Elon Musk and Twitter Reach Deal for Sale (Update: WSJ report details Musk’s relationship with Putin) (1 Viewer)

[SaintForLife]

Elon Musk struck a deal on Monday to buy Twitter for roughly $44 billion, in a victory by the world’s richest man to take over the influential social network frequented by world leaders, celebrities and cultural trendsetters.

Twitter agreed to sell itself to Mr. Musk for $54.20 a share, a 38 percent premium over the company’s share price this month before he revealed he was the firm’s single largest shareholder. It would be the largest deal to take a company private — something Mr. Musk has said he will do with Twitter — in at least two decades, according to data compiled by Dealogic.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Mr. Musk said in a statement announcing the deal. “Twitter has tremendous potential — I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

The deal, which has been unanimously approved by Twitter’s board, is expected to close this year, subject to a vote of Twitter shareholders and certain regulatory approvals.

The blockbuster agreement caps what had seemed an improbable attempt by the famously mercurial Mr. Musk, 50, to buy the social media company — and immediately raises questions about what he will do with the platform and how his actions will affect online speech globally.

Elon Musk and Twitter Reach Deal for Sale

Twitter agreed to be taken over at $54.20 a share, a 38 percent premium over the share price before it was revealed that Mr. Musk had been buying up the company’s stock.

www-nytimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org

If Musk does what he claims he wants to do it will be a big improvement and good for free speech.

 

[MT15]

So, now this makes more sense - Musk is tweeting to everyone to tune in tomorrow for part 2 of this crap. He’s just trying to drive traffic to the site.

Oh, and people are calling him “space Karen”. Lol.

 

[MT15]

Sue the DNC for what?

So, Woods posted a nude picture of Hunter Biden and a woman having sex on Twitter and supposedly the DNC reported it to Twitter, who removed the tweet. No, seriously, that’s it.

 

[superchuck500]

They’re calling it treason. James Woods says he’s suing the DNC, lol.

Oh good, I’m glad he’s a found a new thing to be angry about.

 

[Bolo]

If anything, these "twitter files" should push the needle in favor of twitter acting like a publisher which will be subjected to government regulation. If you have staff from any administration contacting your content moderation policy staff to "ask a solid" to deboost, suppress news stories from a very obvious reputable publication, and you comply, how are you not a publisher at that point? The whole thing that prevents social media platforms from government regulation is whether or not they're a publisher.

 

[MT15]

If anything, these "twitter files" should push the needle in favor of twitter acting like a publisher which will be subjected to government regulation. If you have staff from any administration contacting your content moderation policy staff to "ask a solid" to deboost, suppress news stories from a very obvious reputable publication, and you comply, how are you not a publisher at that point? The whole thing that prevents social media platforms from government regulation is whether or not they're a publisher.

So, you’re talking about the Trump Administration, I guess, since this was 2020. But what “very obvious reputable” publication is involved?

 

[MT15]

Good point:

 

[MT15]

Also this morning I saw a promoted tweet unlike any other promoted tweet I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t from an advertiser. It was a short thread by a man who was recommending a book he’d just read. He wasn’t the author, he wasn’t high profile - 4k followers. He wasn’t selling anything - his bio didn’t feature a book he had written, for example, I don’t recall a link to anything - no substack, no patreon.

He was just opining about how Trump was different than all previous presidents in the lack of corruption.

It was just…odd.

 

[Bolo]

So, you’re talking about the Trump Administration, I guess, since this was 2020. But what “very obvious reputable” publication is involved?

I'm talking about any administration. The New York Post story about Hunter Biden Emails, which prompted this whole thing in the first place. The fact the story turned out to be real and the laptop does indeed exist. This isn't a Republican nor Democrat thing to me, this is about a story that was legit and was suppressed because it could have a negative impact of a presidential candidate weeks before an election. I don't think its a good look for anybody regardless of what party, Trumps or Bidens people asking people at twitter for favors to deboost tweets or to "handle it." If anything, its gonna add a bunch of fuel to the fire for Trump to use.

This makes twitter a publisher and with that, a whole new can of worms is opened. This is not the own Musk thinks it is, because of what this opens twitter up to at some point in the future.

