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Musk floats paid Twitter verification, makes himself board's sole member

57 Comments
By MATT O'BRIEN

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‘Free speech’ coming soon, only $15 a month.

7 ( +12 / -5 )

‘Free speech’ coming soon, only $15 a month.

Cheaper than 'Democracy returning as soon as you accept a muzzle'.

I don't like Musk the guy, but his actions firing the board and the leadership team will do more for democracy and the human race than any politician has ever done in a week.

-10 ( +6 / -16 )

In a week so far all he has done is increase tweets using the N word by 500%.

Do more for the human race than any politician has ever done?

3 ( +9 / -6 )

In a week so far all he has done is increase tweets using the N word by 500%

...and isn't good that YOU can decide for YOURSELF, any particular derogatory word is bad? If you like others to decide for you, China has a special deal for people who willingly submits to suppression.

-5 ( +6 / -11 )

...and isn't good that YOU can decide for YOURSELF, any particular derogatory word is bad? If you like others to decide for you, China has a special deal for people who willingly submits to suppression.

There is no debate that racial hate speech is good or bad. It’s bad.

9 ( +14 / -5 )

The way to make money is charge 50 cents per tweet to reply to someone or @ someone.

And $5 to reply to Trump. Will have his money back in a year due to liberal obsessiveness.

In a week so far all he has done is increase tweets using the N word by 500%.

bots/fake accounts. So charge money and make people get verified, that stops.

-15 ( +0 / -15 )

Twitter is currently free for most users because it depends on advertising for its revenue.

I suspect Musk wants the best of both lines of revenue.

A capture all tiered subscription model alongside a fully leveraged advertising media strategy.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Sh1mon M4sadaToday 08:20 am JST

...and isn't good that YOU can decide for YOURSELF, any particular derogatory word is bad? If you like others to decide for you, China has a special deal for people who willingly submits to suppression.

There is no debate on the N word, among others, being derogatory or bad, it simply is. Anyone who thinks otherwise is most likely one posting such words for the sole purpose of being derogatory and hateful and why shouldn't there be consequences for such? Try saying such words in your place of employment, you're fired!! Try saying such words at a family dinner gathering, sure you won't be attending another unless your family is the Klan. Musk doesn't seem to get the notion of consequences, never really has. Guess when you are as rich as he, there are few to worry about except losing it all.

5 ( +10 / -5 )

The way to make money is charge 50 cents per tweet to reply to someone or @ someone.

’free’ speech. 5 cents per word. And you’ll still be moderated.

What a change for the better /s

5 ( +8 / -3 )

On Friday, meanwhile, billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said he and his Kingdom Holding Company rolled over a combined $1.89 billion in existing Twitter shares, making them the company’s largest shareholder after Musk.

A red flag there. What will all the free speech champions say when tweets against the murderous Saudi regime are deleted?

Or when Twitter is supra-monetized into a Chinese style data aggregator powerhouse super-app like WeChat?

5 ( +5 / -0 )

What a farce.

The free speech absolutist who has the tightest NDAs of all among the car makers for his employees and sued and re-sued his then current and former employees for speaking out about working conditions and COVID at the plants.

Hypocrisy knows no limits.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

A red flag there. What will all the free speech champions say when tweets against the murderous Saudi regime are deleted?

Just this year in Saudi Arabia:

One woman was given a 34-year prison sentence for using Twitter

A man was given a 16-year sentence for tweeting critical of the Saudi regime.

I look forward to Elon Musk finding out about these and firing his biggest investor... cough

5 ( +6 / -1 )

A whole lotta people are gonna give their credit card data to Twitter. Now pull the other one.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

In a week so far all he has done is increase tweets using the N word by 500%...

