In other words, the free marketplace worked and all these right-wing talking points about social media “silencing conservative voices” is actually a bunch of bullshit? Because that’s basically what he’s saying. Stick to the narrative, Musk!
Also FTA:
He said the result could be a forum that is “frankly worse,” where debate becomes splintered rather than unified on a platform he has described as a “de facto town square.”
There you have it. Hate speech and its ilk are fine, nay, encouraged as they are considered “debate” worthy of equal consideration.
Musk said Trump’s move to his own social media platform, Truth Social, was evidence of the failure of the permanent ban.
Trump moving to “his own” social media platform is a failure… so says the guy who is trying to buy Twitter so he can own a social media platform. Does he realize how ridiculous this sounds?
“Banning Trump from Twitter didn’t end Trump’s voice — it will amplify it from the right,” he said. “This is why it is morally wrong and flat-out stupid.”
So, Trump’s ban from Twitter actually amplified his voice? Then why would he want to come back? This doesn’t make sense.
What’s his point? There is none. He’s just trying to gin up more attention.
Well, technically it didn’t result in Tromp not having a voice. What it did do is greatly reduce the reach of his voice, in effect shrinking it.
That’s a point worth making, because it obliterates the free speech claim that Tromp and everyone else should be able to spew whatever falsehoods they like, wherever they like.
No, owners of venues have a right, even a “moral” obligation, to keep certain kinds of speech off their platforms.
Oh how I wish some journalists would ask what he’s planning to do about Tweeters who advocate, say, child rape? Because, say, it’s good for discipline or something. Would THAT be okay with you, Elon? No? Then where do you draw the line? What about pushing fake medicines that you have a stake in, and profit from, or inciting an insurrection?
I’ve set up on Mastadon, though I’m not really following anyone there yet. It remains to be seen if Musk can complete the purchase. Some folks are talking about another one (built on the Mastadon software platform) called Counter Social, but I feel less comfortable with that one. The person running it just gives me the wrong vibe. Nothing concrete.
Mostly I’ll probably just come here once in a while to talk to you very intelligent, intellectually stimulating folks and probably beg off the rest of social media. I don’t think it’s done society any good, to be honest.
It’s a failure because when a whole bunch of Trump minions leave for an alternative, it’s harder to gather and consolidate the collected personal data they wish to sell. Much easier if everyone is dependent on one platform.
On an unrelated topic: it is relatively easy to host your own ActivityPub service (Mastodon being the most popular, but there’s also Pleroma and others). For Mastodon, all you need is a domain name, a server, and the time to install nginx + postgres + a typical ruby webapp. Hey @orenwolf, if you’re bored…
Exactly. These markets are only valuable because of the mass user base. Once the user base fragments, they become far less appealing to investors. Which, good, let them be fragmented. Consolidated markets have proven easily attacked with false information campaigns and their algorithms spiked with misinformation.
Musk bringing Trump back is going to drive away droves of people and Twitter is going to go down like a flaming pinata under his ownership.
Those I know of have been hard blocked. Pleroma which I like is sadly led to a major presence of them to the point that established Federated servers have blocked all access from Pleroma servers.
