Elon Musk: Always A Douche

[garbon]

Not funny is the Muskites still sucking down Elon's shit in replies to those tweets.

[Zanza]

I think that exchange is a good example for the thread title. What a douche.

[Barrister]

So Twitter always seemed to work the same way - your feed would be filled with posts either from people you followed, or at least posts that people you follow liked, or from people who are followed by people you follow.  PLus ads of course, but those were labeled.

But now I get all kinds of posts from people I have no idea who they are or why they're showing up in my feed.

[The Brain]

That's because Twitter has ASCENDED by sheer Muskian will.

[Habbaku]

So Twitter always seemed to work the same way - your feed would be filled with posts either from people you followed, or at least posts that people you follow liked, or from people who are followed by people you follow.  PLus ads of course, but those were labeled.

But now I get all kinds of posts from people I have no idea who they are or why they're showing up in my feed.

Switch to your "Following" tab instead of "For You". The change was seemingly made at random and defaulted everyone to "For You".

[Sheilbh]

Switch to your "Following" tab instead of "For You". The change was seemingly made at random and defaulted everyone to "For You".

Yeah - that pre-dates Musk. But I think he's increased the rate it switches back to "For You" which is very annoying

[Syt]

[Josquius]

Aka please please give me money.

[viper37]

Twitter source code was leaked online last year, after Musk first massive layouts.

[The Larch]

A bunch of newspapers are announcing that they won't be paying for the blue check since "verification no longer establishes authority or credibility."

[HVC]

He took a struggling tech company and made it a failing tech company. I guess that's a skill.


He's also butt hurt over ChatGPT. As I understand it he left the company in a huff because they wouldn't let him run it a few years ago.

[Syt]

https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/twitter-business-monthly-verified-status-fee-exempt-1235569966/

Twitter Will Exempt 10,000 Most-Followed Companies and Organizations From $1,000 Monthly Verified-Status Charge: Report

Elon Musk-owned Twitter says that as of Saturday, April 1, it will begin removing "legacy" verified badges from individuals and organizations approved under the company's previous criteria. Going forward, only paying customers will be granted the verified check-marks, which are now blue for individuals, gold for brands and companies, and gray for governmental organizations.

Twitter says it will charge businesses and organizations $1,000 per month (in the U.S.), including nonprofits and governments, to retain their verified status. In addition, the company will levy a $50 monthly charge for each affiliate subaccount (i.e., employees, brands or divisions).

But apparently not all organizations will have to pay Musk for the privilege. Twitter will waive the $1,000 monthly fee for its 500 largest advertising clients and for the 10,000 most-followed brands, companies and organizations that have been previously verified, the New York Times reported, citing an internal Twitter document.

The most-followed companies, brands and organizations on Twitter include @Twitter itself, as well as YouTube, NASA, CNN, ESPN, the New York Times, the NBA and the BBC's breaking news account. (Variety's Twitter account, with 2.9 million followers, currently ranks as the 2,739th most-followed account on the platform, per analytics firm SocialBlade.)

A request for comment sent to Twitter's PR account returned an automated reply with a poop emoji (a change Musk announced last week). Musk has previously blasted Twitter's previous system of verification as "corrupt and nonsensical."

SEE ALSO: Elon Musk, After Buying Twitter, Is Now Twitter's Most-Followed User

On Thursday, Musk quote-tweeted the Twitter @verified account's post about the Verified Organizations subscription plan, saying, "Important to establish whether someone actually belongs to an organization or not so as to avoid impersonation." According to the Twitter post, "We've already seen organizations, including sports teams, news organizations, financial firms, Fortune 500 companies and nonprofits join Verified Organizations and list their affiliated accounts publicly on their profiles."

After William Shatner complained about Twitter's plan to rescind legacy blue check-marks unless users pay for them, Musk responded, "It's more about treating everyone equally," Musk tweeted Sunday evening in replying to Shatner. "There shouldn't be a different standard for celebrities imo." Last fall, after Stephen King also griped about Twitter's switch to paid verification, Musk said, "We need to pay the bills somehow!"

The Times' report published Thursday focused on Musk's alleged attempt to meet with Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan to discuss the agency's investigation into Twitter's privacy and data-security practices. According to the report, Musk's request to meet with Khan "was rebuffed." The Times article noted that it's unusual for CEOs of companies being investigated by the FTC to meet with any of its commissioners.

Guess Elon blinked first.

[Josquius]

Sooo.... Seems he missed April fools day and changed the twitter logo for.... Doge.
Appears on the loading screen and everything.
Hilarious

[viper37]

Only 116 000 users paid for the blue check mark

Well, that's the result of the first month.  Not many enthusiasts.

[Syt]

Elon is labeling NPR now as US state-affiliated media, like Russian or Chinese sites:



https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/state-affiliated

Labels on government accounts provide additional context for accounts heavily engaged in geopolitics and diplomacy.

Labels on state-affiliated accounts provide additional context about accounts that are controlled by certain official representatives of governments, state-affiliated media entities and individuals associated with those entities.

The label appears on the profile page of the relevant Twitter account and on the Tweets sent by and shared from these accounts. Labels contain information about the country the account is affiliated with and whether it is operated by a government representative or state-affiliated media entity.

Additionally, these labels include a small icon of a flag to signal the account's status as a government account and of a podium for state-affiliated media.

We plan to expand labels to additional countries over time.

How government accounts are defined

Our focus is on senior officials and entities that are the official voice of the nation state abroad, specifically accounts of key government officials, including foreign ministers, institutional entities, official spokespeople, and key diplomatic leaders. Where accounts do not play a role as a geopolitical or official Government communication channel, we will not label the account.

Additionally, labels will distinguish between individual government accounts and institutional government accounts.

How state-affiliated media accounts are defined

State-affiliated media is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution. Accounts belonging to state-affiliated media entities, their editors-in-chief, and/or their prominent staff may be labeled.

State-financed media organizations with editorial independence, like the BBC in the UK for example, are not defined as state-affiliated media for the purposes of this policy.*

Do these labels limit functionality?

In the case of state-affiliated media entities, Twitter will not recommend or amplify accounts or their Tweets with these labels to people. In limited circumstances where there is heightened risk for harm, including situations where governments block access to information on the internet in the context of an armed conflict, Twitter will also not recommend or amplify certain government accounts or their Tweets with these labels to people.

Our approach to state-affiliated media in Tweets

We will also add labels to Tweets that share links to state-affiliated media websites and will not recommend or amplify these Tweets to people.

*this page previously included the NPR in the noted exceptions

Various outlets tried to contact Twitter, but the press contact email is still set to auto-reply with a poop emoji.