Right..before Musk apparently there was no racial hate speech, lot's of it only that specific type was allowed, now all viewpoints are allowed, those aligned to one viewpoint are freaking out. Most of these are anyway bots/fake accounts, given that 500% looks like majority user base of twitter is bots/fake accounts.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

I look forward to Elon Musk finding out about these and firing his biggest investor

And how does one fire the largest shareholder, one way is take twitter private, hope he does that.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

In a week so far all he has done is increase tweets using the N word by 500%...

Right..before Musk apparently there was no racial hate speech,

Nobody said that. I’m sure you understand what ‘500% increase’ means.

Not ‘all viewpoints’ are allowed. Clearly.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Twitter has close to 400 million users.

A fact that is not lost on Musk.

How to monitories a potential subscription base, the crypto angle etc

Musk blockchaining twitter is a non-starter. The latency hurdles, bandwidth, would be impossible for a peer to peer, making the whole purpose of decentralisation a misnomer.,

However, that does not necessarily follow that crypto wallet integration is a no no.

One point mention about the friction of entering credit card details, will for some be a deal breaker for sure.

The more one digs, the more Musk acquisition is a square peg being forced into a round hole.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

If I understand correctly his main proposal - in addition to firing most of the workforce that is - is to start charging people to use Twitter?

I have a twitter account now. If I have to start paying for it, this will no longer be the case. I'll just use the many free ones out there at my disposal instead, some of which I already use more than Twitter anyway.

I suspect almost everyone using Twitter is probably thinking the same......

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Musk has always been yearning desire to control the payments industry.

Humble opinion you understand, Musk’s Twitter purchase wants to succeed where Facebooks Libra failed

Congress pulled the rug from under Libra.

Musk could have it in his mind that twitters payment backbone a Lightning crypto network could if developed produce a billion in future payments revenue.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

There are lots of SN sites and they use readily available and even free software (you can find free scripts on the Internet). If lots of people migrate (not just quit Twitter and this has happened to other SN sites like Friendster and MySpace) to another SN site then Musk bought himself 44 billion dollars worth of garbage. But the first thing that happens is TrumpBook will go to garbage since Musk is letting Trump back to Twitter. But where will the TrumpKeepers post their hate-filled content about Nancy and Hillary? Can Trump use Twitter to control his ProudBoys and TrumpKeepers? Or will he still have to continue to use his TrumpBook for that? And when will Trump pay his providers to maintain TrumpBook? They keep getting stiffed by Trump.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

A board is needed to run the business, Musk can't do it alone. Tesla has a board. So does SpaceX. All of Musk's other companies have boards.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

It could be a good thing if Elon can build Twitter to be a competitive alternative to WeChat

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

The twit king...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

There is no debate that racial hate speech is good or bad. It’s bad.

I never said it was up for debate, good or bad is a point of view. If it was detrimental to society, law makers can debate it and make laws, eg anti-racial vilification laws.

I don't need some greedy, fake-woke CEO to filter content, I can decide for myself. Like I said, China has what you want.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Not ‘all viewpoints’ are allowed. Clearly.

no one wants THAT viewpoint allowed. Clearly.

Twitter isn’t free speech if you have to pay to use it. Now it’s not feee speech if you can’t post racial slurs?

Try again, I guess.

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

I suspect almost everyone using Twitter is probably thinking the same......

Liberals aren’t. They demand the right to obsessively rage tweet at people they don’t agree with.

Don’t you remember they whined and raged that they couldn’t reply to Trump tweets because he blocked them?

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

Twitter is in more than 20 countries. The US is the largest with 77 million members followed by Japan, with 59 million members. Japan is the largest per capita.

ムスクさん、日本語は話せますか?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Inside Twitter Japan.

https://nlab.itmedia.co.jp/nl/articles/1508/24/news092.html

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Liberals aren’t. They demand the right to obsessively rage tweet at people they don’t agree with.

Don’t you remember they whined and raged that they couldn’t reply to Trump tweets because he blocked them?

