativistic Velocities Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Perpetually Confused
#4832: Nov 18th 2022 at 7:45:21 PM

New email from Elon Musk to engineers: “please be prepared to do brief code reviews as I’m walking around the office.” That’s it — that’s the whole email.

The email was sent to all Twitter employees.

At 5 PM on a Friday lol.

Giant Bill Lumbergh energy.

Edited by Ghilz on Nov 18th 2022 at 7:47:47 AM

SatoshiBakura (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Blueace Surrounded by weirdoes from The End Of the World Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Surrounded by weirdoes
#4834: Nov 18th 2022 at 8:06:24 PM

Keep this framed for a lot of what we'll see of twitter in the forseeable future:

"What a shitshow"

Wake me up at your own risk.
Ghilz Perpetually Confused from Yeeted at Relativistic Velocities Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Perpetually Confused
#4835: Nov 18th 2022 at 8:07:25 PM

Isn’t the office closed?

He asked devs to come in earlier today to show him code, no one's sure if the office is open. Might also just be him shitposting.

luisedgarf from Mexico Since: May, 2009 Relationship Status: I won't say I'm in love
#4836: Nov 18th 2022 at 9:45:42 PM

Normally, I could care less who is in charge on Twitter, but I want to give my two cents on the whole thing:

It's not a secret for anybody that the U.S. government would resort to anything to keep their current status as the top superpower of the world, even if that means having to deal with unsavory characters like Musk, since he is the owner of Space "X", which right now is basically one of the main reasons the U.S is still relevant in the current space race against Russia and China after the end of the Space Shuttle program.

Hadn't Musk come with his idea of reusable rockets, the U.S. would still had to depend on using Russian rockets to send astronauts to the ISS and, given the current war on Ukraine, that would mean that the Americans would had ended being screwed by Putin and being unable to send anyone to space, something that would had put the ISS on danger, while also had gave the Chinese space program a boost, in the case the American space program could had being knee-capped by the Russians.

On any case, right now Musk feels he is powerful and necessary, so the U.S government wouldn't bother to touch him, as long he doesn't do anything more stupidier than buying Twitter.

But also keep this in mind: Musk isn't American, and sooner and later, the moment the American government thinks they have had enough with him, especially if they find someone better than him or can make the same rockets that Musk does on their own, then he will stop feeling invincible.

Brandon Deadly Vu! from Between Thanksgiving and Christmas (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Don't hug me; I'm scared
Deadly Vu!
#4837: Nov 18th 2022 at 10:02:29 PM

Sadly, more people have voted to allow Trump back on Twitter..

Like creepy stories? Check out my book!
Ghilz Perpetually Confused from Yeeted at Relativistic Velocities Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Perpetually Confused
#4838: Nov 18th 2022 at 10:17:33 PM

[up]the alt right troll followed by alt right trolls made a poll asking if they should reinstate an alt right troll and they poll came out in favor you say?

Surprising

Robin Wheeler, the sales leader who Musk begged to stay at the company days ago when she tried to resign, has now been fired

Edited by Ghilz on Nov 18th 2022 at 10:17:43 AM

Twinkleroc from Arizona Since: May, 2021 Relationship Status: A heart full of love
#4839: Nov 18th 2022 at 10:53:57 PM

If "no" won he'd just say something about far left activists or bots and just do it anyways.

Ghilz Perpetually Confused from Yeeted at Relativistic Velocities Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Twinkleroc from Arizona Since: May, 2021 Relationship Status: A heart full of love
#4841: Nov 18th 2022 at 11:01:10 PM

What's the point of that? It's not as if they can get negative traffic from twitter.

Ghilz Perpetually Confused from Yeeted at Relativistic Velocities Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Perpetually Confused
#4842: Nov 18th 2022 at 11:02:40 PM

Presumably don't want their stuff next to (more) nazi shit. What with Elon swinging the unban hammer.

Edited by Ghilz on Nov 18th 2022 at 11:02:58 AM

SteamKnight Since: Jun, 2018
#4843: Nov 18th 2022 at 11:05:02 PM

@Luisedgarf: I won't argue with the "USA government is willing to work together with unsavory people or countries for its own profit", but like I do not think that has anything to do with the pit that Musk is currently diving in head first. The space race part is even more baffling.

You do know that NASA exists and still relevant, right? Space "X"'s reusable rockets are not even that ground-breaking. NASA already have something similar to that. It's called landing your rocket to the sea and fishing it out.

And in term of space race with other countries, Russia and China, especially Russia after their are dumbass invasion of Ukraine, are that much of a threat to USA at the moment.

The answer on why USA government leave Musk alone is the same answer on why they also leave all other corporations and rich people alone. Musk isn't special in this field.