 

[samiam5211]

The problem with this story all along has been the chain of custody of the laptop.

It passed through so many hands along the way that it is hard to validate every single item.

I’m sure most if it is real, but I could understand not wanting to just publish everything when some things may have been put on it by someone other than Hunter.

 

[SaulGoodmanEsq]

I'm still far down the wait list.

I lied. Apparently I got an invite yesterday. Now I have to think of a username!

 

[MT15]

I'm talking about any administration. The New York Post story about Hunter Biden Emails, which prompted this whole thing in the first place. The fact the story turned out to be real and the laptop does indeed exist. This isn't a Republican nor Democrat thing to me, this is about a story that was legit and was suppressed because it could have a negative impact of a presidential candidate weeks before an election. I don't think its a good look for anybody regardless of what party, Trumps or Bidens people asking people at twitter for favors to deboost tweets or to "handle it." If anything, its gonna add a bunch of fuel to the fire for Trump to use.

This makes twitter a publisher and with that, a whole new can of worms is opened. This is not the own Musk thinks it is, because of what this opens twitter up to at some point in the future.

So, it wasn’t any administration that “suppressed” any story. (It could have only been the Trump administration though, since it happened in 2020.)

What the NY Post published was not suppressed. Everybody was able to see and read the story. I remember hearing about it ad nauseum at the time. Other news organizations covered it.

The Post story wasn’t actually legit, either, in the sense that what they presented as “the laptop” was a collection of files that had been heavily manipulated past the date that the actual laptop was turned over to the FBI. Lots and lots of stuff got added, by unknown people. And the source of this collection of files was Giuliani (IIRC) who had just spent a few months over in Ukraine playing footsie with Russian intelligence. The files couldn’t be verified and had an extremely sketchy origin. There was a distinct, even likely, possibility some of these files were obtained illegally by hacking.

I am not surprised that more legitimate news outlets decided not to give this story weight at that critical time in the run up to a national election. No legitimate news organization would touch such material without being allowed to examine the files. Which the Post refused to allow (and for good reason, as we saw much later when they finally allowed it).

The tweets that got “handled” were nude pictures of Hunter and an unknown woman. And yes, the Biden campaign requested they be removed. It’s a reasonable request, and they should have been removed.

I don’t think this does anything to move the needle on whether Twitter is a publisher or not.

 

[MT15]

The problem with this story all along has been the chain of custody of the laptop.

It passed through so many hands along the way that it is hard to validate every single item.

I’m sure most if it is real, but I could understand not wanting to just publish everything when some things may have been put on it by someone other than Hunter.

There isn’t any doubt that things were added to that collection of files by someone other than Hunter. It’s been well established. The physical laptop was in FBI custody past a well-known date. A huge amount of material was added to the collection of files the NY Post had past that date. And, at the time they published the story, the Post wouldn’t allow anyone else to review the files either.

I don’t quite remember the ratio - but I’m not sure that “most” of the material that the Post had was legit.

 

[superchuck500]

There is no meaning in some “publisher” distinction that applies here. That whole idea is misplaced despite the fact that many people talk about it like it’s real.

 

[MT15]

 

[MT15]

It’s good to know Republican politicians are taking this situation in a reasonable manner.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

It’s good to know Republican politicians are taking this situation in a reasonable manner.

She's a typical hypocrite. Someone said some vile shirt to her regarding sexual relations with Putin and she called for people to report him, but she openly advocates for violence in the streets.

 

[MT15]

 

[MT15]

Also this morning I saw a promoted tweet unlike any other promoted tweet I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t from an advertiser. It was a short thread by a man who was recommending a book he’d just read. He wasn’t the author, he wasn’t high profile - 4k followers. He wasn’t selling anything - his bio didn’t feature a book he had written, for example, I don’t recall a link to anything - no substack, no patreon.

He was just opining about how Trump was different than all previous presidents in the lack of corruption.

It was just…odd.

I’ve seen a few more promoted tweets like this by regular folks. I’m guessing Musk is opening up promotions to make a buck any way he can.