Then quickly realized the libs were paying twitter’s bills. While this story is good for engagement on Twitter, it’s not exactly pushing advertisers to run back to Twitter. I doubt Twitter is worth even $4B now
So, to recap, the left tried to create a left only town square, and now someone comes in and makes it neutral again, and we’re angry enough to hope this guy wasted $44bil?
No. To recap, Twitter was never actually a left only town square, that was always a right-wing conspiracy theory. Elon Musk didn't make it neutral, nor did he intend to, rather he seems to want to turn Twitter into a right-wing platform. We don't have to hope he wasted $44 billion, he definitely, objectively has done so. And we're not angry, we're mocking him and his sycophantic cohort.
Dorsey wanted it to be a town square. Corporate decision makers with activist leanings applied a policy in this case that didn’t really fit the situation because they needed an established company policy to justify the activism and election interference by this censorship that they were doing here on behalf of the political campaign they supported. After it was exposed, they updated the policy but refused to apply it backward in this case, because of their activism. They couldn’t, because there was enough polarization in the country that it could have tipped the scales.
If it was done at this scale, it’s likely similar censorship happened at the company on a smaller scale as well.
Because of this it’s accurate to say that Twitter’s leadership team created the optics that it was a town square that only supported a specifically political philosophy and was hostile to other political philosophies.
Can you honestly and truly say that if a laptop was abandoned at a repair shop with similarly explosive revelations about Donald Trump jr that this story would have been censored to the same degree on Twitter using the same policy excuse? I can’t.
>Can you honestly and truly say that if a laptop was abandoned at a repair shop with similarly explosive revelations about Donald Trump jr that this story would have been censored to the same degree on Twitter using the same policy excuse? I can’t.
No, because Donald Trump and his family's dealings are already well documented, and because he was the one who created the atmosphere of misinformation which led to the censorship to begin with, in order to undermine and subvert the peaceful transfer of power.
But if we're going to ignore context entirely for the sake of hypotheticals, who knows? Donald Trump censored environmental data from government websites and banned government employees from discussing climate change on social media, he declared the press enemies of the state and had reporters he disagreed with barred from the White House, and allegedly assaulted and arrested, he wanted TikTok banned because someone was mean to him, he wanted to send the military in against political protestors. He, like Musk, seems like a charlatan and authoritarian who only cares about what serves his own interests. I can certainly imagine a scenario in which Trump would want to silence a story, but he's so corrupt, and no one cares when a Republican does it, so he wouldn't bother.
Also, what "explosive revelations?" Like Trump's hotel businesses being used to launder money for the Russian mob and Iranian military? Ivanka being involved in policymaking despite having no qualifications? Tax fraud disguising gifts as "consultant fees" to avoid estate taxes? Accepting gifts from foreign governments in violation of the Emoluments Clause? Numerous sexual assault lawsuits? Jared Kushner selling visas to Chinese investors? Something like that? Anything that even rises to the level of "Just another Tuesday at Mar-A-Lago?"
I mean, if nothing else, even conceding there is a story here, it isn't the story people want it to be, and the sheer mass of hypocrisy behind the outrage is threatening to collapse into a singularity.
> Like Trump's hotel businesses being used to launder money for the Russian mob and Iranian military? Ivanka being involved in policymaking despite having no qualifications? Tax fraud disguising gifts as "consultant fees" to avoid estate taxes? Accepting gifts from foreign governments in violation of the Emoluments Clause? Numerous sexual assault lawsuits? Jared Kushner selling visas to Chinese investors? Something like that? Anything that even rises to the level of "Just another Tuesday at Mar-A-Lago?"
Ahh yes, whatabousism. You realize of course that the fact that you can easily repeat this list just underscores that there was literally no media censorship of these stories, even GOP friendly media covered them. Even if there was an attempt by the Trump campaign and presidency to request and suppress these stories the media and social media companies specifically didn’t, wouldn’t, and shouldnt censor them. That alone makes this an apples to oranges example.
> No, because Donald Trump and his family's dealings are already well documented, and because he was the one who created the atmosphere of misinformation which led to the censorship to begin with, in order to undermine and subvert the peaceful transfer of power.
I stopped reading here. This is a blatant lie. DT didn’t create the “atmosphere of misinformation”. This is blatant, biased, emotional response. You are the problem with this country.
Did you read the featured Twitter thread? Denial is strong when it comes to both the left and rights concern about human rights in the digital age. Don’t let emphemeral politics blind you to long term trends. Be more deontological wrt freedom. Your ancestors died for it. Don’t let it slip away cause you didn’t like trump.
I did read it. I don't believe it to be the smoking gun so many others around here do, nor do I find the conspiracy narrative it is purported to prove to be credible. I don't expect anyone who has bought into that narrative to question it for a moment, however.
But if you believe the story, Muskhead was ... correct about Twitter "moderation"/"censorship"?
Taibbi is about as muckracking-leftwing as it gets.
Now, I'm not saying Muskovite won't take cash for "moderation" from the political parties.... this is going to be a MASSIVE cash spend presidential cycle.
What I'm shocked about is that there isn't a "moderation" bidding system. Democrats give twitter 10 million to suppress this story... does the RNC want to up it to 15 million to not suppress, or 20 million to PUSH it?