Not sure how anything I wrote has anything to do with liberals. Or conservatives. Pretty sure both of those demographics are going to dislike the idea of paying for something they are used to getting for free now.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Not sure how anything I wrote has anything to do with liberals. Or conservatives. Pretty sure both of those demographics are going to dislike the idea of paying for something they are used to getting for free now

I read your comment as a rational point about paying for Twitter.

Interesting how people completely fogged up by partisanship read it. Certainly not rationally.

heard a point about how people have been spoiled with free social media and how we wouldn’t expect other services/products such as newspapers for free.

It’s a decent point but I’m not sure Twitter itself as a service/product is worth paying for. I see at a a source of football news, funny memes and parody accounts. You can get that elsewhere.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

There are more Twitter members outside of the US than inside it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

dagon wrote: "What will all the free speech champions say when tweets against the murderous Saudi regime are deleted?" What happened to free speech?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Dave Fair wrote: "There is no debate on the N word, among others, being derogatory or bad, it simply is. Anyone who thinks otherwise is most likely one posting such words for the sole purpose of being derogatory and hateful and why shouldn't there be consequences for such? Try saying such words in your place of employment, you're fired!! Try saying such words at a family dinner gathering, sure you won't be attending another unless your family is the Klan."

That's the beauty of free speech. It allows us to identify who we shouldn't hire or invite for dinner.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Not ‘all viewpoints’ are allowed. Clearly.

no one wants THAT viewpoint allowed. Clearly. 

Twitter isn’t free speech if you have to pay to use it. Now it’s not feee speech if you can’t post racial slurs? 

Try again, I guess.

Huh? What?

If twitter is more lenient towards hate speech that is a failure not a success.

Fortunately twitter has not changed its moderation policy at all since before musk took over or after. He has stated so himself.

So all those including yourself who claimed twitter had entered a new golden age of freedom were imagining it.

If you want to pay to remain just as heard and relevant as you are now, well done. Another happy customer.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Like I said, China has what you want.

Twitter is the antithesis of China?

How about Saudi Arabia? That bastion of freedom is the second largest shareholder.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

‘Free speech’ coming soon, only $15 a month.

free’ speech. 5 cents per word. And you’ll still be moderated.

A whole lotta people are gonna give their credit card data to Twitter. Now pull the other one.

Not sure how anything I wrote has anything to do with liberals. Or conservatives. Pretty sure both of those demographics are going to dislike the idea of paying for something they are used to getting for free now

Does anyone read beyond the headline anymore?

He said the thought of charging blue checks $20/month was "interesting". Thats it.

as someone with a follower count of well over 350, Its an issue for the likes of me, not the avg Twitter user with hardly any followers.

Stay in your lane, people.

-8 ( +1 / -9 )

People forget that he didn’t spend forty four billion dollars on Twitter; he borrowed most of it and he has to pay back the money with interest. Anyway, this guy is an interesting character; I’m following him on Twitter, “funny” guy… but the amount of money he has is ridiculous; I believe it’s more than 200 billion dollars, it’s disgusting.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

as someone with a follower count of well over 350, Its an issue for the likes of me, not the avg Twitter user with hardly any followers.

Can’t tell if this is meant to be satirical or not….

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Can’t tell if this is meant to be satirical or not….

theres nothing satirical about my platform.

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

theres nothing satirical about my platform.

I was more referring to your scolding the riff raff for daring to comment on this without the vast knowledge that only those who know the burden of managing a Twitter account with a whopping 350 followers could possibly hope to attain.

No offense to your platform intended.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Fortunately twitter has not changed its moderation policy at all since before musk took over or after. He has stated so himself.

not what I’m seeing in my daily usage and isn’t Musk a liar anyway?

-10 ( +1 / -11 )

I love that they are fact checking the lies in Joe Biden tweets.

and that I could even reply to Hillary Clinton nonsense directly without getting deleted.

neither of those were happening before. So I guess Elon is lying about the moderation huh?

-9 ( +2 / -11 )

 but the amount of money he has is ridiculousI believe it’s more than 200 billion dollars, it’s disgusting.

considering he made it from scratch, why is it disgusting?

