Anybody considering leaving Twitter?

[Todd]

Let me see if I have this right.

Elon Musk's first email to Twitter Staff described the financial state of the company as "dire."
Elon Musk has told Twitter Staff that a bankruptcy declaration of the company is on the table.
Twitter's chief compliance officer and chief privacy offers have quit (among other high-ranking officers).
The FTC has warned that Twitter is now under investigation and that Elon Musk "is not above the law."
Blue check marks which used to indicate a verified account now indicate that the owner of the account has paid $8. A rash of fake accounts with blue starts have been reported.

So much winning!

So worst case, Twitter dies.  Or is that best case?

[Brian]

The actual experience of being on Twitter is so fun right now. Chaos is reigning, it's the wild west of comedy.

[Que]

What a great way for a billionaire to waste his money! 

[Brian]

https://twitter.com/callmekitto/status/1589407148462964736

"being on Twitter right now is like playing the violin on the titanic except we are also making fun of the iceberg and the iceberg is getting genuinely mad"

[Todd]

Twitter is finally living up to its potential:

[Florestan]

Twitter appears, develops, runs its course, goes decrepit and eventually dies. Just like myriads of other human endeavours. Nothing to tweet home about, really. 

[Todd]

On old (in internet time) report; surely the numbers are much higher five days later: Twitter lost more than 1.3 million users in the week after Elon Musk bought it

This is but part of a much larger trend, sayeth The Atlantic: The Age of Social Media Is Ending.  It never should have begun.

Now I want to join Twitter.  I will still avoid FB.

[Karl Henning]

A fake tweet sparked panic at Eli Lilly and may have cost Twitter millions

[Pohjolas Daughter]

A fake tweet sparked panic at Eli Lilly and may have cost Twitter millions

There are apparently a lot more ramifications than that.  Ran across this interesting and thought-provoking article:  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/a-fake-tweet-sparked-panic-at-eli-lilly-and-may-have-cost-twitter-millions/ar-AA145rR8

Fake tweets could also impact people's health (for example).

"To health care companies such as Eli Lilly, the change offered not just a reputational threat but the risk that other fakes could threaten people's well-being. Eli Lilly's Twitter accounts routinely field medical questions and work to correct misinformation about side effects, health issues and long-term care.

Twitter's change, O'Connor said, has shaken not just Eli Lilly but many other companies now worried about the risk of participating in a platform where an account's legitimacy is no longer guaranteed.

"This isn't just about Twitter, this is about patients' health," O'Connor said. What if a public health group was "spoofed and shared information that made people's diabetes worse? Where does it stop? It feels like this is literally just the beginning, and it's only going to get worse."

PD

[Karl Henning]

There are apparently a lot more ramifications than that.  Ran across this interesting and thought-provoking article:  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/a-fake-tweet-sparked-panic-at-eli-lilly-and-may-have-cost-twitter-millions/ar-AA145rR8

Fake tweets could also impact people's health (for example).

"To health care companies such as Eli Lilly, the change offered not just a reputational threat but the risk that other fakes could threaten people's well-being. Eli Lilly's Twitter accounts routinely field medical questions and work to correct misinformation about side effects, health issues and long-term care.

Twitter's change, O'Connor said, has shaken not just Eli Lilly but many other companies now worried about the risk of participating in a platform where an account's legitimacy is no longer guaranteed.

"This isn't just about Twitter, this is about patients' health," O'Connor said. What if a public health group was "spoofed and shared information that made people's diabetes worse? Where does it stop? It feels like this is literally just the beginning, and it's only going to get worse."

PD

Thanks!

[Karl Henning]

Seen on Twitter

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Seen on Twitter

lol!  Thanks for sharing that.

PD

[Spotted Horses]

Musk said that all decisions about reinstating banned users would be decided by a committee created for that purpose. Then he announced a poll, and shortly afterwards reinstated Trump after a narrow majority of twitter users voted that he should be allowed to return. His account was restored, but Trump says he has no intention of returning to Twitter.

Musk fired half of twitter employees, then after giving the remaining an ultimatum, a third of those remaining resigned. That leaves him with a third of his original staff. I keep reading predictions that the site will collapse, but whenever I briefly visit it seems to be running just fine. The prediction that the site will collapse seem to come mostly from people who were laid off.

