Elon Musk: Always A Douche

[Admiral Yi]

What is stopping a mass migration to Instagram?  I just saw that Britney Griner posted a statement on Instagram.

[Barrister]

What is stopping a mass migration to Instagram?  I just saw that Britney Griner posted a statement on Instagram.

Isn't instagram for sharing pictures and videos?

I don't really use it myself.

[Admiral Yi]

Isn't instagram for sharing pictures and videos?

I don't really use it myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qt6xYWlCl8

Apparently not.

It does look like there's no comment function.

[HVC]

This thread is less fun without someone defending musk.

You guys just don't get he's playing 4-dimensional chess.
Two dimensions consist of the chess board, the other two are sativa and indica.

thanks for the attempt

[OttoVonBismarck]

Nothing technically is stopping a mass migration to Instagram. Instagram is already a much bigger platform than Twitter, and I assume a large % of Twitter users also have Instagram accounts.

However, the zeigeist of the two platforms is very different, and some of the technical aspects are different as well.

Instagram is primarily about sharing media (video, pictures) sometimes with a bit of text in the post to go along with it. This is what its users want and expect.

Twitter is primarily about sharing short text messages, with sometimes embedded video / pictures. It is a text forward platform and its users expect that.

Instagram you can't easily / directly just make a text only post. If you want to share text you basically have to go into the Instagram interface to "type" one of those "media text" panels you've probably seen on social media--colorful background, big letters, and post that, it will technically be an image file. instagrammers that want to post relatively long text content usually use the "link in bio" paradigm--basically an image post with a quick blurb about what you're talking about and then telling your followers to "check your bio." This is because Instagram disallows direct linking to external sites in the main posts, so when you see an Instagrammer say "link in bio" they are saying "I want to show you longer form off-site content, go to my bio page and look at my links there."

This is all quite intentional, Instagram wants its engagement to be centered primarily around the media its users upload and brief blurbs about said media. It doesn't want what Twitter has--which is largely text based content and lots of links to external sources.

Instagram would have to make technical changes to allow more Twitter like engagement--but it is also quite likely Instagram's 1 billion+ users won't want that, it is more popular than Twitter for a reason--most people don't actually like Twitter or how it operates from a user perspective. Most people want to look at cat pictures or funny videos, not rageTweet 250 character arguments back and forth. This is why Twitter is a much smaller platform. Instagram would be highly unlikely to change its platform to be more like a less successful competitor.

[PJL]

The TLDR version of what OvB wrote. Twitter is a text based platform that lets you insert pics as an option. Instagram is a picture based format that lets you insert text as an option.  They're as different as chalk and cheese.

[grumbler]

Musk (or anyone else) can easily stop the dissemination of his private jet location information. FAA "LADD"

Easier, though to just ban posters in the name of "freedom of speech."

[OttoVonBismarck]

It looks like that doesn't work for Elon because of this:

ADS-B Out transmits flight data directly from the aircraft to internet vendors not participating in the LADD program. Non-participating internet vendors collect and post all ADS-B Out flight data on the internet. To address ADS-B Out privacy concerns, the FAA has initiated the Privacy ICAO Address (PIA) program to improve the privacy of eligible aircraft.

[Syt]

Vice has done a bit of a summary of recent events.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjk5yx/elon-musk-had-his-most-absurd-disturbing-24-hours-at-twitter-yet

Elon Musk Had His Most Absurd, Disturbing 24 Hours at Twitter Yet

Musk banned accounts that he said he never would, made up new rules, and asked his 121 million followers to identify a man.

On Wednesday, Twitter chief Elon Musk banned accounts he said he never would in order to protect free speech, made up new rules to justify it, threatened legal action against a 20-year-old, pontificated on how doxing is banned on the platform, and then immediately posted a video doxing a man and asked his 121 million followers to identify him.

It was the most confusing and publicly volatile series of events yet in the richest man in the world's takeover of Twitter, which has been characterized by unmitigated chaos and the site transforming more and more into a bullhorn for its powerful owner.

It began when Twitter banned the account @elonjet, which had 500 thousand followers and tweeted automated updates about Musk's personal flights using legal, publicly-available aviation data. Anyone can request that the FAA not broadcast that data, which Musk has also done, flight tracker site FlightAware told Motherboard. Previously, Musk had said of the @elonjet account, "My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk," he tweeted on November 6. Musk has also said he is "against censorship that goes far beyond the law."

The highly targeted ban against an account clearly annoying Musk and almost nobody else caused an immediate uproar, and it was followed by more bans. The personal account of 20-year-old @elonjet creator Jack Sweeney was banned, and so were all of his other flight tracking accounts, including those that tracked Mark Zuckerberg and Russian oligarchs. Twitter then retroactively added a new policy that banned accounts "dedicated to sharing someone's live location."

Musk then took to his personal account to launch a PR offensive. He said in a tweet, "Any account doxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation," but that "posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis" will be allowed. He then went on to claim that a "crazy stalker" in LA had blocked a car carrying his child, X, and jumped on the hood. He posted a video of an unknown man and asked his 121 million followers if anyone recognized the car or the person driving it.

