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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

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#9376: Apr 23rd 2023 at 7:56:31 AM

[up][up] I don't think you can get away with not naming names when the people using it include people who are dead and people who want to not have it.

VampireBuddha Calendar enthusiast from Ireland (Wise, aged troper) Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
Calendar enthusiast
#9377: Apr 23rd 2023 at 8:09:25 AM

At the very least there's a case that it constitutes false endorsement.

Ukrainian Red Cross
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#9378: Apr 23rd 2023 at 8:11:44 AM

Remind me, who is Dril again?

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Riverstyx197 Since: May, 2012
#9379: Apr 23rd 2023 at 8:15:39 AM

[up]One of the more famous Twitter shitposters. https://twitter.com/dril

SatoshiBakura (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#9380: Apr 23rd 2023 at 8:17:14 AM

A "professional" Twitter shitposter. He is responsible for coming up with such phrases as

"im not owned! im not owned!!', i continue to insist as i slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob

and

who the fuck is scraeming 'LOG OFF' at my house. show yourself, coward. i will never log off

Steven (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
#9381: Apr 23rd 2023 at 8:45:26 AM

I wish I understood that kind of humor.

Remember, these idiots drive, fuck, and vote. Not always in that order.
Ghilz Perpetually Confused from Yeeted at Relativistic Velocities Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Perpetually Confused
#9382: Apr 23rd 2023 at 10:10:27 AM

The thing about the false endorsement thing is it doesn't matter unless someone sues twitter. And it's not gonna happen.

The FTC's not gonna care about that. They frankly already have better stuff to investigate twitter over that affect living people like the privacy stuff. They aren't gonna divert more of their limited resources to something so minor especially when the damage is, lets be honest, to people who are dead already.

The estate of the deads? A lawsuit is super expensive, and what are you going to get for damages? Twitter's in the red right now since its saddled with all the debt from having been purchased and the advertisers ran away. What are you gonna seize? The office chairs? Twitter (Now X-Corp) is a corporation, whatever you win won't come out of Elon's pocket. You can try to sue him directly too but good luck proving he asked for dead people to be verified. That's most likely a mistake when they batch gave checkmarks to formerly checkmarked account. You'd literally just be burning cash. No one's gonna sue over this.

Edited by Ghilz on Apr 23rd 2023 at 10:30:18 AM

RedHunter543 Crimson Paladin Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Crimson Paladin
#9383: Apr 23rd 2023 at 10:13:00 AM

Honestly, that makes it sound like Elon Musk will just fail upwards if Twitter goes bankrupt.

"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
Ghilz Perpetually Confused from Yeeted at Relativistic Velocities Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Perpetually Confused
#9384: Apr 23rd 2023 at 10:29:44 AM

To be clear there's no real scenario where he faces any major financial consequences whatever happens to twitter. He loses a bunch of Tesla stock at most. But that's about it. Most of twitter's debt was put against itself. He'll remain comfortably one of the world's richest men and the Tesla board will support it coz it's literally his family, friends and sycophants.

It's the beauty of being rich, consequences don't happen to you. The only lasting consequences he'll take from this is that the whole Twitter thing burst the bubble of the "genius entrepreneur" façade the media used to propagate for him.

Edited by Ghilz on Apr 23rd 2023 at 10:34:13 AM

Blueace Surrounded by weirdoes from The End Of the World Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Surrounded by weirdoes
#9385: Apr 23rd 2023 at 10:38:35 AM

Those leveraged sells are stupid.

Wake me up at your own risk.
RedHunter543 Crimson Paladin Since: Jul, 2016 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Crimson Paladin
#9386: Apr 23rd 2023 at 10:38:43 AM

Ugghhh, makes me want to vomit. I just hope people have the good sense to leave and find jobs elsewhere.

"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"
Blueace Surrounded by weirdoes from The End Of the World Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Surrounded by weirdoes
#9387: Apr 23rd 2023 at 10:40:09 AM

I think anyone who can and wants to leave already did so. Or are at least in the process of doing so.

Edited by Blueace on Apr 23rd 2023 at 1:40:38 PM

Wake me up at your own risk.
Ghilz Perpetually Confused from Yeeted at Relativistic Velocities Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Perpetually Confused
#9388: Apr 23rd 2023 at 10:40:19 AM

Plenty of them can't. They are on work visas. Elon is exploiting this.