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

Musk needed $8 billion from the taxpayer for Tesla.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

“Bloomberg reports that Elon Musk’s Twitter has frozen some employees’ access to tools designed to enforce the site’s content moderation policies, curtailing the power of employees to ban accounts, remove posts, and other acts of censorship, in what the outlet says “curb[s] the staff’s ability to clamp down on misinformation ahead of a major U.S. election.”

so if nothing has changed what are they screaming about?

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

He was force to buy an White Elephant by the court,users get benefits by not paying and can make money, Twitter make you sign up to read post,a loser concept

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Believe me, this clown is going to ruin twitter..

Stocks will go down..

2 ( +3 / -1 )

*considering he made it from scratch, why is it disgusting?*

Do you know what the meaning of "make from scratch" is "master"?

The emerald mine of his parents in South Africa may have had a tiny part to do on giving him a leg up on making a fortune.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

masterNov. 1  10:32 pm JST

 but the amount of money he has is ridiculous; I believe it’s more than 200 billion dollars, it’s disgusting.

*“ considering he made it from scratch, why is it disgusting? “*

I’m not gonna answer to your question because

1) you know the answer or

2) you’re too “ blind “ to understand

..

sigh

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Geeter MckluskieNov. 1 04:37 pm JST

Dave Fair wrote: "There is no debate on the N word, among others, being derogatory or bad, it simply is. Anyone who thinks otherwise is most likely one posting such words for the sole purpose of being derogatory and hateful and why shouldn't there be consequences for such? Try saying such words in your place of employment, you're fired!! Try saying such words at a family dinner gathering, sure you won't be attending another unless your family is the Klan."

That's the beauty of free speech. It allows us to identify who we shouldn't hire or invite for dinner.

that is very true but at the same time there are those who unfortunately develop opinions and beliefs based on hate, lies and falsehoods who then propagate the agenda. My mother had a way of dealing with bad language when I was a young lad, a bar of soap in the mouth. The consequence still resonates every time I wash my hands!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The only people on Twitter crying about their free speech being violated are conspiracy theorists, conservative extremists and terrorists (or usually all 3).

However, unleash all those people on there freely and advertisers start pulling out and Twitter is out of business.

Which way do you think they will go?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

no one wants THAT viewpoint allowed. Clearly.

Twitter isn’t free speech if you have to pay to use it. Now it’s not feee speech if you can’t post racial slurs?

Try again, I guess.

What are you talking about?

“Bloomberg reports that Elon Musk’s Twitter has frozen some employees’ access to tools designed to enforce the site’s content moderation policies, curtailing the power of employees to ban accounts, remove posts, and other acts of censorship, in what the outlet says “curb[s] the staff’s ability to clamp down on misinformation ahead of a major U.S. election.”

so if nothing has changed what are they screaming about?

They're literally talking about things that have changed, and you're asking about things that "haven't changed".

Are you literate?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

that is very true but at the same time there are those who unfortunately develop opinions and beliefs based on hate, lies and falsehoods who then propagate the agenda. My mother had a way of dealing with bad language when I was a young lad, a bar of soap in the mouth. The consequence still resonates every time I wash my hands!

I'm sure that must suffer twice a year.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

as someone with a follower count of well over 350, Its an issue for the likes of me, not the avg Twitter user with hardly any followers.

This is the funniest thing I've ever seen on this website.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Who else is loving the leftist meltdown on twitter? I don't mind paying, he could charge 200 bucks for all care, the reactions from the progressives are priceless. Don't like it make your own twitter.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Credit card Identity focused ?

So, change your Credit Card, use a VPN, etc.

I'd suggest going back to the old style UseNet form of Corporate Communications, forget "twitter" / "facebook", etc. Companies can even setup their own private Chat groups, and integrate them within the Global usenet infrastructure.

Time to ressurect it.

References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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