In the video, the masked man is sitting in a car and appears to say, "I'm not..." while an unknown man films and replies, "Yep, pretty sure." The man in the car takes out his own phone and films back, asking, "What's your name?" The camera pans around to put his license plate in view.

"Anyone recognize this person or car?" Musk tweeted, offering no further context.

It was a stunning, and disturbing, moment. The richest man in the world asking his millions of rabid fans to identify an individual—versus, say, going to the police—is reckless, and possibly dangerous, behavior. It aso flies in the face of his anti-doxing stance, even if it technically conforms to the new "delayed locations only" rule. Twitter also bans sharing video of private individuals, with the caveat that it could be newsworthy or relevant to public discourse on important topics. The video Musk shared is clearly neither, but he is the boss now, and nobody is going to tell him otherwise.

Musk's meltdown—which follows a public embarrassment where he was booed on stage at a Dave Chappelle show—had other troubling moments. He publicly threatened legal action against @elonjet creator Sweeney and "organizations who supported harm to my family." Again, Sweeney was doing nothing more than sharing legally-protected public information—the issue was that it bothered Musk.

Musk is free to moderate his new platform as he wishes. That was the entire premise of Twitter's previous approach, which, for all its failings, typically followed a corporate-bureaucratic process with many people giving input, as Musk's own Twitter Files have shown. Now, it's clear that Musk is running Twitter as his personal fiefdom, playing Calvinball with the rules, and his commitments to free speech and moderating within the law have gone out the window.

Update: After this article was published, Twitter banned half a dozen prominent journalists who had covered Musk and were critical of him on the platform.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7v89b/twitter-purges-several-journalists-who-cover-elon-musk

Twitter Purges Several Journalists Who Cover Elon Musk

Twitter suspended a number of journalists who covered and criticized owner Elon Musk, who once claimed to be a champion of free speech.

On Thursday night, Twitter banned a number of prominent journalists who had reported on Elon Musk and in some cases criticized him.

Some of the banned journalists—Mashable's Matt Binder and CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, for example—had shared an update from the LAPD on Musk's recent claim that a man had attacked a car carrying his child, saying that no crime report had been filed (Motherboard has not independently verified this quote). Others, as captured in a Twitter thread by NBC's Ben Collins, merely tweeted about Musk's ban of competitor social media platform Mastodon's Twitter account, which also happened on Thursday. New York Times reporter Ryan Mac was also banned.

"Loving the free speech," Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell's final tweet said.

Keith Olberman's last tweet before being banned, as captured by Collins, was a tweet encouraging others to share the materials that had gotten other journalists banned.

"Tonight's suspension of the Twitter accounts of a number of prominent journalists, including The New York Times's Ryan Mac, is questionable and unfortunate," a spokesperson for The New York Times told Motherboard. "Neither The Times nor Ryan have received any explanation about why this occurred. We hope that all of  the journalists' accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action."

Motherboard reached out to Mashable, The Washington Post, and CNN, and will update this post when we hear from them.

Mastodon's account was banned after sharing a link to the Mastodon profile for @elonjet, a bot by 20-year-old programmer Jack Sweeney that automatically tweets the location of Musk's plane based on publicly-available data pulled from transponders required by the Federal Aviation Administration. Twitter banned @elonjet, Sweeney's personal account, and dozens of other flight tracking accounts on Wednesday night in a chaotic spectacle that ended with Musk's claim about the assailant in LA and him tweeting a video of an unknown man and his license plate and asking his 121 million followers to identify him.

Elon Musk purchased Twitter earlier this year in a $44 billion dollar deal. He framed himself as a champion of free speech and made a number of claims, including that he was not in favor of censorship that goes beyond the letter of the law. He specifically said that he would not ban accounts tracking his plane due to his commitment to free speech.

Anyways, I guess this is as good a time as any to bow out of Twitter. I'll miss following some of the more interesting accounts there, as well as some of the Star Wars/Trek nerd content, but meh.

[Jacob]

When bowing out do folks typically take steps to deactivate theirbacciut, or does it just mean "never log in again"?

[Valmy]

I deleted it at one point but it wasn't easy. And whenever I find myself back on twitter for some reason (usually because I got linked there) twitter seems to remember I once had an account.

[grumbler]

When bowing out do folks typically take steps to deactivate theirbacciut, or does it just mean "never log in again"?

I deactivate my theirbacciut.

[OttoVonBismarck]

I don't advise deactivation because after x number of days you lose your @tag, I just would reduce usage.

[Syt]

When bowing out do folks typically take steps to deactivate theirbacciut, or does it just mean "never log in again"?

For me, I deactivated it. You then have 30 days to re-activate it before it gets deleted and your handle becomes available for registering again.

[celedhring]

Yeah, I haven't logged into twitter (or checked twitter while logged out) for a few days now. Again, I never was the heaviest of users, and I hadn't posted a single tweet in years, but I can only vote with my feet/engagement time.