Shareholders sue to delay Musk's Twitter purchase

[FGD135]

@anothernewbbaccount

In civilised countries public goods are public utilities - power, water, gas

[Thames Water Utilities Ltd has entered the chat]

[jlw]

Free speech has no place in a moderated forum. This is a place for civilized discourse where the owners of the site determine what is civilized. Twitter is also that, the owners are just Assholes, new and old.

[VeronicaConnor]

@orenwolf

This place, right here, is social media, and I assure you there are very many people who very much would like us not to exist.

I mean, okay, now we’re arguing definitions. I was referring specifically to Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram, which is what people generally mean when using this word. I don’t want to chase goalposts so I’ll bow out of the thread now.

[anothernewbbaccount]

The UK is not quite civilised either. Hasn’t been since that idiot Thatcher decided to privatise anything that moved.

[anothernewbbaccount]

My point, precisely.

The question is who wants free speech and who wants moderated civilised discourse. This place proves the latter is possible. Of course the former is possible, but it has a huge tendency to become uncivil. (De-civilising?)
And it doesn’t seem to matter who its owners are for that to be demonstrated. Too many members of society do not know how to behave in public, and too many provocateurs exploit that for ulterior motives.

Fixing the thing (the public social media thing) needs moderation at a scale that is deemed impractical by the asshole late-stage capitalists who want to profit from Joe Public’s lack of civility. The owners put in place tokenistic moderation to show willing, but really that’s just to maintain the merest veneer of civility.

[Richard_Kirk]

@orenwolf

@VeronicaConnor

Why does it need to exist at all?

Don’t use this argument. This argument is used against art, books, musical genres, aboriginal tribes, the adult performance industry, you name it to justify why something shouldn’t exist, very often for them being immoral or not serving some “legitimate” purpose.

It the nature of riches and power to add to themselves. If Musk is willing to pay however many billions of dollars for Twitter, it is because it serves his ends. Amazon destroys small businesses and vacuums up their customers (a friend of mine had his online pet food business banned then copied in just this manner). If left to themselves, the billionaires will not let you use social media or order goods, or look up things without paying the billionaires tribute in one form of another.

A responsible government should be a restoring force. A reasonable solution is a national / international service that provides basic support for e-mail, social media, and trade without having to return a profit. Instead of banning or trying to regulate, they could provide a better alternative.

[j9c]

@gracchus

Thiel and Ellison and a Saudi prince are eagerly bankrolling Musk’s majority position and EmptyG and the death cultists are cheering it on

Checks out.

[gatto]

@Richard_Kirk

If Musk is willing to pay however many billions of dollars for Twitter, it is because it serves his ends.

as the richest person on the planet, and far richer than anyone would ever need to meet their needs – the “ends” here can just be his whim today.

even for the few billion dollar he himself is actually putting in, that’s less “skin in the game” relative to disposable income than if i bought a single share of twitter stock.

@Richard_Kirk

A reasonable solution is a national / international service that provides basic support for e-mail, social media, and trade without having to return a profit.

at the very least, comcast et al. should be banished to the history books. it would be better for everyone if the public owned the wires. ( we’ve already paid for it in subsidies many many times over. )

[jerwin]

@Richard_Kirk

If Musk is willing to pay however many billions of dollars for Twitter, it is because it serves his ends.

I think it has a lot to do with having too much money.