SatoshiBakura (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
NesClassic Meh-meh!? from Flyover Country Since: Dec, 2012 Relationship Status: In another castle
Meh-meh!?
#9390: Apr 23rd 2023 at 11:24:37 AM

I do believe that was noted as a hoax, easily verified by checking the Hateful Conduct page directly rather than citing a post on Twitter as the source.

...as funny as the hoax is, I'll admit.

Edited by NesClassic on Apr 23rd 2023 at 2:25:19 PM

🏳️‍⚧️she/her | Vio Rhyse Alberia
tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#9393: Apr 23rd 2023 at 11:33:09 AM

Uhh, Musk can, and definitely will, lose personal wealth over Twitter. He put part of the debt against Twitter, yes, but he still had to pay billions out of his own pocket (namely, those Tesla stocks). Musk is not doing this for free.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
AngelusNox Warder of the damned from The guard of the gates of oblivion Since: Dec, 2014 Relationship Status: Married to the job
Warder of the damned
#9394: Apr 23rd 2023 at 11:33:32 AM

Honestly, the blue checkmarks are annoying as fuck with their artificial boosting.

More often than not, I had Jordan Preston and other chuds being promoted on my timeline and I blocked a shitload of them, on top of Elon Posting constantly popping up despite blocking him repeatedly.

Inter arma enim silent leges
Ghilz Perpetually Confused from Yeeted at Relativistic Velocities Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Perpetually Confused
#9395: Apr 23rd 2023 at 11:37:57 AM

The blue checkmarks make a good case of how they ended up paying for blue checkmarks with each of their post. Like an idiot saying the MIT is against freedom of speech because the MIT is clarifying they didn't pay for twitter blue.

Anyway, wondering with trepidation what comes next. Twitter Blue was gonna be Elon's big money makernote . Now that this has failed, spectacularly if the numbers we heard and Elon's response is any indication, I legit dread (in that way someone watching a train approaching a car on the tracks dreads whats coming but can't look away) what his next plan to milk cash out of his investment is gonna be.

Uhh, Musk can, and definitely will, lose personal wealth over Twitter. He put part of the debt against Twitter, yes, but he still had to pay billions out of his own pocket (namely, those Tesla stocks). Musk is not doing this for free.

Key thing I said is not he'd have "no" financial consequences. I said no "major" consequences.

From my understanding (and I'll freely admit its not my expertise), he's not paying that much coz through some debt shuffling he's freed a lot of stocks he had stacked.

And he will take a financial hit. but it's a hit that's gonna be intangible to a man of his wealth whose fortune mostly exists in a fluctuating nether. The real damage will remain to the ego.

Edited by Ghilz on Apr 23rd 2023 at 11:41:20 AM

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#9396: Apr 23rd 2023 at 12:05:08 PM

Losing billions is no major consequences?

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Ghilz Perpetually Confused from Yeeted at Relativistic Velocities Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Perpetually Confused
#9397: Apr 23rd 2023 at 12:20:45 PM

When it doesnt impact your life, it isn't.

Heck case and point Elon already did lose billions this year when Tesla's stock had a meltdown. And it wasn't enough to even draw his attention away from Twitter back to Tesla even as his investors were begging him to stop looking at his toy and do his job.

Edited by Ghilz on Apr 23rd 2023 at 12:22:44 PM

OmegaRadiance Since: Jun, 2011
#9398: Apr 23rd 2023 at 12:22:32 PM

Blue that much wealth is generally bad for your mental health to begin with. Melts it into jelly.

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.
HoloMew151 Space Gal from From Deep, Deep Space Since: Jun, 2021 Relationship Status: Tweaking my holographic boyfriend
Space Gal
#9399: Apr 23rd 2023 at 12:24:13 PM

My absolute fear is that he basically block users who don't have Twitter Blue from using the service completely.

Ghilz Perpetually Confused from Yeeted at Relativistic Velocities Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Perpetually Confused
#9400: Apr 23rd 2023 at 12:24:55 PM

That'd be hilarious and him just killing the business entirely. Twitter blue has like, less than 500000 users.

Heck several of the alt-right figures he loves like Catturd would lose their entire audience if he did this.

Edited by Ghilz on Apr 23rd 2023 at 12:27:54 PM


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