Much talk of innovation and new product, but all I see is that a blue check used to mean you were verified, and now it means you paid $8.

I'd be worried if I actually used twitter. If Trump actually resumes activity on Twitter I might be motivated to figure out if I can delete my account.

[Karl Henning]

Musk said that all decisions about reinstating banned users would be decided by a committee created for that purpose. Then he announced a poll, and shortly afterwards reinstated Trump after a narrow majority of twitter users voted that he should be allowed to return. His account was restored, but Trump says he has no intention of returning to Twitter.

Musk fired half of twitter employees, then after giving the remaining an ultimatum, a third of those remaining resigned. That leaves him with a third of his original staff. I keep reading predictions that the site will collapse, but whenever I briefly visit it seems to be running just fine. The prediction that the site will collapse seem to come mostly from people who were laid off.

Much talk of innovation and new product, but all I see is that a blue check used to mean you were verified, and now it means you paid $8.

I'd be worried if I actually used twitter. If Trump actually resumes activity on Twitter I might be motivated to figure out if I can delete my account.

C'est vraiment un spectacle-merde

[Gurn Blanston]

Musk said that all decisions about reinstating banned users would be decided by a committee created for that purpose. Then he announced a poll, and shortly afterwards reinstated Trump after a narrow majority of twitter users voted that he should be allowed to return. His account was restored, but Trump says he has no intention of returning to Twitter.

Musk fired half of twitter employees, then after giving the remaining an ultimatum, a third of those remaining resigned. That leaves him with a third of his original staff. I keep reading predictions that the site will collapse, but whenever I briefly visit it seems to be running just fine. The prediction that the site will collapse seem to come mostly from people who were laid off.

Much talk of innovation and new product, but all I see is that a blue check used to mean you were verified, and now it means you paid $8.

I'd be worried if I actually used twitter. If Trump actually resumes activity on Twitter I might be motivated to figure out if I can delete my account.

I'll be figuring that out today, actually. I think you don't delete yourself, you make your account inactive. We'll see. Many of my music friends have either withdrawn or are laying low. What's the point of hanging around if I don't use it any longer?

[Todd]

If Trump actually resumes activity on Twitter I might be motivated to figure out if I can delete my account.

I do not know if Trump will or will not use Twitter again, nor do I care, but apparently his old tweets have all been restored for public viewing.

Some business press articles I've read indicate that a goodly number of employees who got canned worked on "content moderation".  if Musk's plan is to focus on unfettered free speech, content moderators are unneeded, unless advertisers balk at unfettered free speech over the long term.  They very well may, so Musk may have to hire content moderators to appease corporate power, which already exerts enormous power over public discourse.  Many vocal Twitter users appear to fully approve of such corporate control.

[JBS]

I'll be figuring that out today, actually. I think you don't delete yourself, you make your account inactive. We'll see. Many of my music friends have either withdrawn or are laying low. What's the point of hanging around if I don't use it any longer?

Several have gone to Mastodon.
Following them on Mastodon takes more effort if you are on a Mastodon server that is not "federated" with the server they are on. There doesn't seem to be a way of figuring that out before you set up there.

It's easy to delete your Twitter account, and you have 30 days to change your mind.

I intend to stay on Twitter until/unless it gets unuseable, but I have set up an account on Mastodon.

Reddit has a classical music subreddit, so I set myself up there but have yet to give it any sort of inspection.

[amw]

I don't stay on Twitter because of its policies on free speech or Trump or whatever, or any of its features or lack thereof. I stay there because I have internet friends/acquaintances who use the site. If they leave, I'll probably leave too. (Assuming the website does not simply disappear in a puff of smoke due to losing too many staff to keep the servers online.)

I note that unrestricted free speech on social media websites has directly caused at least one unequivocal genocide and dozens of mass shootings, while corporate-funded content moderation on social media websites has directly acted to keep repressive regimes in power (if they happen to be allied to the US government) by giving them a means to identify, capture and execute dissenters and legitimising their wars of aggression. The argument over which of those two positions is preferable sets up a false dichotomy made all the more egregious by the obviousness of the morally correct position (i.e., break up the social media companies and seize their assets).

[Florestan]

I note that unrestricted free speech on social media websites has directly caused at least one unequivocal genocide

What genocide do you mean?

[Daverz]

What genocide do you mean?

Google "social media Rohingya genocide".