Not to mention USA government is already currently running an investigation on Musk, but not because he has become less useful or anything conspiratorial. It's more that he has gone too far by committing a lot of stupid actions lately and even pick a fight with government officials I think.

Email from Elon to the engineering team: "Anyone who can actually write software, please report to the 10th floor at 2pm today. Before doing so, please email me a bullet point summary of what your code commits have achieved in the past 6 months" Elon Musk is also asking for up 10 screenshots of the "most salient lines of code" from Twitter engineers.

In an email for remote Twitter engineers, Elon Musk says he wants to speak to people on video ("only those who cannot physically get to Twitter HQ are excused") but "if possible, I would encourage you to fly to SF to present in person." He'll be at the office until midnight.

New email from Elon Musk to engineers: “please be prepared to do brief code reviews as I’m walking around the office.” That’s it — that’s the whole email.

There is something hilarious here after all of the "Musk is a genius engineer that know code and he will fix Twitter (single-handedly)" spiel I encountered from weird nerds. It ended up the way I imagine it's going to happen in the first place.

I'm not as witty as I think I am. It's a scientifically-proven fact.
ElBuenCuate Since: Oct, 2010
#4844: Nov 18th 2022 at 11:18:11 PM

"Which of the two do you want me to release to you?" asked the governor.
"Barabbas," they answered.

Because yes, it should always be up to a vote if a known criminal should finish his punishment.


EDIT: Someone is noticing that these polls about reinstating horrible figures have basically the same ratio.

Edited by ElBuenCuate on Nov 18th 2022 at 11:42:38 AM

Shaoken (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Dating Catwoman
#4845: Nov 18th 2022 at 11:27:04 PM

Well I've seen the first new social media pitch since this shit show. Post is a "Social Platform for Real People, Real News, and Civil Conversations". It's advertised features are:

  • Write posts of any length and share them broadly
  • Comment, like, share, and repost content with your opinion
  • Buy individual articles from different premium news providers so you can access multiple perspectives, not just the the ones you're subscribed to
  • Read content from various sources in a clean interface without jumping to different websites
  • Have meaningful discussions with friends, strangers, experts, and leaders
  • Tip creators of engaging content to help them create more of it, via integrated micro-payments

Not sure if this would line up with what I use Twitter for, but at least there are people willing to put their money where their mouth is.

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#4846: Nov 19th 2022 at 1:19:04 AM

Yeah, last I checked Trump responded that he'd rather not go back to Twitter even if he was unbanned. That might change now that he's actually unbanned, but we'll see.

Don't tell me you believe that. The man has been a Twitter addict since long before his election.

This is the typical sort of "I don't want to stay here anyway!" rant so many banned people everywhere do. His ego doesn't permit him to admit that he was banned, so he spins a narrative where he doesn't need Twitter, because he is totally starting his own Twitter, and who wants to be on Twitter anyway??

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Smeagol17 (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#4847: Nov 19th 2022 at 1:26:59 AM

[up][up][up][up]Eh, it is more about prestige then "threat". Even without Space X (and NASA) US would be able to launch all the spacecraft they really "need". (If they don't want to colonize Mars/mine on the Moon, or something). But they could be a bit hesistant to hit Space X/Musk without a very good reason, that is probably true.

Edited by Smeagol17 on Nov 19th 2022 at 12:27:10 PM

Ayasugi Since: Oct, 2010
#4848: Nov 19th 2022 at 1:27:32 AM

He's probably also hoping that people will beg him to return if he suggests that he might not. Always gotta squeeze extra ass-pats out of everything.

I'd love it if his return is what makes the house of cards that is current Twitter collapse.

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#4849: Nov 19th 2022 at 1:33:49 AM

There's no conspiracy here. The government was already on Musk's case over his Twitter behaviour regarding Tesla stocks, and they are now even more so thanks to his taking over Twitter. I have never heard of the government giving him any sort of special treatment.

[up] I'm reminded of Richard III insisting that he definitely does not want to be king of England, but hey, if the populace wants him so badly, then he will be forced to do so, right?

Edited by Redmess on Nov 19th 2022 at 10:35:05 AM

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#4850: Nov 19th 2022 at 2:50:51 AM

Twitter mayhem, staff cuts have advertisers bailing on the platform: Twitter advertisers pausing ads over brand safety, cybersecurity concerns.

Lopez doesn’t think it’s safe right now for clients to store credit card information on Twitter. She's also worried that if there are any issues with ads—like if a brand overspends or misdelivers—there’s seemingly not a support staff available to quickly resolve campaign issues. Where previously, those kinds of issues might be resolved within a week, Lopez said that currently, sending an email to Twitter is like crying for help into a black hole. No response is expected, and after directing digital campaigns for brands for 12 years, Lopez told Ars that’s not a way for brands to comfortably do business.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times

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